Life's a Sport

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Given all the chatter on this site lately about breakups, I thought I’d join the conversation, from an exercise perspective.

Exercise provides a unique benefit for those going through tough times, because it changes the actual chemistry and function of our brains and bodies. It’s not just an accessory or style change, like cutting your hair or getting a new wardrobe (although those can be powerful in their own ways).

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Exercise has the power to change us from the inside out.

Have you noticed how people going through breakups often react with physical changes? They diet, change their hair or makeup, update their dress, exercise, maybe they even get plastic surgery. These reactions reflect the close connection between body and spirit. A spiritual or emotional change evokes physical responses.

MORE: Boost Your Brain with Exercise

While it’s great to get in shape after a breakup, your motivations for exercising matter, and they will largely determine just how healthy you become, physically and emotionally. From what I’ve seen, people exercising in reaction to a breakup usually have two main motivators: 1) to please or impress others, and 2) to respect and please themselves.

Those who exercise to impress or influence other people often focus on how exercise will enhance their appearance. I’m not saying that appearance doesn’t matter, but a focus on it indicates deeper issues. It reflects a reliance on others’ approval in order to feel valuable. And more significantly, their approval of our external features, rather than what we offer from the heart.

Whether in marriage or another long-term relationship, our sense of significance and our identity becomes embroiled in that relationship. We mistakenly feel that another person’s love or admiration of us gives us some of our value—that what others think of us or to whom we are connected defines our worth. People with this perception, feeling the hurt and humiliation of a breakup, often embrace the inclination to make their ex-partners jealous, hurt, or sorry they left. “I’m going to look so good, he’ll wish he never left.”   Or, “Just wait until people see the next person I’m with.” You’ve all seen it…maybe even experienced it. 

MORE: Beauty Your Way Through a Breakup

And so people go back to school, change jobs or careers, get new wardrobes, move to fresh locations, take up new hobbies, diet like crazy, etc. None of these are bad in and of themselves, but doing any of these things to attract someone else, impress someone else, or make someone jealous only leaves you a slave to others’ opinions of you, and therefore a slave to things you cannot control.