5 Lessons I’ve Learned from NOT Working Out for 4 Months
When this photo was taken I was working out twice a day, running frantically from place to place to find peace of mind and meditation through movement. I had played sports competitively since I was 4 years old and was under the impression that if I stopped moving my body would stop producing endorphins and I would become severely depressed. I was going through many changes in my life and was storing all of my stress in my body, Specifically my pelvis. My pelvis was causing my right hip to be an inch higher than my left, causing my entire body to be off balance, giving me such bad sciatica I could barely walk. I saw a chiropractor, a spine rehabilitation doctor, an acupuncturist, a psychical therapist, nothing would release my spine back into place, and was forced to stop moving, to slow down. Currently I am still working on resolving the 25 years of emotional and physical trauma I have stored in my body, but here is what I have learned in the process.
1. If working out provides your body more stress than stress relief… stop.
You have on average 78.69 years to live as a female in the US and wellness is a continuum that can not be achieved in a 60 minute hiit class everyday in your 20’s.
2. What you do to your body NOW will effect you FOR LIFE.
All those years of playing sports for 6 hours a day and abusing my body for “fun” will be something I will continue to reverse the damage forever. We are meant to live as hunter and gatherers, which means times of hard physical activity and times of complete rest. Performing high intensive physical activity everyday is not sustainable for the human body.
3. Life is not a competition.
This is a hard pill for me to swallow. I was raised believing that everything I do is a competition and there can only be one winner. That is false. There can be many winners and if there is only one winner everyone else must lose and I don’t want to advocate for losing.
4. Your body stores your emotional traumas.
Years of putting on a smile and pretending all is well, trying to be a “good girl” is a fallacy I choose not to live by. By suppressing your emotions, you suppress them into your body. If something upsets you, get upset, if you have a problem, talk about it. Release your traumas and free your body.
5. You will not become fat from not working out.
I still suffer from my awkward 12 year old fat stage where my body rounded up like a little dough ball before I grew 8 inches in one summer. I have a debilitating fear of reliving my awkward years. 95% of your physical appearance really is “diet.” What you put into your body, you get out. If you focus on proper nutrition, the rest will work itself out.
You have one body per lifetime. Treat it with love. Your body is your temple.
xx,
Ariana Cleo