Part II: The Inextricable Relationship Between Trauma and Fitness
Last week I posted about the relationship between trauma and fitness, and how unhealed trauma can present physically in our body, sometimes preventing us from reaching our physical goals.
This week, I'll give you 3 tips on how we can address trauma in fitness.
Choose your exercise wisely.
In my experience, the biggest hindrance to achieving an exercise, rehab, or performance goal is when the exercise is done out of guilt, fear, or external pressure, rather than love. Same goes for addressing trauma through your fitness regimen.
Exercise is an AMAZING coping skill for trauma for so many reasons, but ONLY if the exercise you are choosing feeds your soul, and brings you back into your body in a safe way.
While HIIT training may make your best friend, sister, or partner feel empowered and excited for life, it is vital to tap in to YOUR reasons for doing it. Most of the time, do you feel excited to do your exercise program? Or, does it leave you feeling depleted and feel like a chore? Does it help you tap into and connect with your body, or does it ask you to ignore your body's limits?
Even if HIIT is right for the person or people you love, that doesn't mean it's right for you, especially if you are dealing with past or present trauma.
2. Allow Yourself the Freedom to Change, Modify, & Rest
Just because you ran a certain speed or executed a certain exercise last week, does not mean that you have to do that today. Stress and trauma in our life physiologically affects us-- our nervous system responds to what is going on in our lives (or even what we perceive to be going on), so it's important to listen to how you're feeling that specific day, and give yourself freedom to modify exercises, change up routines, and even sit them out.
When we don't listen to our bodies, that is when injuries occur. That is when chronic pain occurs. That is when it actually becomes more difficult to reach our performance goals.
Sometimes, that rest or modification is actually the missing link.
3. Let Go & Find Joy in Movement
This section alludes to different instances of trauma. If you think that might trigger you, please skip this section.
So much of our trauma can be related to the restriction of our movement. We are held down when a parent abuses us. We are paralyzed when we are slipped date rape drugs. We are knelt on. We are cuffed. We are stuck in a hospital bed. We are stuck inside, hiding from gunshots.
We are medicated if we wiggle too much as kids, we are told we are "asking for it" if we dance too freely, and we are yelled at to sit still and listen if we get a burst of energy. We can't walk alone in certain places, we can't run in certain outfits, and, heck, in 2020 we can't even hug our friends safely.
When so much of our trauma can be linked to the restriction, control, and danger of movement, what if letting go in a safe space is the only way to get reconnected? What if it's that joy and freedom of moving in our body's natural, primal sense that can really help us heal?
What if today we commit to making our exercise routine one of joy? What if, instead of doing "double unders" we dance and laugh and jump rope like kids? What if, when we run, we let ourselves hop around and splash through puddles and spin around? What if we make our yoga poses a little less perfect, and a little more "silly"?
What if we give ourselves one safe spot and time to just move freely?
What if, as a society, we all decide to make our community a safe place to do that-- a place where we don't stare at or judge our neighbors, but, instead, a safe place we hold to move, to play, and, most importantly, to heal.