I've been gradually building up a more consistent relationship with exercise. In a more intentional way, at least. I've always loved natural kind of exercise - going for a long walk because it's a beautiful day, or to explore a new trail that runs through the woods. I've always been a walker. But, being over 40 now, I have wanted to get better at being more thorough in my movements. I am trying more than I ever have.
I was thinking about the messages I've received about exercise throughout my life. Maybe it feels significant now, because I am finally building up my own inner messaging to follow.
I remember being a kid, and movement was just part of the joy of being young. Running through fields, climbing tree, racing against your next door neighbor, riding bikes along the edge of a slightly dangerous road. We moved because we knew it was what we were meant to do. We felt the call.
Then during school, it becomes a bit different. You still hold onto that childlike need to just keep moving...but school introduces you to the element of competition. Who can climb to the top of the gym class rope? Who can do the most push ups? Not only competition, it turns into an uncomfortable obligation: run a timed mile for gym class, when you haven't had breakfast and can't shower afterwards. Go to your next class, feeling sweaty and semi nauseous over the idea of chocolate milk, corn, and a hot dog for lunch. Maybe you join a sports team, and you learn your movement can bring praise and awards, or maybe what it feels like to be kept on the bench and out of the game. Your body not achieving the standard it was expected to.
Teenage years, you learn that exercise is for making yourself smaller. You want to occupy less space. You become conscious of what attractiveness is, and what you need to do with your body to sculpt yourself into that ideal. Maybe you try. You lay on the your bedroom floor doing homework, while counting leg raises and crunches in-between. But between school, the chocolate milk, the obligation to compete and run for approval...the routine feels more like torture, than a need your animal body requires.
Out of school, maybe you begin to reclaim your own messaging around exercise. You move because it calms your mind. You move because it helps with the ache of adulthood, in your body and in your heart. You move because there are things you need to do and get done. Maybe you never stopped moving.
This whole time though, there was a message that was missed, that I now know...and it is the only message that has gotten me to effectively stick to some semblance of an intentional routine.
Exercise is a communication system. What you do with your body, communicates with your mind and your emotions. Tight, short, inflexible muscles collapse you inward. That body state tells your mind that you are small, guarded, nervous, tense etc. It tells you that every sadness that you have carried, is still weighing you down, heavily. Exercise, and building those muscles...communicates to your mind that you are resilient, that you're safe, and that you're still living and thriving. Your muscle condition, spine, and posture impact your personality and how you are moving through the world. How you face your problems, and how you perceive the world around you. How regulated your system is, overall. You are quicker to approach things with confidence and strength. Not that it's all you need...and obviously, having a weaker body doesn't automatically mean you have a weak mind and spirit. But you see it time and time again, how people tend to come alive and seem extra joyful after they've adopted a more active lifestyle. I think this is why. It was never just about looking good. I have a ways to go, but I am looking forward to experiencing more of this.
janainaart
blakekathryn
turnnoffyourmind
annaxmalina
areudirty
romaincrisis
