Recently, I've been noticing a cramping feeling in my legs after sitting for long periods, which is due to something called chronic venous insufficiency. Traveling from my college town of Stillwater, Oklahoma, and returning to my hometown, Houston, Texas, requires an eight hour drive. According to this article, many horrible things happen when you sit all day long, like when you're constantly taking long road trips. One of the effects of sitting all day is an increase in anxiety.

Anna Schaefer reports that the increase is probably due to a lack of exercise (implying that endorphins are not released as much while sitting). Because of my anxiety disorder, the effects that Schaefer reports and because of this cramping feeling that I've been experiencing, I decided to go four days avoiding sitting down. When I say avoiding, I mean standing while doing school work, trying to avoid watching TV or at least stand while doing it, and standing while playing on my laptop.

Day 1:

I have pretty much stood all day, except when eating. I've decided that when I eat, that can be my "break" from standing. I went on a two mile walk because it's only 84 degrees out and for Houston, that's GREAT weather. Of course, I haven't noticed a huge difference in my body, and I haven't been sitting much to notice the cramping in my legs. I also haven't had anxiety today, which is normal considering I haven't had an anxiety attack in about two weeks. I also went to yoga which helped me get moving as well.

Day 2:

Still no noticeable body improvements, but the cramping feeling doesn't happen when I sit for more than five minutes, as it did before. I did have an anxiety attack today which is normal for me (sad but true) so I have not seen a major improvement in anxiety, which I wasn't expecting after two days. I went to yoga today as well.

Day 3:

I'm really starting to notice the "muscle benefits" followed by standing all day. I went to yoga the day before and so my body is sore, but even standing gives me that muscle fatigue cramping. It's almost like doing lunges until failure, but you're just standing. I'm finding myself having to sit because my legs are so sore, which sounds kinda bad considering I'm just standing. Obviously I'm experiencing this because of my yoga workout, but I still think it's interesting.

Day 4:

I went to yoga and stood when I was doing my school work. My legs are still sore and I had issues in yoga because of it. Still no cramping when I sit down, which is good! My abs are more defined, which is probably from a new diet and from exercising more often that I did when I was away at school! My mood has been better than normal, but I'm not sure if it's because of the standing.

In conclusion, I did notice that my legs weren't cramping nearly as much while sitting down if I had stood all day. This is because the blood in my veins were actually able to get through and they had a chance to all day while standing. My goal was met during these four days. I'm not sure how much my anxiety levels decreased, but it did seem to help. Usually, I'm a mess and can't keep my emotions in order, but this week I wasn't as much of a mess (does that make sense?). I don't want to contribute standing to a decrease in anxiety completely, but I'm sure it did have something to do with it. Because of the facts listed in the article by Schaefer, I plan on continuing to stand as much as possible, especially after seeing such big improvements in only four days.