How to Heal Your Relationship with Exercise & Begin to Move Your Body Joyfully
In our society, exercise is often associated with losing weight, burning calories, and getting your “bikini body” ready for summer. The term ‘working out’ is currently one of the most common terms for exercise. I find it necessary to point out that in the term ‘working out,’ you can find the word ‘work.’ This, in and of itself, shows how exercise has transformed into something that we feel like we have to do, instead of something we want to do.
For some of us that struggle with food and body issues, exercise and ‘working out’ have become very much connected to our eating disorder behaviors. We get so obsessed with the idea of burning calories and losing weight that we begin exercising to an excessive level so that we can burn MORE calories and lose MORE weight. We might even become compulsive exercisers. And that is an eating disorder behavior itself — excessive exercise is actually a form of purging. Recovering from this often involves therapy and the help of a specialist to help you let go of the rigidity around exercise and discover new, healthier ways to move your body.
For some of you, physical activity and movement might not bring about the most joyful memories, as you might not have had the greatest experiences with it in your past. Even the thought of movement might have you feeling kind of “ugh.” If this applies to you (or if this has applied to you in the past), let’s take a moment to explore this a little more deeply…
There are often reasons that we develop a level of “resistance” to physical activity and movement. Some contributors may include:
In eating disorder recovery, we want to move from the concept of ‘Exercise as Punishment,’ to the concept of ‘Movement through Joy.’ Therapy services can support you in this transition, guiding you toward healthier intentions and strategies.
So what does movement through joy look like? Well, joyful movement is an approach to physical activity that emphasizes finding pleasure and joy in the way we move our bodies. This is often a foreign concept to those of us with eating disorders. We often force ourselves to exercise as a form of compensation or punishment. And we often partake in types of movement that we dislike, because we want results, and we want them fast. (This is toxic, ED-driven movement!)
We look at our INTENTIONS!
This is where joyful movement differs–the intention behind joyful movement is to have fun, to find pleasure, and to find joy through movement.
Some examples of joyful movement are…
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