I’ve heard it too many times — “the gym is my therapy.”
The Gym helps with challenges, stress, we burn off our anger, frustration, it's time alone...but it cannot replace the inner work...
It still sits there, waiting for you to move into transforming it, learning to process through it, the right way (not just reading a self help book).
Don’t get me wrong: if you’re struggling mentally, taking care of your physical health is a fantastic place to start.
Training, eating well, and moving your body will absolutely help stabilize your mood.
But let’s be real — the gym isn’t where you unpack trauma, process grief, or learn to regulate your emotions.
It’s a coping tool, not a cure.
I always say that there is no way I could manage what I do in my world without the gym...it keeps me strong, grounded, it reconnects me to my power in a world and in situations that surely take you out of your power.
Life is hard, to be true....
But if you only train to escape your problems, you’re not healing — you’re
avoiding.
Go outside. Journal. Get connected. Talk to someone - a certified counsellor, coach or therapist - that know how to help you process this stuff.
You can't do it alone...and it won't go away. We want to move away from 'tolerating' and into 'transcending' so we can ditch the unhealthy and burdensome emotional planes that
follow us through the ages (and show up in midlife, loud and clear).
Let the gym be a tool to improve your quality of life - not a coping tool.
This is why I coach so deeply in the Mastery Lifestyle Program....the food, ageing, weight, poor food choices, bingeing etc etc is not the problem. It's a symptom.
The problem, and the solution, the pathway to living a full, rich, authentic life, lies within.
And that is why the inner work is so powerful, freeing, empowering, illuminating...it transcends your world.
That's why we're here.
This is where I recall Jane Fonda's comment, a woman who has certainly endured her share...
"We aren't meant to be perfect.
We're meant to be whole."
Amen.
