Want to give up? Squat instead.

I get it. This is all a giant dumpster fire. Why not give up? 

But that's how it wins. We all get so tired of the drama, the problems, the issues, that we just give up. And then...??? Fuck.  You have probably heard of fight, flight and freeze yes? I didn't really understand what those were until I started relating to my body as the animal that it is. They were concepts that I mentioned in yoga classes but when I started studying them deeper, I started to see how much these mechanisms impact my daily life and habits.

Did you know that the "giving up" is actually a nervous system freeze response? Just like you can't reason with a cat running away from a dog, you can not think, reason, or meditate yourself out of giving up. You can't scroll memes until you are motivated to take action. Scrolling memes is also often a freeze, by the way.  Most of the time, you have to move your body out of it. And sometimes you need help with that.  The nervous system is complex and I am definitely not an expert in it, but I do want to share with you what I have learned over the last few years. When I feel like I'm ready to give up, I put on a song and do 3 minutes of squats. Got a bad knee?Do 2 minutes of push ups at your counter top. Or 2 minutes of core. Why? Because it builds the opposite energy... the fight. When the fight mechanism isn't in stress, it is the energy that gets us up and doing things. It is the forward moving mechanism of our nervous system. And in order to fight, a body needs to have access to muscles and a capacity to stay through intensity. Even if you workout a lot, you might not be doing it in a nervous system regulating way.  Check out the playlist I made with some song suggestions. 1. Pick one song (don't fret about it, just put it on), 2. Pick which thing you will do: squat, push up, or sit ups. GO. 3. Keep your eyes focused on one point (the nervous system regulates with the eyes).  4. Stay with the rhythm... that is also regulating for the nerves. 5. Make sound. Roar. Groan. Scream. Sigh. Try to go a minimum of 3 minutes for big muscle groups like legs and 2 minutes for small muscles like arms and core. You gotta stay through the burn. Make sound. Let it out. Squat on. Shit is real right now. We need you in power. Love Amy