Your furniture is slowly killing you. That’s right. You heard me. In between your sofa, coffee table, your end tables and your bed…there is barely room for YOU. Think about it: how much wide open space do you have in your home? Do you have room to dance, to do a cartwheel… to do yoga? Or do you just have a lot of places to sit?

Dr. Gregory Wells refers to sitting as ‘the new smoking.’

“A recent review of 43 studies analyzing daily activity and cancer rates found that people who reported sitting for more hours of the day had a 24% greater risk of developing colon cancer, a 32% higher risk of endometrial cancer and a 21% higher risk of lung cancer—regardless of how much they exercised.” – Time Magazine

Can we admit now that our chairs are killing us?

So many our modern conveniences lead to a life of short-cuts: days filled with luxury and very little movement. And all this sitting around leads to heart disease, chronic fatigue, back pain, foggy brain, an over productive pancreas, soft abs and and poor circulation (and the list goes on). That’s because our bodies are designed to engage in a vast range of motion. Back when we were hunter-gatherers we were naturally active… every day, a real life survival of the fittest!

But today our houses are so filled with furniture (and other stuff!) that we have very little room to move – to prance around, to jump and play. Our furniture beckons us: “Come and have a seat, rest.” And we act like we have no choice but to obey. So we simply move from our bed to our couch to our comfortable cars, to our chairs at work. And the cycle continues.

I suggest going beyond merely supplementing your sitting at work with a standing desk. Look at your house, your crowded home. What pieces of furniture are stifling your movement the most? Get rid of them! Just getting rid of your coffee table would free you up a little space to dance. Go ahead, look around. Create some much needed breathing room in your home, and give yourself a little more space to MOVE!