Written by Dana

Yeah I know I know. Life sucks sometimes. The boss is a jackass, the house is worth about as much as a pack of chicklets and your kids just totaled your car because they were texting and driving. Most of us have been having it rough lately and honestly...unless Dionne and her psychic friends really do have a magic crystal ball, no one really knows when things will get better. Life has been screwing with many of us and I don't know about you...but I can say for sure that my faith has been tested on several different occasions within these last two years or so.

What does this have to do with fitness? A lot actually.

As it's been well documented, we as a society have become plagued with stress and obesity related diseases. Most of us are tired, broke and scared. Unfortunately, these feelings don't send out messages to The Universe to step in and save us. Sometimes we have to go through the tough times to become the strong, resilient and enlightened beings we are meant to become.

When things get tough, most of us have a tendency to become very lazy. After working longer shifts and getting paid less and less for our hard labor, it's easy to put off exercise and grab whatever's convenient at the next drive thru. This behavior creates a cycle of exactly what we really don't want. It's a feeling of helplessness. Of being a victim of life's circumstances. Life screws with us and we inadvertently take it out on ourselves by being unhealthy because we're tired.

No one ever said life was fair. Sometimes it is, most often it isn't. There is, however, a strategy to dealing with this. It's called exercise. Any amount of effort you put into making yourself stronger in the physical sense feeds the same energy into your emotional and mental capacity. By getting out of your own way and exercising through tough times, you are telling yourself, your surroundings and The Universe that no matter what...you come first. Exercise makes your muscles stronger and therefore, your shape, metabolism and ability to move around are enhanced. This in itself creates inner pride but it doesn't stop there. Exercise delivers oxygen to the brain which allows you to handle stress in a more productive manner. People I know have always commented to me that they've done their best problem solving while in the midst of their fitness regimen. Exercise delivers more oxygen to the rest of the body which helps organs and tissues function at their peak levels and as a result, this creates a greater demand for the body to build more structures for even more oxygen delivery to even more structures which basically means that you are turning your body into a powerhouse of optimal function. Exercise tells your body that you are LIVING and anything you do that tells your own consciousness, your surroundings and The Universe itself that you are LIVING in spite of how badly life is screwing with you is a form of power.

When life feels bad it's common to not know what to do to fix it. If there was an easy solution to life's problems then none of would ever fall into a rut for any length of time. Most often, life gets difficult and the feeling of helplessness comes along with it. Sometimes there really is no quick fix for whatever happens to be going wrong in our lives...but haven't you noticed that most of the time we look for something to do about it? We look for a fix of some sort. We comb the classifieds for job issues, a counselor for relationship issues and a drink for everything else. This tells us that when feeling down we often look to take action. Exercise is an action that is also a solution. When feeling helpless during bad times, fitness is always an action to take. It's a way of physically putting something into motion. It makes you feel like you're being proactive and being proactive makes you feel stronger. Strength gets us out of ruts. Laziness...otherwise known as weakness...keep us there.

Do you now see where I'm coming from? Exercise in the presence of stress is your way of giving up a victim mentality. It's your way to create some of your own fate. There's always a time to sit around and feel bad. Sometimes we need to allow ourselves that quiet time to just feel like crap because life sucks sometimes. But don't stay there too long. Feel it, get up and get moving because when life treats you poorly, it's your responsibility to treat yourself better than life currently is.

Exercise is a way to set aside that time for you and only you. It doesn't have to be fancy or choreographed. It just has to be movement in any form you enjoy. The energy, the act itself of taking that time to strengthen and care for your body is magic. Aside from the physiological aspects of fitness that I mentioned a few minutes ago, the pride you feel when you look good also gives life a special flavor when you're feeling down and out. Think about it...aren't bad things worse when you hate the way you look? I don't mean this to be superficial at all. I'm just pointing out the obvious since most of us are motivated by vanity to exercise. It's bad enough when things aren't going your way, but it's even worse when you look as bad as you feel. This just feeds the misery. We all deserve to be loved and respected regardless of our physiques, but we present ourselves differently when we're in shape and this tends to manifest different outcomes in situations. When we feel good about ourselves in the physical sense it shows. It oozes out of us and makes us more attractive for opportunities to go our way. Besides, when life sucks, hating the way you look in anything makes it suck even more. No sense in denying this. It's the absolute truth.

Things have been tough for me too. I'm tired from working two jobs, going to school, training clients and still having financial let downs. Sometimes, despite my best efforts, I feel like life is screwing with me. Do I feel like getting my work-out done in the middle of the day in between my jobs? Nope. I'd rather sit on my ass and watch Iron Chef America or something. I get my work-out in anyway though because it's my responsibility to treat myself better than my circumstances are. It makes me feel better. It makes me feel stronger and it makes me feel as though I'm commanding a form of respect from myself because I'm doing what's best for me instead of what's easiest. And damnit...it's hot outside. Shorts are my friends right now and I'm not letting life screw with me enough to not look good in my shorts in ninety degree weather.

Again...when life screws with you, quit bitching and exercise. Make sense?