19/01/2026
There was a time when exercise quietly took over my life.
What started as something that made me feel strong, calm, and capable slowly became something I had to do — not because I loved it, but because I was scared of what would happen if I didn’t.
I trained through exhaustion.
I ignored niggles, illness, and that constant background fatigue.
Rest felt uncomfortable. Stillness felt unsafe.
And I told myself that was discipline.
For years, I didn’t have a period.
And for a long time, I brushed that off — minimised it, normalised it, even felt oddly proud of my ‘control’.
But losing your cycle is not normal.
It’s your body asking for help.
To heal my relationship with exercise, I actually had to stop for a while.
That pause was HARD.
Stepping away from movement forced me to sit with the fear, the guilt, the identity I’d built around ‘being disciplined’.
But it was necessary.
Yoga became my saving grace.
Not the pushy, performance-driven kind — but the kind that taught me how to feel again.
How to move with my body instead of against it.
How to rest without spiralling.
How to breathe, notice, and soften.
When I did return to exercise, it was slowly & intentionally.
With clear boundaries.
With rest days that were actually rest days.
And with constant check ins to make sure movement was coming from care — not compulsion.
Today, I’m in a genuinely healthy, happy place with exercise.
I still train. I still challenge myself.
But I also adapt. I miss sessions without guilt.
My cycle is healthy. My body feels safer. And movement has its joy back.
This carousel isn’t here to tell anyone what they should do.
It’s here to gently invite awareness.
Because these patterns are often quiet.
They’re praised. They’re normalised.
And many of us don’t realise what’s happening until we’re already deep inside it.
If this resonates — you’re not stuck. You can overcome it.
And support — physical, emotional, professional — can make all the difference 🤍
