#SpeakToHer: Physical Wellness
Over a lifetime, we discover our bodies over and over again. From the time a newborn finds their fingers, to the time we start relating to those awkward, but strangely familiar sex ed videos in middle school. We are constantly learning something new or finding something we have to Google or call a real adult to consult about when it comes to our bodies.
But our physical wellness encompasses so much. There are tons of articles about body image and fitness and diet/lifestyle trends that will make you look younger, feel beautiful and fit into a standard that was dictated by the powers that be. But it is more than that. When I think about physical wellness, I think about how I feel when I sit still and listen to my body.
Some days, after going weeks without resting as long as I need to, I do a body scan. It’s only then that I realize that, yea, my neck has been stiff because my posture has been terrible, because I’ve been crouching over multiple laptops for 20 hours a day, everyday for 3 weeks straight. Also, I haven’t gotten nearly as much water intake as I promised myself I would THE LAST time I felt like this.
Some days, I stop in the middle of a conversation where my brain has failed me several times and realize I haven’t eaten in 12 hours? Not okay.
Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE my body. Like, LOVE love. She is the ultimate shape shifter, a self healer and even tells me things about my mental and emotional health before I even recognize it. But this isn’t supposed to be about my body image, even though that is one facet of how we face our physical wellness. This is supposed to be about how to actively listen and act on the things that our bodies tell us.
“This is what I want. This is what I want to look like and I feel better.”
I had a conversation with my friend Tee who has been an athlete her entire life. When we spoke, she mentioned that since she was 13, she’s had to get up early and train. She was a basketball star in high school and college (and if you ask ANYONE in West Virginia about her, they’ll give you nothing but praises). She is now a working professional and no longer has the pressure of outside expectations of her to perform as an athlete. Before now, she had to “look good for recruiters.. then had to represent [her] school and [her] family”. So I had to ask her what she used to motivate herself to go to the gym without those driving forces. Tee responded, “Working out has always been a part of me. It’s a mental health thing. If I haven’t worked out in 3 days, I’m going to start overanalyzing stuff and it makes me realize that I just need to go burn some calories.”
Having that kind of awareness seems so important and has come up several times when I speak to people who incorporate working out into their daily lives. Knowing that everything that you do is connected and recognizing when anything is out of sync is vital.
Naturally, my next question was, how do you gauge what your “body goals” are if you are no longer under the watchful eye of coaches, family and expectations to be great on and off the court? When referring to her current fitness level, she said, “This is what I want. This is what I want to look like and I feel better.” That’s it. That’s the core of what we all want deep down. Feeling great in our own skin and dictating what our bodies look like and perform as. We live in these vessels 24/7. It should be up to you what makes you feel good in your home.
So what will you do this week to feel great about your body?
Tee speaks regularly about ways to stay fit and overall wellness in her blog Tidbits Of Tee.
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