When I was quarantining alone during the height of the pandemic, I started doing aerobic exercise routines I found online to deal with cabin fever and help me manage my mental health. In the many months since then, I’d forgotten how much that exercise energized me and lifted my mood—until tonight.
Tonight, I suddenly felt inspired to search for a 20-minute aerobics video again. I did the first one that came up. It said it was “for beginners” and it was nothing of the sort. Still, I persevered, and I’m the better for it. I can’t remember the last time I felt this good. It’s incredible!
It’s such a relief to feel this surge of positive energy. I’ve been so burned out from stressing out about work (mostly needlessly) and trying to find housing on a tight budget in the very expensive city of Toronto.
The challenge now is to stick with regular exercise again, like I was able to do all those months ago. Maybe it’s the endorphins talking, but I’m feeling pretty optimistic that I can. It’s just a matter of figuring out what kind of exercise schedule is going to work for me in 2023.
3 ways I plan to stay committed to exercise
I’m going to have to have a strategy if I want to succeed in getting 20 minutes of exercise every single day.
My biggest challenge is that I’m not naturally inclined to be physically active. Many of the things I like to do are done sitting down: writing, reading, drawing, doing puzzles and consuming far too much YouTube. How am I going to fight my inertia and swim against the current for the sake of my physical and mental health?
I have three strategies in mind, based on what’s worked—and what hasn’t—for me in the past.
Variety is the spice of an active life
Blame it on my being a Gemini or the peaks and valleys of my mental illness, but I have a strong tendency to give up on routines not long after I’ve started them. I get bored easily and lose momentum. Perhaps that’s another way of saying I’m a creative person who needs to find the fun in something to stay engaged.
The best way I can give myself a fighting chance of sticking with a routine is to introduce some playfulness and variety into my day—especially the parts of my day that I don’t want to deal with. On my more stressful days, I know that exercise is going to be one of those things.
I believe, however, that if I introduce different forms of exercise into my week, some more strenuous than others, it will keep things more interesting for me. It will also provide me with the chance to observe which forms of exercise seem to suit me best. If I look forward to Yoga days but dread squats, perhaps I’ll develop a daily Yoga routine. Then again, I may find the feeling of accomplishment after completing more challenging workouts causes me to look forward to those days more than I thought it would.
I’m excited to see where this experiment leads. In my experience, excitement provides a great foundation for commitment.
A spoonful of “witchiness” helps the exercise go down
How am I going to decide which kind of exercise to do every day? Should I do Yoga or pushups on Mondays?
I’ve found a simple solution: I’m going to align my exercise schedule with the planetary correspondence for every day of the week. For example, Monday’s correspondence is the moon (it’s not a planet, I know, but just go with me here). The moon is more passive, receptive and contemplative—more yin energy—than the blazing heat and active energy of the sun (which is—you guessed it—the planetary correspondence for Sunday).
To me, Yoga makes sense on Monday, and pumping through some pushups would be more of a Sunday thing. So, I’m going with that.
Beyond a way to schedule my exercise time for the week, approaching it this way brings a spiritual dimension to my renewed commitment to an active life, which is appealing for a witchy woman like me. After all, the mind, body and soul are all connected. A healthy body and mind support a stronger connection to All That Is, which is just as important to me as how I feel in a bathing suit (which still isn’t happening anytime soon, by the way).
When in doubt, stretch it out
I know myself pretty well. I want to be both ambitious and realistic. There are going to be times when I’m supposed to do jumping jacks and all I want to do after a long day at work is zone out with some screen time. That’s OK. My definition of “20 minutes of exercise” is pretty loose. I’m going to count 20 minutes of gentle stretching as sufficient any day of the week. Doing some stretching is better than doing nothing. Doing any form of movement is better than doing nothing.
Exercising for 20 minutes every single day is a lofty goal. If I’m feeling really stuck and don’t know what to do with myself, I’ll simply throw down my Yoga mat and do what I can. Having said that, I believe that I possess untapped willpower and potential that is waiting to be discovered. I’m going to prove this to myself.
Exercise isn’t always fun, but it’s worth it
In the weeks and months to come, I hope I can hold onto the memory of how good I felt tonight as I fought my way to keep up with a fit 23-year-old speeding through squats on YouTube. I hope I can remember that the end is worth the means to get there.
As tempting as it is to be sedentary, there really is no replacement for exercise. Caffeine and sugar are band-aids. Not that I’m planning on giving either of those up anytime soon. One life change at a time! Exercising every day is no small change. I’m excited to see how living a more active life is going to unfold after my beautiful experience tonight—body, mind and soul.
«RELATED READ» DANCE FOR JOY: Use this 3-step dancing exercise to connect with your spiritual side»
image 1: 5132824; image 2: Derek Wolfgang; image 3: Taco Fleur
