Your Weekly Mindful Morsel

Mindful Morsels appear every Wednesday

Happy good Wednesday, Reader 💜

Last week I started going to the gym for the first time in years. It’s a wild thing for me really. I dig strength training and working out at home. I like not having to leave or worry about getting dressed a specific way. I like not having to be on a super-crunched schedule. I like the accessibility and ease of being in my own space.

But I noticed it wasn’t nourishing me in the same way anymore, and after some self-discovery work, I decided I had three choices:

Keep doing what I’ve been doing and grow increasingly bored, which was already affecting my motivation and consistency and would likely lead to me quitting.
Buy new things so I could grow my home resources, but this would add more things for me to take care of and there’s not a whole bunch of room for that, and I don’t want to spend that money.
Branch out and go somewhere that already has the equipment I seek.

I opted for door number 3, and to my surprise, I liked it. There are benefits I hadn’t even thought of — inadvertent body doubling (fantastic for my neurodivergent brain), a calm and quiet atmosphere (unheard of at any other gym I’ve gone to), and the additional motivation and excitement that comes with novelty (dopamine!).

I can already feel a big shift in my body because I’m providing it access to tools to grow and evolve in ways it’s really been craving. I hadn’t fully realized the extent of that craving until my first bout of muscle exhaustion. I found it invigorating — not like any other kind of exhaustion. It’s one that, for me, feels good. Useful. Grounding and earthly.

This all wouldn’t be happening if I hadn’t noticed that I wasn’t feeling as nourished with my at-home workouts anymore. It was getting harder and harder to do them with the vigor I once did. I was bored and more likely to skim through things and think that was sufficient. I wasn’t up in my feels if I had to skip a day. And I didn’t feel good when I was done. I just felt like I could check it off my to do list.

Part of thriving self care is observing these things and creating change so you can evolve. We are moving beings by all definitions. We are not meant to stay in one place or practice or state of mind for all the rest of time and forever and ever.

So this week, I’m asking: When you get down into the nitty gritty, what’s leaving you undernourished? What have you outgrown (even though it’s a good practice)? And how can you pivot and support yourself better?

With inquisitive spirit and mind,

Welcome to Zenful Mindings

I'm Brianne, a trauma-informed yoga & somatics facilitator, Reiki practitioner, and mindfulness advocate. I specialize in body literacy to help people reconnect with their bodies for a stronger sense of self, autonomy, and connection to natural rhythms.

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