Yesterday I began listening to Burnout: The Secret to Solving the Stress Cycle by Amelia Nagoski and Emily Nagoski. I don’t need to get very far into this book to highly recommend it. Twenty minutes in and I felt like it was changing my life.
One of the early nuggets: dealing with a stressor is not the same as dealing with the stress itself. We need to complete the stress cycle in our bodies, or we get stuck in emotions and burnout. We need to let our bodies know we are safe and to do so, we need to speak the language our body understands.
I’ve been feeling anxious this past week. Mostly about work this week and some unknowns that are going to play out starting today. Yesterday, my body was exhausted from camping and busy days at work and not being able to play out my normal weekend routine. I had volleyball in the evening and I didn’t know how I was going to make my body cooperate.
But once I was at my volleyball games (the finals for our intramural league) my body was waking up. It felt strong and alive and we played two back to back games to win the championship. I was running hard, breathing heavy, having fun, and my anxiety drained from my mind and body.
The first language your body understands is body language. Movement. It turns out that exercise is more than just good for you . . . it’s really really good for you. Your body doesn’t understand the “this is okay” self-talk we use to get through stressful situations. It does understand jumping up and down. Speak its language.
After a competitive volleyball game, the rest of my night went easier. It was like I’d hit reset for my mental state. I’m still anxious about this week. I’d still rather lean into my flight response. But I won’t. And last night was a reminder of why I should head to Zumba instead of happy hour.
With Love,
Natalie