Mind Bullying
Firstly, I acknowledge I am not a Psychologist nor Counsellor however, I thought I’d bring up the idea of self-talk, as I can see how in training our bodies for physical fitness, it can have an impact on our mental health.
I’ve been thinking about this concept a little bit lately. Sometimes we are so harsh on our physical bodies in regards to self-talk (well at least I am)!
For me, if I get sick, my general mood is miss crankypants, cross, angry (just ask my husband and my kids)!
“Why me?” I ask myself. “I’m fit, healthy, eat well . . blah blah blah” . . . “Why is my body letting me down when I need to do stuff, stuff just needs to be done, places to be, jobs to be completed, I need to take training sessions for my clients, look after my family, get them here and there . . mwa mwa”!
And look out if I’m injured, because that means either going without my own training or at least modifying my training (in these times I should be wearing a t-shirt saying crazy woman – steer clear) and ‘man O man’, like illness, I get frustrated, impatient, anxious and the general mood going on is 😩.
Just the other day, I was stretching after a H.I.I.T. Workout (and by the way I was neither ILL nor INJURED) however I was really tight through my right hip muscles/gluts.
I found my MIND bullying my physical body.
“Why you so tight there, lady?”
“You shouldn’t be tight there, you just did yoga yesterday and did heaps of stretching!”
“Why is my left side ok and my right side feeling, well . . inflexible, stiff and uncomfortable”
My mind continued on with its own directive futile dialogue/babble . .
“Maybe it’s that extra couple of kgs your carrying at the moment”
“You honestly haven’t been doing enough stretching have you!”
“You are never perfect, always something up with you!”
Hang on a minute . . .
We wouldn’t dare speak to our friends or family like this if they told you they had a tight left buttock! (By the way, I am exaggerating a little to get my point across)
And just in that moment when my mind was belittling, bullying and criticising my body I noticed a pause, a softness and slight shift. A realisation, if you like.
In those few moments following this brief episode, my mind became friends with my physical body and said to my body:
“Are you ok?”
“Something’s up, I’m not sure what, but we can work through this together. You and I, cooperatively, instinctively, with kindness, compassion and acceptance”
Our minds can bully our physical bodies on lots of different issues that only results by fueling negative self image and unproductive self-talk. Such issues maybe related to illness, injury, appearance, weight gain, weight loss, function, productivity. The list goes on . . .
Soooo. . . I have waffled on a little (actually a lot) but my point is all in this little quote above by June Tomaso Wood who works as a Clinical Social Work/Therapist in Venice, FL.
“Don’t let your mind bully your body”
Sometimes all that is needed is a little acceptance and kindness!