Over the past decade, my daily workouts have helped me stay physically, mentally and emotionally healthy.
Movement has helped alleviate once chronic pain and symptoms of fibromyalgia. My workouts have helped me get the dopamine boost I need for my cognitive functioning. They are the fuel that starts my day.
“Movement is medicine” is not just one of my mantras; it’s a core belief backed by the wisdom of my experience.
Over the past month, however, since my grandmas stroke that led to her death 3 weeks ago, my body hasn’t been responding well to my workouts.
It’s not just that the weights feel heavy or that I’m moving even slower than my normal slow pace.
My body is often in pain during and after workouts.
The Impact of Pain
The pain causes my body to shut down. It limits my range of motion, which makes movement painful. It’s a vicious cycle that can pull me into a pain vortex — even when I’m aware it’s happening.
Pain depletes dopamine, which in turn impacts executive function bandwidth.
It crushes my spirit and my motivation to exercise — something I’ve not experienced in over a decade of daily workouts. (More on this another time.)
And it impacts my ability to work effectively and hold space for clients.
I am angry at the pain. Frustrated by it. I want to go back to normal where I can push myself to my edge and feel the endorphin rush of a great workout or hitting my next PR.
This is what cultural conditioning has programmed me to do. Cultural conditioning tells us to push through the pain, to pretend it isn’t there.
But that’s not the right strategy.
The Lesson From Scorpio Season
We are in Scorpio season, and Scorpio tells us to sit with the pain.
Scorpio’s strategy is to dwell in the depths, to investigate the things we don’t like to discuss: death, pain, despair.
This aspect of Scorpio often gets shamed for being intense and “negative.”
But there’s value in sitting with the pain.
Pain can be a wise teacher. By sitting with my pain I learn to understand the language of my body: how it speaks to me, what it’s saying, what it needs.
I notice when the pain arrives and when it recedes. I observe what movements trigger it and what brings relief. I discern the bigger patterns that are happening under the surface.
While a part of me is tempted to seek solutions and a way to “fix” the problem, the wisdom of Scorpio tells me that the pain isn’t a problem.
It’s simply a language used by my body to communicate what it needs. It’s a message that can only be received by sitting in the depths of discomfort and facing what we’d rather avoid.
Scorpio teaches us that even our pain has wisdom to offer, if we dare to find the courage and presence to sit in its depths and allow ourselves to be open to receiving its message.
Reflection
- What pain are you trying to push away or avoid?
- What messages might your pain be trying to tell you?
- Where in your life do you need to slow down and listen more deeply to your body’s wisdom?
- What might you learn if you allowed yourself to sit with your discomfort instead of trying to fix it?
Want to go deeper?
In my Practical Astrology course, I teach you how to work with the energies of each season and astrological cycle in ways that are specific to your personal chart and life journey. Click here to get on the waiting list for the next cohort.
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