Say No to exercise!

I don’t know about you, but since I started my recovery from lifelong body shame, exercise has become a very loaded word to me. This is coming from someone who moves her body DAILY, be it in a dance class, Pilates, Yoga, improvisation, or somatics. But if someone asks me to go “exercise,” I immediately recoil.

Exercise, to me, is huffing and puffing on a repetitive machine I don’t want to be on. It’s looking around in a class and comparing my body and my ability to everyone else in the room. It’s putting on the “right clothes” and feeling ashamed of how I look in my leggings and T-shirt. Exercise is feeling that there’s a certain amount I “should” be doing and I’m only “succeeding” if I’ve done that much. You know what? I say NO to exercise.

MOVEMENT, however, is my absolute favorite thing to do. Moving to music, getting sweaty, being with other people doing the same, feeling myself, letting my body shake free, feeling that cathartic release when I let go of thinking… these are some of the happiest moments of my life. On good days, they even make me love my body, for what it can do, for how it feels, for how I can share myself with others.

This is the reason I re-named and re-shaped my “Shake Your Soul” class to be called “Joyful Movement.” Joyful Movement is an invitation to feel good, really good, in your body.

It is letting go of what you look like, and tuning in to the delight waiting for us when we allow our bodies to move, bend, flow, shake, and open.

It is about letting music bring you joy that makes you want to curve and stretch and shimmy. It is about letting your body have a joyful experience without judging it, giving it goals, or implying that it should be somewhere other than exactly where it is.

Joyful Movement is moving for you and for now, not for what you will look or feel like later (though I can tell you, you’ll feel pretty great later, too!).

Does it accomplish many of the objectives of exercise? Yes, there are all the same cardiovascular, flexibility, pain reduction, energy-boosting benefits of exercise, but all through PLAY.

Now THAT makes me say YES.

If you’d like to say yes with me, sign up for your first class free for the month of September, or come back to class if you already have experienced the delight of moving together in Shake Your Soul®.

And for those of you who are locals near me (in Tenafly, NJ), the last Monday of every month will be both LIVE in my studio and on zoom. So if you’re ready for a live class experience, drop in! (Details on that to come).

To learn more about Joyful Movement, or register for class, check it out HERE.