Most people consider the body as a taxi that carries the mind, and perhaps the spirit as well, from one place to another. They are über-persons, but not they way Nietzsche envisioned.
They usually recognise that the body needs some tribute, like eating or resting, and perhaps some conditioning. Other than that, they consider health as the luxury of forgetting about their bodywork.
Entertainment, work and social connections are increasingly surrendering to the sovereignty of the mind. Our body sits or lies still, waiting like a slave horse in her stable. A useful tool at the service of her master.
Sometimes we suffer an inconvenience, like lower back pain or a physician revealing our high cholesterol levels. In both cases, she probably prescribes some pills so that we can forget about it.
The body talks. The doctors prescribe earplugs. And we comply.
We seek comfort, a word that (etymologically) means `to strengthen', `to invigorate'. Even the word has undergone atrophy!
Physical exercise is not usually welcome at home. Do you want to build strength? Go to the gym. Home is seen as a place to relax, enjoy, rest and be comfortable. The aesthetics of a gym would not fit well in our cosy nest. People seem to prefer building their homes as wannabe palaces or museums. Beds and couches dominate, and TV presides. China cups, expensive furniture, hard angles and ceramic floors remind us that somersaults, jumps and dynamic motions in general are not well received. Static etiquette is in order.
At work, exercise is usually out of place and out of time. You should train elsewhere and during your free time. We don't pay you to become stronger. Newton said that work is force multiplied by displacement. Well, he surely had no idea.
Except for some innovative parks, and even then only mildly so, architecture and urbanism do not seem concerned with the health of people, only with their comfort. Old trees and wild roads were (and still are) demanding in terms of muscular strength and proprioception. Modern houses and cities are a physical joke: pre-cemeteries of asphalt, flatness and atrophy.
Very often you feel tired, but tired of what? As there is body, mind and spirit (or soul, call it however you like), there are three types of tiredness: physical, mental and spiritual/emotional. But all three *are felt and carried by the body*. I would even speculate with the theory that they are mentioned in order of increasing burden. Nothing drains more your body than an emotional event. Also, try a physical training after accumulating a lot of mental fatigue.
But, although your mental and spiritual fatigues are supported by your body, they don't make your body stronger, unlike physical training. Have you ever been tired of doing nothing. You didn't move today, yet you are exhausted. You cannot understand how that friend of yours, who trains 5 hours per day, always seems so full of energy... and time! Probable she has a better job. Or she has less problems than you.
You also suffer from anxiety, but what does this has to do with our topic? Sure, your neighbours' dog has anxiety because she does not exercise enough each day (she only goes to walks, but does not play and run the amount she needs), but your case is different. Dogs are animals, and, as beasts, they are just bodies. As we all know, the word animal comes from Latin `anima' which clearly means `body'... So it is normal that her anxiety has a physical origin. Whereas you, a human, are above these low issues.
Your problems are always from the mind and the spirit. Your partner is making your life a hell and your boss is an arsehole. Your friend is ghosting you and your family does not understand your issues. Yes, you could do more physical exercise, but this does not remotely address your relevant problem sources now. You talk real-world problems, while this sporty thing feels as having nothing to do with solving them.
You also feel like you are losing your capacity to focus, or to listen. You are increasingly impatient, short tempered and unmotivated. Perhaps you should drink more coffee, or read another self-help book.
Or even better: perhaps you should go to a psychologist and tell her your whole life. Then, maybe, once you are aware of all your traumas, you will know the reason why you feel like shit. What about not feeling like shit? Well, knowing why is a beginning. Little by little and step by step. Don't suffocate me, I have my own pace. Also, don't judge me.
You leave the psychiatrist as the last resort, since you already take too many pills and you don't want to add antidepressants and anxiolytics. These would not be good for your already upset stomach and your increasingly acidic oesophagus. And, by the way, you already take a diazepam every now and then, to have a decent sleep. How come I cannot sleep when I am so tired? It's nonsense! Stupid body.
Perhaps you could even do some meditation, or even some relaxing Yoga or Pilates. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 19:00 to 20:00, you copy the motions of your teacher and, after a shower, you walk out of the gym feeling slightly better, congratulating yourself. You surely feel it helps, but remain convinced that exercise is just an soft analgesic, nothing else. After all, you do sports and your problems persist.
Doing more? No way. Once you tried to exercise more, and your knees started to hurt. Even your doctor said that you should not overwork. She said that you needed to rest more, and learn to relax. Your problem, probably, is that you don't know how to relax. You should probably go to a retirement or something...
Or... you could learn to embody your life.
You could learn to see your anxiety the same way you see the dog's anxiety. Perhaps you need to play and run. But not in gentle-Yoga mode: strenuously as hell!
You may not do this from 0 to 100. Surely you need to increase the intensity very slowly, but with a high goal in mind.
You may transform your home and workplace so that dynamism is welcome and its importance acknowledged.
You may move your thoughts and discover that, counter intuitively, they gain focus with motion.
You could try to (progressively) put all your cardiovascular system into wild action and see what happens. Try to see what happens with your sleep, with your hormones, with the clarity of your mind.
You can test whether your thoughts are deeper when you walk and run than we you are still. Also worth testing if, by spending more time training, you are more tired and if you have less time.
You could see how the quality of your ideas change with the amount of motion your body performs.
You may measure your anxiety levels when you exhaust your body every day.
You can, in general, try to see what happens when you, acknowledging the animal that you are, transition from a still picture to an *animated* video.
Walking while reading. Getting up very frequently and doing some callisthenics. Thinking in motion. Playing games that involve the body, like you (hopefully) did when you were a child. Walking, running, climbing, swimming, dancing, pirouetting...
You could embody your own body, incarnate your own carnal nature...
and discover that, as the body feels the fatigue of the mind and the spirit, these two will shine when their most fundamental partner provides an exuberant foundations.