I’ve often said I don’t naturally turn to movement.
I’m not someone who always wants to stretch my legs with a walk, or feels the urge to “sweat it out” when stressed. I have never once desired to go for a run to clear my mind.
Because we have such a limited portrayal of what is worthwhile movement aka exercise in our culture, I didn’t think of myself as a mover. I didn’t think that enjoying movement was for me.
But this year, especially, as I’ve moved through exposure therapy for my OCD, and deepened my yoga studies through yoga therapy training, I discovered that I move - often!
Movement does, in fact, help me process stress and clear my mind. But it doesn’t look like the mainstream forms of movement you’d see a character partake in during a movie. My movement is just a little bit more… weird.
My personal movement practice involves wiggles and stretches, a lot of sighs and noises. There is a lot of patting, tapping, and brushing the body. Sometimes my personal movement practice embodies the whackiness of a Muppet chorus line.
There are SO MANY MORE WAYS to find joy in movement than the gym, running, or even a yoga class. And there is nothing wrong with any of those - I enjoy 2 out of 3 of those examples (not running!!!!)! If you already have a movement practice you love, I’m happy for you!!
But to those of you who feel unmoored when it comes to movement, or angry, or afraid. I see you. And it MAKES SENSE. It isn’t hard to understand why for many, movement has little joy: as children, instinctual movement is squashed out in the name of “good behavior,” and as teenagers moving freely might be labeled weird or unproductive. Eventually acceptable movement for most people gets boiled down to the bland confines of rote exercise.
If your only outlet for movement gets tied to weight loss, it becomes unappealing very quickly. Equating movement with weight loss sucks all the joy away. If you’ve been told your whole life to either sit still and be “good,” or exercise with the risk of failing to lose weight - instinctual movement becomes very unfriendly very quickly.
You deserve the freedom and joy of movement that your body craves - movement without goals or productivity.
You deserve to move in ways that lets your body and mind process the stress of the day. Movement and expression are inherent parts of our humanity, but society has created so many rules and standards around “good movement” that we have become estranged from our bodies.
It makes sense why you might feel at odds with movement. But it doesn’t have to stay that way!