Facts alone rarely influence behavior.
Would you be surprised that many journalists who sound like they are promoting health are actually promoting the opposite?
Do you notice anything in common in these headlines?
From the New York Times: How Exercise Can Keep Aging Muscles and Immune Systems 'Young'
From the New York Times: How Exercise May Help the Memory Grow Stronger
From the New York Times: Exercise May Enhance the Effects of Brain Training
From Neuroscience News: Exercise Increases Brain Size
From The Guardian: What's the ultimate way to defy depression, disease and early death? Exercise
From the BBC: Exercise 'keeps the mind sharp' in over-50s, study finds
From the BBC: Cycling to work can cut cancer and heart disease, says study
The all treat exercise as special, implying that if you do it, something special will happen.
What happened to exercise being a normal part of life? Not even exercise, just living a healthy lifestyle.
Normalizing inactivity
Saying exercise prevents decline normalizes being sedentary.
I prefer considering exercise normal and saying that its lack accelerates decline.
Anyone is free to define normal how they want, but I find my way leads me to live more healthily.
Thinking of exercise as normal and its absence contributing to depression, disease, and death motivates me to make exercise a normal part of my life. Maybe your motivations work differently.
Normalizing activity
Let's try those headlines again, normalizing exercise and making inactivity abnormal
How Inactivity Can Prematurely Age Muscles and Immune Systems
How Inactivity May Help Weaken the Memory
Inactivity May Diminish Learning
Inactivity Inhibits Brain Growth
What's the ultimate way to risk depression, disease and early death? Don't Exercise
Inactivity 'dulls the mind' in over-50s, study finds
Not cycling to work can keep cancer and heart disease rates high, says study
These headlines would motivate me more effectively. If you find the same, I recommend identifying the pattern and mentally translating their language.
