High Anxiety...

Exercise anxiety is a real thing.  A lot of people in our society have been traumatized by P.E. classes or bullies or jocks or mean girls and, as a result, find it difficult to show up in the gym without a certain amount of panic.  Here are five things to do to help with that anxiety:

 

1.     Breathe.  Taking slow, deep breaths can help.  If we feel too amped up, making our exhales longer than our inhales can chill us out a bit.  Conversely, if we need a bit more energy, a longer inhale might help.  No matter what (if any) pattern of breathing we choose, we want to encourage ourselves to breathe into our bellies, slowly, rather than adding energy to the anxiety with shallow, chest breaths.

2.     Take a buddy.  Not necessarily the one who works out all the time.  We want the one who helps us laugh and/or relax.  We want the human security blanket person who understands that this situation is hard for us and does what they can to make it easier on us, whether that is staring down the mean girls or figuring out how the heck to start the treadmill.

3.     Go when the gym is less crowded.  This might be very first thing in the morning, when only the two super dedicated old people claim their own personal elliptical trainers, or early in the afternoon when the college students aren’t awake yet and the parents have left to gather their preschoolers, or well after the after-work crowd have finished.  That way, there is a chance to figure stuff out without anybody watching.

4.     Alternatively, go when the gym is busy.  When there are tons of people all around, literally no one will notice one more.

5.     Repeat:  I am a worthwhile human and I have every right to be here taking care of myself, no matter how much or how little space I take up, whether I lift every weight in this place or none at all, whether I set a speed record on the treadmill or never get out of a walk.  It may take a while, but with enough reps, we’ll get stronger at it.

 

If none of those work, talk to me.  We can figure out what the right approach might be and we can try a bunch of stuff.  We can do this.