All my life I have avoided physical exercise wherever possible. I had a resolute association with exercise being hard, painful and exhausting. If I was already feeling tired, the last thing I would want to do is put further strain on my body.
Listening to the Universal Medicine presentations over the years, a message has been ringing out loud and clear that I have stubbornly resisted for quite some time – about the importance of looking after your body, and developing strength in order to be fit for life. Eventually I started an exercise routine to include walking and swimming, but from a negative perspective that exercise was something you had to do that was apparently good for you.
I did not exercise from a connection to my body, but rather from a discipline and as one of the ‘should dos’ of my day.
I went along to a ‘Creative Health & Rehabilitation’ exercise class as another ‘should do’. The exercises in this class were focused on building core strength. I did not really have a sense in my body of what core strength was, but it sounded like something I could do with. Over a period of only a few weeks I started to notice some changes.
What became obvious quite quickly was that my residual back pain reduced, and when I had an active day at work I did not feel so wiped out. When I went swimming I noticed that my kicking had improved and that I could actually feel some power in my movement through the water. This inspired me to do more core exercises at home, and I requested a personal program to develop my core strength specifically.
In the space of a few months I feel that my relationship with my body has completely changed. I feel much more confident in my strength and resilience, no longer waking up with the same anxiety around having enough energy to ‘get through the day’. My posture has changed and I can feel that the way I hold myself and move allows a deeper connection to all of my body – my body as a woman.
I now feel that exercise, and supporting my body through developing my core strength, give me more energy for the day ahead! And as a result I feel more committed to life and more joyful when I wake up in the morning.
I never would have thought that developing my physical core strength could have changed my life, and also given me a very tangible connection to the essence of who I am. It has been a tremendous gift that I now have as a foundation upon which to further deepen and expand my expression in daily life, with a joyful heart and a stronger body.
Forever inspired by the practical and loving wisdom of Universal Medicine.
By Janet Williams
Further Reading:
Change your life
“One Step At a Time – Anything Else is Just Too Tricky!”
Exercise: Gentle and Flowing or Pounding and Pushing?
627 Comments
I too used to avoid exercise like the plague OR really push myself hard until I collapsed or was battered from martial arts. But exercising with my body and not pushing it when it feels to stop feels amazing and very supportive. I don’t go up the weights on the machines very fast but that is not the point. If I can still benefit from the first weight then that’s ok for me! I feel stronger and have more stamina when I exercise with me. Push it and it takes days to recover.
This is a beautiful testimony to the benefits of exercising whilst connected with self, ‘I now feel that exercise, and supporting my body through developing my core strength, give me more energy for the day ahead! And as a result I feel more committed to life and more joyful when I wake up in the morning.’
It is very beautiful when we exercise and it doesn’t feel like exercise in the way I have known it to be in the past. Walking is exercising my body yet when connected to my body the amazing feeling I have in my body outweighs everything so that the intention and focus is not on exercising my body but the glorious feeling I have in my relationship with self.
It is so important to have strong core strength as it supports our body in every way, when we walk, sit, stand and do any physical activities. I am like you Janet, I have always dislike exercise and find it unpleasant to put strain and stress on my body. But I do love to do gentle exercises to support my body and go for gentle walks.
Beautiful Janet. I have also found that by building my core strength through gentle exercises and stretches, have allowed me to deepen my connection with my body and being, which in turn has supported me to deepen my confidence in my body and in all my daily movements.
It is lovely to read of the benefits you are experiencing by building your core strength; I personally find core strength exercises to be invaluable.
Building the core strength and resilience in our body builds strength and resilience in every aspect of life.
Its an interesting relationship – feeling tired from how we are in our lives and then making the choice to do more in the form of exercise. Yet 100% of the feedback when we do decide to go that extra mile is how much it supports what we are choosing to do no matter whether its strength, endurance, or simply presence in our bodies (as opposed to being locked in our heads).
We can feel that we instantly lift ourselves up when we connect to our core strenght and confirm this strenght inside us. Can you imagine than exercising from this very same place. Simply : connect to your heart, feel your body, connect to your inner-strenght and breath gentle through your nose and see what movement comes from there.
That’s such a different place to do the exercises from: to connect to the strength from within ourselves than from an outside belief ‘I have to exercise’.
When we commit to strengthening our body it loves us back by showing signs of health and vitality. We can choose to honour our body in a way that it will naturally support us and it will thank us for it. It is through our body that we are able to connect to greater strength, wisdom and intelligence. So, it makes sense to strengthen and prepare our body to receive this without obstruction.
Beautiful Janet. What our body’s core strength actually offers when we allow it the space and building fortune it needs.
A great sharing Janet, it is timely, as I have been looking at strengthening my body with some gentle exercises and using some weights, I haven’t quite started as yet but your blog is inspiring me to do so.
It is inspiring to read the benefits of Janet’s exercising to increase her core strength, ‘I now feel that exercise, and supporting my body through developing my core strength, give me more energy for the day ahead! And as a result I feel more committed to life and more joyful when I wake up in the morning.’
So beautifully shared Janet and confirming of the power we have access to through our connection to our body and being, and when we exercise with the purpose of honouring and deepening this connection, we strengthen our body of love allowing us greater access to live more freely the potential of who we are.
I have always known that my body feels better when I am doing some regular exercise but in the past this has always come from driving my body e.g. to complete a certain number of lengths in the swimming pool as fast as possible and therefore I have never maintained whatever programme I have set myself.
I have been exploring different ways of building more gentle exercise into my days and have recently started leading weekly walks at lunchtime and encouraging my colleagues to leave their desks but I have been surprised how challenging I have found it to commit to doing some gentle connective tissue exercises to support my back on a daily basis and how often I allow other things to get in the way of taking care of my body so trying to stay open to exploring all the barriers I put up to taking loving care of myself.
Wow your blog makes me wonder what we already have in our bodies that we are not utilising. What if there is just part of us that needs strengthening or some focus and that increased strength could impact every other part of our body and how we feel in life – this is definitely worth some investigation.
We (with our bodies) are capable of so much more than we think … and to explore those limits with the help of some gentle but consistent exercise is an absolute treat.
There is no doubt within me that what I do or not do which ever the case may be in my day affects my sleep and not only that, my general wellbeing the following day and the day after that etc. So the more I commit to myself throughout the day and this includes exercise which I am experimenting with at the moment the more vital I feel during my day.
I recently wrote a self-care program for myself and one of the key points was to do more gentle exercise. Going for a walk is a great way to move, stretch and exercise my body. I too was never into sports or regular exercise because I didn’t like how my body felt and I didn’t like feeling exhausted afterwards. But now, I realised exercise can be gentle and fun, it doesn’t have to be hard, push our body or painful. I find it can be so enjoyable when exercise is done with gentleness, fun and lightness.
Janet, this is very gorgeous to read. I too have had this idea that exercise is hard and also not very enjoyable. What you are sharing is very inspiring that exercise can be supportive and give us more energy for the day. This inspires me to take up some gentle exercise, thank you.