My Most Impactful Habit

Photo by Content Pixie on Unsplash

Regular exercise saves(ed) my mental health and heals(ed) my physical body.

Starting in college, movement has been a regular part of my life.  The Jane Fonda VHS videos with my sorority sisters started it all and now I walk around with 24/7 access to tens of yoga workouts via an app on my phone. I have tried all the things over these 30+ years. 

Culturally we frequently view exercise as a way to control our weight, or as a way to make our bodies look better.  This is beginning to change as we understand the many benefits from movement, but many people use exercise to outrun a bad diet (been there, done that), or because they want their bodies to look a certain way. The way I exercise now is not for weight control, but with an eye towards longevity, mobility for a good quality of life, disease prevention, balance, flexibility, mental acuity and strong bones.

Here is where exercise has saved me:

One:  It kept me sane when I was an isolated young mother.

I have shared on these pages the difficulties I had when I was at home with my young children Identify Your Stories.  I put Barney on the television, put my kids in a Pac-N-Play and got on the Nordic Track for 30 minutes. It gave me structure, a mood boost, and set my head right for the long days that come with being at home, and often homebound, with very young children.

Two: It gave me a healthy coping mechanism for some really difficult times with my family. 

I have shared on these pages some of the issues with my family (The Hardest Story to Tell). There were stretches of years with situations and problems that were complex and difficult. They were also far removed from me geographically and in terms of what I could actually do. Getting to a spinning class or going for a run gave me a release for all that powerlessness, frustration and sadness.

Three:  It has proven time and time again to be the single best solution to physical pain or emotional upset - bar none. 

I have written about the struggle I have had with finding solutions to my back pain (Are You Listening) and more recently I shared in my newsletter (subscribe here) that I have been doing Yin Yoga to manage a recent flare up in that pain. My aging body ALWAYS feels better once I have moved it, and when I have had pain, or an injury, I just adapt my exercise to fit those limitations because I now know that NOT moving makes my body and mental state feel worse.

 The first therapist I saw at age 38 noted that I likely would have already been on medication had I not been an exerciser because the symptoms that brought me into the office were consistent with depression. I can see now that the exercise is and has been a form of self preservation. It is the ONLY behavior that I have had for most of my adult life, and looking back, it turns out to have been far more helpful and impactful than I could have imagined.

What other healthy outlet can we access that brings a sense of calm, a bit of perspective, a feeling of being powerful and strong, a check in with our physical and mental state, a mood release button?  None.  

Have you given a regular exercise routine a chance? 

If you have, but then it fell by the wayside, why did it? 

Did you do something you love (dance, play tennis) or something you hate (running, going to the gym)?

If an activity was painful, or made you feel bad about your body, did you try something else instead? 

Do you ask too much of yourself in this area and then it becomes another overwhelming item on your list? What needs to change to put you at the top of your own To Do list.  

Figure out HOW TO GET STARTED (again).  That’s it - just get started, and make it accessible and easy for yourself.