I want to be really careful with the content I’m writing about today. What I want to share with you has been saving my life but it has also been a source of a lot of distress in past versions of my life. I’m talking about moving my body. Notice I didn’t use “exercise” or “working out.” The diet and fitness industry has done enough to ruin our relationships with our bodies, so I try to be very careful about avoiding their language when talking about my own body.
While the fitness industry has done a lot of harm, they are right in that our bodies need to be moved. Where they get it wrong is the why. If your why is based on changing the physical appearance of your body, then your why is based in shame. In that framework, movement becomes an affirmation that something is wrong with you, it becomes a source of pain and, for some, a way to self-punish.
Here’s the shift – we don’t move our bodies for external change, we move them for internal change. When animals undergo attack in the wild (stress), they complete their stress responses by physically shaking it out (you can watch an impala do it here). We move to complete our stress cycles. Being a human means experiencing a variety of stressors and emotional states throughout a day. All of those experiences cause physiological responses that can get stuck and compound over time.
We move to heal. We move to release. We move to shift something that’s stuck. We don’t move to be skinny. Or toned. Like for real, effffff that.
This also means we move in ways that match our bodies. Quit making yourself try boot-camps or classes that make you feel like crap. If it makes you so sore you can’t move the next day, leave it be. We are talking jogs, walks, hikes, gentle yoga, functional fitness. If your body can naturally do more, go on girl, if not, forget about it.
I said it at the top, and I’ll say it again, making sure I complete my stress cycle everyday has been saving my life. Therapy helps us name what’s going on, movement helps us get it out of our bodies. Even if it’s a few squats before bed, a series of downward dogs, dancing around to a few songs – Move. It. Out.
– Liana Cox, LPC
