Movement or Emotional Avoidance?
Are you moving your body…
or just avoiding your feelings? [1.5min read]
I had to ask myself this question this week when a wave of PMS emotion started banging at my door.
With my usual somatic intelligence resource low at this time I found myself a bit dissociated. Evident by the overthinking and negative/critical voices getting louder and louder.
I then went to the gym. The light sweat moved some energy… aahhh some reprieve from the heavy internal negativity. This lasted for all of 10 minutes.
It was eventually when I breathed and dropped back into my body that tears naturally flowed. My body just needed to cry, process the vulnerability, and decompress the emotional charge. I felt empowered again, in touch with my aliveness. The harsh overthinking quietened.
When we say things like:
“I’m going to yoga to feel better.”
“I just need to go for a run.”
“Lifting weights helps me clear my head.”
Yes moving the body does change our state. These practices can be powerful and resourcing.
But if every time a difficult emotion, or anxious thought loop, surfaces and our first and only instinct is to move, sweat, stretch, or shift. We’re not really embodying, we’re managing.
It's like putting our clothes in the washing machine without any detergent. 🧺
Sure, they go through the spin cycle. There’s movement and space, but did we actually clean anything? Or did we just swirl around it, and then try to move on confused why the mental chatter is largely the same?
Next time you feel something rising that’s hard to sit with — by all means, go for the run, roll out your mat, move your body. Let it support you.
But then come back. Come back to the original discomfort. The core of what your body was trying to move through or tell you.
