Balance: The fine line between healthy movement vs unhealthy movement
Movement is part of a healthy lifestyle, but can quickly become problematic due to the impact of societal pressures, diet culture, and all-or-nothing thinking. When it comes to building a sustainable movement routine, the thing to keep in mind is balance.
What is balance?
Balanced living is taking into account all aspects of your life: physical health, mental health, and spiritual well-being.
When you focus too much on one aspect and neglect the others, it is easy to fall out of balance with your relationship with wellness.
While many people enter into a movement routine with good intentions– over time those can get tainted by unhealthy expectations. Here are some common healthy and unhealthy thought patterns around movement:
Healthy: engaging in exercises that make you happy and bring you joy
Unhealthy: engaging in exercises you hate and make you feel bad about yourself
Healthy: checking in with your body and engaging in movement that is aligned with how your body is feeling
Unhealthy: feeling like you have to move even if your body doesn’t want to
Healthy: listening to your body and carefully pushing your limits to get strong
Unhealthy: forcing your body to exercise harder than is helpful and ignoring rest
Healthy: seeing exercise as a way to celebrate your body and its capabilities
Unhealthy: seeing exercise as a way to punish your body
Ways to shift your mindset towards exercise to be a more healthy one:
- Check-in with your body
Before exercising, take 5 minutes to check in with your body. Notice the tension you feel, and ask your body, “What would five minutes of movement look like?” - Find movements that bring you joy
Don’t participate in an exercise just because everyone on Instagram is doing it. Think about when you were younger. What were your favorite ways to engage in movement? Did you love to dance? Run? Play sports? Enjoying movement is an integral part of creating a balanced relationship - Talk to a professional
Connect with a counselor, fitness trainer, physical therapist or pilates instructor. It helps to get an outside perspective. Being held accountable for your thoughts around exercise can help you build a more healthy relationship
What is your relationship with exercise like? How do you remain balanced? Do you find yourself getting stuck in these thought patterns?
Your relationship with movement matters. You deserve to listen to your body and move in a way that makes you feel empowered. If you need a little more help to get there, click here to learn more about our physios and the services we offer.