There are many effective practices that help promote healing and personal growth for adult children of dysfunctional family systems, adult children of alcoholic/addicts, ACOA, childhood trauma survivors, narcissistic abuse survivors, CPTSD. But few are more powerful and multi-dimensional than physical exercise. The myriad of holistic health benefits of exercise, along with its usefulness in self-discovery, mean that if you only pursued greater physical fitness along your self-improvement journey, you’d still experience massive transformation.

Exercise activates all four of the key pillars in my signature methodology, The REHAB FOR EVERYONE Lifestyle Approach to Healing & Personal Development. The 4 pillars are Boundaries, Movement, Exploration, and Energetic Self-Care. (Learn more about REHAB FOR EVERYONE here.)

If you find yourself struggling to launch into your self-improvement journey, or your healing and growth have stalled – consider adding some type of physical exercise/movement therapy to your daily routine. It doesn’t have to be an hour-long workout; just choose some type of exercise/physical movement routine that resonates with you and commit to a small daily goal you can stick with and build upon.

Here are five reasons why exercise/movement therapy is a powerful tool to jump start and sustain your self improvement journey.

Note: Yoga happens to be a wonderful option because of its spiritual nature, and because many yoga teachers are trained in the psychological benefits of movement. But it’s certainly not the only option.

1. Physical exercise/movement therapy conditions us for the self-improvement journey

We may not be climbing Everest, but at times, the self-improvement journey will feel that way. This journey entails some of the hardest, yet most meaningful work a human can do – and it’s a years-long experience filled with peaks and valleys. If we want to make meaningful change for ourselves in this lifetime, we can’t allow poor or mediocre health to distract our efforts. We must condition ourselves for the path ahead.

Getting physically fit conditions not just our body, but our mindset as well. It makes us more confident and resilient, which increases the likelihood that we’ll power through the challenges  we’re sure to encounter and continue onward with the journey long-term.

2. Physical exercise/movement therapy helps us redefine ourselves through improved health and habit creation

By setting even the smallest of incremental goals around exercise each day, we give ourselves the opportunity to stick to what we say we’re going to do and achieve daily wins – which helps us build confidence and self-trust. Confidence and self-trust, when cultivated, help us replace the old, faulty beliefs that keep us stuck. We transition from thinking: “I am what the dysfunctional people in my life taught me I am.” to “I am a person who puts in consistent daily effort to achieve my goals. I am a person who is in charge of his/her health. I have the power to create change in my life.”

As you see – exercise gives us a concrete daily action through which we can prove new truths/beliefs to ourselves. New beliefs shift our identity and the way we perceive the world around us, which is the pinnacle of self-improvement.

Sticking to our exercise commitments will also reveal actual physical results – better health, more energy, weight loss, muscle growth, hormone balance – which are real-life proof that we are indeed in control of igniting positive change in our lives.

3. Physical exercise/movement therapy reduces stress

Stress makes everything more difficult. It can stall healing and personal development completely because it throws us into survival mode, where we spin in old, dysfunctional habits. And if you struggle with CPTSD and emotional dysregulation, stress makes it harder to cope with triggers.

Learning how to manage stress is critical to forward momentum on the self-improvement journey. Exercise is perhaps the best way to do that due to its ability to reduce stress hormones while stimulating mood-elevating endorphins.

 4. Physical exercise/movement therapy facilitates self-discovery

Physical stagnation leads to mental/emotional stagnation. When we fail to move the physical body daily, or at least on a regular basis, we create stagnation across our lives. We must get all parts of the holistic self flowing freely by moving differently and challenging ourselves physically, as well as throughout our lives – and the most straightforward way to do that is through physical exercise/movement therapy.

Exercise is a powerful cure for holistic stagnation because us bring us face to face with ourselves in ways we don’t expect. In cultivating exercise habits, we’ll observe ourselves succeeding and failing; sticking with it and quitting; testing our limits and being lazy; achieving results and experiencing setbacks. It’s in all these different encounters that we learn about ourselves and determine how best to evolve.

5. Exercise raises your frequency

According to the law of attraction, like attracts like. We are constantly attracting people, circumstances, and experiences that match our current vibrational frequency. So, if we want to create a happier, more fulfilled life, we must learn how to cultivate happiness, fulfillment and other high-vibe beliefs/emotions within ourselves.

Physical exercise/movement therapy is a powerful tool for raising your vibe because even just a little bit improves how you feel; and sticking with it to achieve short and long term results improves what you believe about yourself.

Good or great health vibrates higher than mediocre or poor health. Confidence and vibrancy vibrate higher than insecurity and self-doubt.

So, it’s time to start moving!

We’ve got all the reasons in the world to start a new exercise/movement therapy routine, As you can see, the benefits are plentiful and there’s so much to look forward to as we heal and grow. It’s just so worth it to put in the effort to make it all happen.

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The post Self-Improvement: 5 Reasons Why Exercise is Powerful Movement Therapy for Dysfunctional Childhood Survivors, including ACOA appeared first on Danielle D'Onofrio.

In this next episode of the What Healing Looks Like Series, I share a personal story about my recent struggle with anxiety. In this period of time – mostly leading up to the holidays – I lived day after day with an impending sense of doom, mostly centered around personal health fears.

While a steady hum of mild anxiety is sort of the baseline for me, this months-long episode was new and scary.

It took a lot of exploration and experimenting to figure out how to pull myself out.

Well, I was able to pull myself out.  But it took a bit more trial and error than I’m used to.

Anxiety affects the physical body and, for me, is always initiated and exacerbated by stress.

And in this recent experience, my physical body took over to the point that my usual go-to – the power of thought – couldn’t quite pull me out. So, I realized I had to work on my physical body first.

There were 2 specific things I did to calm my physical body down enough that I could then reason with myself.

Then, I could use some amateur (I am not a doctor or therapist) cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on myself. CBT-style practices helped me realize that my excessive worry was not based in reality, or factual evidence.  

Truth is, I sort of feel like anxiety stole the holidays from me this year.

But I gained such valuable, lifelong tools that it feels worth the temporary suffering. And, that’s what suffering can do for us, if we keep an open heart and mind. It can teach us.

I will have these new self-care lessons with me forever. Each time anxiety tries to creep in, I have new, personally proven steps to take. They’ll no doubt help me. And I really hope they help you, too.

I appreciate you being here. Thanks for listening!

The post Anxiety – A Personal Story – Podcast Ep. 2 appeared first on Danielle D'Onofrio.