Exercise as Self-Care

I hate the whole mentality of exercise as needing to be tortuous and extreme -- as if it is a punishment. Why can't exercise be seen as something nurturing? Like a sweaty cup of tea for your body? Besides, working out has benefits that extend beyond physical health. Exercise helps with mental and psychological health.

I'm a postgraduate student, and I have a desk job. Both of these things means that I exert my brain more than my body. For all my life, I have prioritized extending my academic and intellectual strengths, over and above my emotional capacities and physical abilities. I often feel like my body is just a vehicle to maneuver my head about. There is a definite and pervasive disconnect between my mind and my body.

Exercise forces me to be mindful of my body. For 30 to 60 minutes a day, I am focused within my body. I am aware of where my limbs are, which muscles are engaged, how my temperature has risen, where I'm feeling the strain. For that period of time, I feel embodied. This is time for me, a time for an aspect of myself I neglect frequently. And as my fitness increases, so too does my ability to be simultaneously of aware of more parts of my body.

Allowing myself to have a body, to use it, and to celebrate it, is helping me get into touch with my own oriels of sensuality and sexuality. As a person who has eschewed and disowned her own physicality, this feels bizarre and alien, and totally addicting. (Also post-workout endorphins are pretty addictive too).

I believe in an integrated model of health -- one that includes emotional, intellectual, and psychological health as core companions alongside physical health. Using exercise as a mode to exist and be mindful within your body is something that can provide psychological nourishment just as much as nurturing physical health. Exercise shouldn't be about punishment or torture, or making your body cry with sweat. It should be seen as a tool for self care, just as a hot bath or a pedicure is.