Fresh Start Fitness

We all have trauma. Some of it’s from childhood, and we’ve grown up with it and we’re used to it. It has shaped who we are, how we think, and how we perceive the world. We may not even be aware of how it continues to affect us as adults.

Some of us have so much trauma from so many different sources, it’s impossible to pinpoint from where our symptoms of fear, anxiety, shame, or grief are stemming. We just exist in a constant state of trauma: like standing frozen in the middle of an intersection while cars zoom past in every direction. Always alert, hypersensitive to danger.

One symptom of trauma for me is that my brain often goes back to the site and relives every excruciating detail. My brain says, “let’s evaluate this again, from a slightly different angle, under a microscope, because if we understand better we will better know how to prevent or prepare to avoid pain.” And I will spend hours, days, or weeks in a cycle of reliving painful details with nothing to show for it. Because sometimes, there is nothing we can do about it. Nothing to change, nothing to understand. It just is.

One of the reasons I fell in love with exercise is because something about getting my heart rate up, blood pumping, feet pounding, profusely sweating, makes me feel alive. Not just alive, thriving. It connects the dots between my body and my brain. I feel like my brain is in control, and my body obeys. I am present where my feet are. Sometimes my mind will wander far away, but it comes back to myself. In order to get through a workout, I need to have my brain and my body cooperating and working together.

Exercise is a powerful coping mechanism for anxiety, stress, and depression. A buzzword for this now is “mindfulness”: It reminds me that I am an active participant in the current, real-time world. I don’t live in the past. I don’t live on the internet. I don’t even live in the future of “what if” scenarios that may never come to pass. I am alive, here and now, and my brain and my body are functioning and helping me to heal in more ways than one.

I love meeting with women who want to get fit to be physically healthy. But I especially love when women can vocalize, “I have trauma/depression/stress/I’m overwhelmed and I think exercise might help with that.” Yes, it can and it will.