Feeling Strong
The self-care practice that helps me connect with my resilience.
Over the past few months I’ve reconnected with my love for working out. Not that it ever went away, but I wasn’t feeling as excited by it as I had been years ago. This year though, I started to really hone in on this part of my self-care again. So much so that over the summer, I got my certification as a personal trainer. For me working out has never been about being a certain weight or achieving a certain body type, it’s always been about feeling strong, both physically and mentally.
When you’re in the midst of heartbreak, it can feel like you’ll be stuck in that pain forever. It’s this all-encompassing hurt. It clouds your thinking and it makes it hard to feel as strong as you are. On the days when I stayed in bed crying for hours, I felt far from resilient.
It’s hard to recognize your strength when you’re deep in heartbreak. Once you’ve made your way through it, you see yourself differently. When you reflect on your journey, you can more easily recognize how resilient you’ve been all along.
But what if there was something you could do to make you feel more connected to your resilience no matter what mountain you have to climb? That’s what working out does for me. It’s like a fast track pass for resilience. When I’m lifting weights, pushing my personal record and almost at failure and then get a few more reps in, I feel so powerful. In those moments I feel like I can overcome any obstacle.
It’s that mindset that I tap into at the gym that carries me through the ups and downs away from the weights. If I’m able to get through a few more reps when my body is physically taxed and I can literally give up without anyone knowing except for me yet I don’t, I’m connecting in the most literal way with my resilience. This is why working out is the #1 self-care practice in my toolkit.
For you, it might not be strength training. Maybe it’s running or yoga or dance or swimming. I encourage you to find something that pushes you to dig deep and find your physical and mental strength. Lean on that when times get tough. Let it connect you to that resilience within.
With love,
Kat