When I started planning a few topics for my blog, I wanted to include at least one post on the importance of exercise. I have read a ton of posts on how exercise helps in your day-to-day life. Those posts cover pretty much everything and they are easily accessible. So, when I started to write this post, I figured I’ll instead put down my experience with exercise and how it has impacted me.
When we all were young we got our daily dose of movement from playing outside with our friends or the “PT/Games” period in our schools. That pumped up some much-needed energy and good vibes into our bodies. However, the older I got and the busyness of my world increased I could not, or rather did not make it a practice to exercise regularly. This was also the time when my anxiety was steadily increasing; for every possible situation in the world, I would overthink, over analyze and keep playing the scenarios over and over in my head on how I could have avoided those embarrassing moments or thinking maybe I said the wrong thing to someone and should have probably said something else instead. This was also the time when I lost someone I was very close to. All in all, my peace of mind went poof!
My everyday life felt very restricting? For want of a better word.
And then one day, my friend mentioned that she had come across this fitness center where they did all kinds of exercise not just one form and she wanted to see if I would go to the classes with her. I was very intrigued! They had dance/Zumba classes which were not my forte but I wanted to give it a go. I really started enjoying these classes and they proved to be very helpful for my mind and body. I grew a bit stronger; I could climb a few flights of stairs without huffing and puffing. Go on hikes and actually not feel like I would faint. I felt calmer inside. More positive, happier, and more productive!
But but but, then came the pandemic. We all know how this went. Fitness centers and public places closed. I tried doing a bit of exercise from home, but that never had the same effect. This again set me back and after about a year or year and a half, at the end of the pandemic, I got married as well. Needless to say, that at this was the time all our relatives started inviting us to their homes and feeding us delicious food. I stopped doing any form of exercise because of the whole – “oh I need to adjust to my new life; I’ll start exercising once I am settled” and all that. I gained a bit of weight and started feeling awkward about posing in photographs or just in general. Plus, a lot of people who met me after a long time mentioned how chubby I looked. That made me feel so uncomfortable! I was not feeling myself and I couldn’t dress the way I felt like. Until that moment I never realized how long I had gone without exercise or even just going out for a walk.
This is the time I realized how important exercise was for me. Not just because people started calling me fat; but because climbing stairs or walking for some time or going on small treks made me feel very tired. Most of all I could not fit into my comfort goto wear – Jeans. That did it for me. The next few weeks I started incorporating yoga, walking, and believe it or not dance – for some cardio.
Now that I have typed out a very elaborate life story about my exercise journey, here are a few things that I have learned from this.
- It is very important to keep your mind and body engaged. Yoga helps me in calming my brain. It gives me a chance to actually slow down and reset. Dance helps me with some cardio and gives me a good kind of energy right in the morning (although currently, I am not able to keep up with my dance workout). Trying. Trying.
- Be in tune with your cycles (for the ladies of course) and see what your body wants and can do on that particular day. Some days are good for yoga, and some days you would want to dance and get those endorphins. Some days you would just want to go for a walk outside in the fresh air. Doesn’t matter what, just keep moving.
- Start by exercising for the right reasons. Not just because you want to achieve a certain body type. DO IT FOR YOU.
I hope I was able to convey whatever I wanted to in this post about exercising. We are all a work in progress…Let’s strive for the best. See you all in my next post!
Until then…