When I was growing up, there were three main sports open to a female: cheerleading, dance line, and gymnastics. (I choose dance line, as I was totally okay with skipping anything to do with a ball.) Times have changed. Look at the fantastic following of the 2019 Women’s Football World Cup!
And yet…with more equal opportunity for athletics available to younger ages, once finished with high school, exercise rates amongst women plunge. The fall is especially steep amongst young black women. In adult females? The gender gap persists. While a well-respected health index has found that 38 percent of women between 16 and 24 years-of-age haven’t exercised within a year, that figure rises to 48 percent in women between 24 and 64 years-of-age. A LOT more young and adult men exercise more than that.
You know one of the main reasons?
We’re embarrassed.
That’s right. We have a greater dissatisfaction with our bodies in comparison with most men. Another reason? You guessed it. Grown-up women do most of the household chores and childcare.
So, why am I talking about exercise and sports in a feminine spiritual outlet? What better place to speak to body expression? Women, no matter the basis of their sexual and gender identifications, have the right to enjoy their bodies, and exercise is key to this endeavor.
I’ve learned you don’t need to be super athletic to get a move on it. To be honest, my sport of choice is walking the dogs and hiking. My dogs are old. We’re not exactly hoofing it. At least the latter hobby involves climbing steep mountains—although I make sure that I’m near a taxi in case I need a leg up.
In fact, most of my time in official athletic venues has been spent as a mom in the bleachers. I’m terribly talented at warming a cold Minnesota bench in the rain, sleet, and snow. But the thing is that embracing and creating deep health doesn’t require being able to slip on super-skinny, modelesque-approved Lululemon garb. It does, however, enable a shift in perception.
If self-shaming ever impacts your physical activity, change your self-perception. There are two chief ways I suggest doing this.
1.See your subtle not only physical self. Of course, we are—and have—a physical body. And all sports—any sport—is a means of loving that body. I don’t care if you’re a weekend warrior, yogini, runner, team participant, or dawn dog walker, like me. You are also more than your body.
In fact, you are an energy being. Energy is information that moves, and absolutely everything is made of it. However, less than one percent of all energy is physical. More than 99.9999-plus percent is subtle, or quantum, psychic, or spiritual.1 A sport obviously requires movement or the expenditure and management of physical energies, but your self-image should be based on your subtle or “true” self, not just your bodily being.
Do yourself a favor. Take a couple of moments, right now. Breathe deeply and bring your consciousness into your brow area. This is your Third Eye or sixth chakra.
There are two layers to a chakra. The outer wheel contains worldly programming and adopted beliefs, such as comparisons to Heidi Klum or the Kardashians, or reactions to ways we might have been treated as a child. The middle of a chakra, however, holds “Truth.” Within your Third Eye is the portraiture of who you really are…your Higher Self…your essence.
Peer at the mind screen in the innermost chamber of your Third Eye. Imagine yourself looking with clarity and self-love onto a mirror. What does your essence appear like? What colors, forms, and qualities reflect this core self?
Another way to arrive at an accurate self-image is to ask yourself this question:
How does the Divine perceive me?
Decide to identify with the brilliance that accurately displays you, and you’ll feel more like exercising with confidence and joy.
2.Be adventurous with your definitions of chores. Okay, so most females carry more of life’s burdens than do males. Whether this is true for you or not, who’s to say you can’t perceive all activity as sporty? I mean. Who said you must be wearing athletic clothing to count the calories expended or be lifting huge weights to boost muscle mass?
Try reframing everyday movements as exercise.
That’s right. When you’re lifting a fork, imagine that it is as heavy as a forklift. When vacuuming, compare it to bench pressing. It really is a matter of perception. Consider a study that involved telling hotel maids that their cleaning work was exercise. Guess what? Their bodies responded dramatically—with decreased blood pressure, body fat, and body mass, within just one week.5
Want more sporty tips? I’ve love to have you check out my new book, Energy Work for the Everyday to Elite Athlete.
1 Sarah Kiley Watson, “After High School, Young Women’s Exercise Rates Plunge,” June 11, 2018, MPRNEWS, https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/06/11/618878274/after-high-school-young-womens-exercise-rates-plunge.
2 Pragyah Agarwal, “A behavioural data scientist unravels the ‘exercising gap,’” August 1, 2022, Women’s Health, https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/health/female-health/a40769780/pragya-agarwal-gender-exercising-gap/.
3 Editor, “Time to tackle physical activity gender gap,” July 22, 2019, The Lancet Public Health, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(19)30135-5/fulltext.
4 Ali Sundermier, 99.9999999% of Your Body is Empty Space, September 23, 2016, Science Alert, www.sciencealert.com/99-9999999-of-your-body-is-empty-space.
5 Christopher Shea, “Mindful Exercise,” December 9, 2007, The New York Times Magazine, nytimes.com/2007/12/09/magazine/09mindfulexercise.html.
