It has been a challenging past few weeks for me. It's something I have been able to compartmentalize pretty well. But the recent focus in the political news has really gotten to me on a very deep level. All for reasons I am fully aware of and have done lots of healing work around, but it still doesn't make it easy. Especially the divisiveness and heated emotions around it all. Not to mention it was in the news ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME. It was pretty hard to escape.
I was noticing feelings of agitation, anger and even hatred at some points. Very odd for me as these are not common feelings I experience. I felt lots of pent up energy. And felt it had no outlet.
And then I read this quote from one of my daily readings (coming at exactly the right time, as always!):
"If I didn't feel the feeling, listen to myself, my body would pound out the pain until it was heard that way. Energy needs to be discharged somewhere. If it isn't discharged, the body will absorb and feel it as pain ... Our body is part of us. It is us. It holds the scars of our life to date, the stories of our life so far; it contains the wisdom and energy of what we need today and tomorrow ... Honor your connection to your body. Honor and value your body's wisdom."
All things I know, but man was this a great reminder!
Feel the feelings. Listen to your body. Honor your body.
Check.
But what was missing was actually doing something with my body. I had gotten out of my exercise routine and realized that this was also affecting my emotional health.
So I started a new program to keep myself accountable.
[even us "disciplined" folks get in a rut...]
And low and behold, I started feeling better!
The feelings were still there, of course, but at least I felt that I energetically had an outlet.
Lifting weights is great for that.
I also ran a 10 mile race to support my husband. Neither of us had trained for it, but I managed through it pretty well. I was happy to discover that keeping up with functional fitness does not result in a near-death experience on the race course. LOL!
I even had a "moment" which I haven't had in a long time. A moment of realizing how much I love running. And finally have a desire to get back into it again...
So, here's to moving energy in the way that works best for you.
Hitting the gym. Attending a group fitness class. Running. Hiking. Yoga.
Listen to your body. Listen to you emotions.
Honor it all.
And do what you need to do to take care of YOU.
Physically moving does not clear it all out (I am no stranger to digging deep and doing the "work"), but it certainly does help.
Figure out what works best for you.
For me it's lifting heavy, running sprints, TaeBo, hiking and yardio. (I get lots of thinking time in mowing that lawn!)
[with Billy Blanks!]
Do what makes you happy.
And honor yourself all along the way.
