In the face of stressful, emotional or frightening situations, it can be easy to set aside physical movement and fitness practices. When the house is on fire, there’s no time to be going for a walk or doing some strength training, right?
Right. I get it. In sudden, acute, intense situations this is true.
And if you happen to know that the house is going to be on fire for a long time, we have to look at it differently. Whether you are dealing with the long-term illness of a loved one, a stressful situation in your work or, I don’t know, maybe the threat of authoritarianism in your country, things might feel urgent and pressing but the truth is that the situation isn’t going to resolve quickly.
Taking care of your fitness, whatever that means for you, is essential and high priority. Because if the house is on fire and you aren’t strong enough to carry water or to get yourself out, then the gig’s up.
Your physical care may seem small and inconsequential in the face of big problems but it is not. Sticking with your own, personal fitness routines might seem selfish but it is not. Your movement practice might appear to be the first thing you should let go of, but it is not.
A note here about what I mean by “fitness.” My definition of The World’s Greatest Athlete is anybody who is moving and challenging themselves, even a little.
I’m not talking about being a triathlete or being able to bench press twice your body weight (unless you are a triathlete and you can bench press the moon, in which case, cool!). What I’m talking about is your fitness and taking care of your body – whatever that looks like for you right now.
Maybe it’s going for walks in nature or around your neighborhood. Maybe you have a strength training routine you love or a class at the gym that makes you feel strong. Maybe for you, it’s breath practice or yoga. Maybe you’re injured or have abilities that limit what you can do with your body and if that’s the case (it has been for me at various times), do what you can to move and connect to your physical body.
I’m not talking about hierarchical standards and linear comparison to some Tik Tok influencer, your partner or your next door neighbor. I’m talking about you moving in any way that pushes you a little bit and allows you to grow (remembering that sometimes the challenge is to do less). Whatever feels good and even a little bit challenging in your body, I’m inviting you to keep doing it even when stressful things are afoot.
And here’s why:
Four Reasons Your Movement Matters (Plus Bonus!)
1. Feeling strong and resilient in your physical body supports you feeling strong and resilient in your mind and heart, too.When I sustain my focus on my fitness and movement, I have more resources to draw on when things get rough. Research shows that “exercise intervention has been associated with cognitive improvement and stress resilience in humans and animal models.”(The Contribution of Physical Exercise to Brain Resilience, Ricardo Mario Arida, Lavinia Teixeira-Machado) That’s fancy science talk for exercise helps you be strong in more than physical ways.
2. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
When we challenge ourselves, even a little, during exercise, we are allowing ourselves to get comfortable being uncomfortable. This is a radical practice in modern life which tends to eliminate any and all discomfort! Adding progressive challenge to what you do with your body allows you to recognize that discomfort is ok and you will be ok even if you are uncomfortable. This skill can then translate to other situations that might be uncomforable like having a difficult conversation or doing something outside your comfort zone socially or politically. The key here is to take small, safe risks to expand your capacity rather than blowing it up by doing too much too soon.
3. Helps process emotion.Emotions are energy in motion. But many of us tense up or stuff down our feelings. Movement moves your physical body, of course but it also moves emotional energy. Exercise, even light to moderate exercise, let’s you metabolize what you’re feeling in a productive way. When in doubt, just try moving a little. If you start to feel a little better, keep going. If not, you can bail.
* I joke that it’s a good thing I teach movement because if I didn’t, I would often be too grumpy or anxious to show up at all! Yet almost always, I do feel better by the end. There are exceptions to this. There are times when I’m too tired or too sad or too something to get moving but this is the rare exception.
4. Invites staying present in this moment right here rather than stewing in the past or spiraling into the future.Focus on the sensations that are happening in your body while you’re moving. By using mindful concentration, you are practicing residing in the present which is where life is happening. Times of intensity, stress or fear, it’s easy for the mind to spin into what-could-happen and slide into if-only-that-didn’t-happen. Movement and physical practice invite us to be right here, right now.
BONUS: Dance Particularly Promotes Resilience
Research finds that dancing is a particularly beneficial form of movement in stressful times. In a multi-disciplinary review published in the May 2025 journal Psychology of Sport & Exercise, researchers Klaperski-van der Wal et. al. found
“strong empirical empirical evidence for the beneficial stress regularly effects of music, social contact, and movement, illustrating that dance can promote coping and foster resilience.”
Which, yeah! We knew this and it’s cool to read about the science behind it.
AND if you’re in Charlottesville, please join us for some resilience building at the Keep Going Together event at the Tom Tom Festival on Saturday, April 19 from 1-2pm on the downtown mall. Find the details here and invite a friend!
Former National Institute on Aging Director, Robert N. Butler, M.D. said, “If exercise could be packed in a pill, it would be the single most widely prescribed and beneficial medicine in the nation.” This is particularly true when life feels uncertain, stressful or scary. Even though it might seem like the natural thing to cut back on in intense times, the opposite is true. Your movement matters for moving through difficult days.