photo: susafri
Some people literally behave like their bodies are simply vehicles to walk their heads around; they have little to no awareness of how or what they are doing physically and are blinded by cognitive factors like stress and anxiety. Others treat their body like a temple and seek help when they detect even the slightest change from their normal, homeostatic state. Many people’s relationships with their bodies are a product of to their early childhood sports combined with their recent fitness endeavors. Your early sport and movement experiences are responsible for molding your general postures while your more recent fitness endeavors will create the lens that you see your physical self through.
Some people choose personal trainers, others choose Yoga classes and some are determined to work out at home with programs like Foundation, or P90X. Your choice of activity will affect your perception of what physical health means to you. You may get focused on strength or flexibility or endurance or speed. I see many people in my practice that were active teenagers, but are now in their early 40s with two kids and are trying to rediscover their bodies; unfortunately many people get hurt during this phase because their bodies are 10-20 years older than they physically remember and their choice of activity was based more on familiarity than need.
