We associate stillness with steadiness, seriousness, and industriousness; we believe there’s something virtuous about controlling the impulse to move. At times and places where there’s work to be done, physical movement is regarded with disapproval, even suspicion. (Consider the way we associate fidgeting with a certain moral shiftiness.) What this attitude overlooks is that the capacity to regulate our attention and our behavior is a limited resource, and some of it is used up by suppressing the very natural urge to move.
