💡 How to Actually Move Differently
Tying together the last couple of weeks.
Community Happenings
⭐ Did you know that on the second Sunday of every month, there's free live music at Sunnyside Mall? The next one is August 9!
⭐ Saturday, July 25th, join an art show and benefit at Jenny G's Art Supply. Proceeds benefit Liliana & Ricardo, a Rogers Park mother & her teenage son who were put in ICE detention & separated for almost 3 months. All art is $15.
⭐ Until August 23, you can see Nathanial Mary Quinn's first solo museum show at the National Public Housing Museum. From the website: "Consider humanity in all of its complexity by processing our lived experiences through a lens of artistic innovation."
🎉 Happy Friday, Friends!
Last week, we talked about why more isn't better. The week before, we talked about why harder isn't better. Today, we're going to go over how to approach your movement practice knowing these two things. It's tough to break free of the fitness industry's general approach, so I'm going to give you some mindset changes that can help you zoom out.
Let's start with moments when we KNOW movement needs to be adjusted. Think special circumstances like injuries, pre- and post-partum situations (which might include injuries, too), illnesses, or when you're leading up to or recovering from a surgery. This stuff is obvious, right?
Breaking free of the mainstream approach means asking yourself an important question:
What are your personal special circumstances?
Not every legitimate stressor that impacts movement will fit neatly into the categories above... but that doesn't mean they're not legitimate. That doesn't mean you can't consider them when you think about what you're up for today, or next week, or in a month.
Examples of legitimate stressors that are GREAT reasons to rethink your movement practice are...
➡️ A move
➡️ Job loss or financial insecurity, even if it doesn't impact your ability to feed and transport yourself
➡️ A divorce or breakup
➡️ Caring for an aging parent
➡️ Grief of any kind
➡️ High anxiety because of politics, work, or anything else
➡️ Mental health dips
But wait! There's more! What about...
➡️ When your child is sick?
➡️ When your pet needs surgery?
➡️ When someone in your family is dealing with an emergency?
➡️ When your car breaks down and you need to handle it before your next commute?
➡️ When you're struggling to get enough high quality sleep at night for any reason?
➡️ When you're actively in a relationship that causes ongoing stress?
➡️ When the air is filled with smoke from the wildfires in Canada?!
These things have measurable physiological effects. That's why it's so important to remind yourself that whatever you're going through – your body is keeping that score.
Lighter movement during these times is not giving up. It's wise.
Of course, we all want to complete the stress cycle and get those feel-good benefits of working out. And that's the right move, because that's how moving your body can actually help during these periods of high stress. When you're dealing with your own special circumstances, refer back to the list of different types of movement we talked about. Instead of telling yourself you're doing less, think of yourself as doing something different. Choose a new type of movement from that list like you're ordering off a menu and it's just time to try something new.
This is how we make movement sustainable. This is how we serve our relationships with movement alongside our relationships with our bodies.
And keeping yourself interested in movement in a world that constantly tells you that movement is suffering is a huge achievement! When you choose something different, remind yourself that you're rebuilding your sense of agency even though other things feel out of your control. That power doesn't come from crushing a HIIT workout from an influencer. It comes from moving your body and feeling more like yourself after.
We don't earn food here. We don't earn easier movements either. Life is enough of a reason, especially these days.
With you as we choose different,
Dana