BODY LANGUAGE
Supercharge your suncare, train your pelvic floor, boost your exercise routine with diodes and stretch your way out of stress – we show how to work in harmony with your physique
At some point during lockdown, I had not gone outside for four days and I could feel my body’s rebellion. My partner pushed me out of the door and I walked and walked, and it felt euphoric: the cool breeze; my muscles moving, alive with purpose; my thoughts keeping pace with my steps. It was a seized opportunity to nurture that primordial mind-body connection from which everyday life before lockdown often distracted me. In the face of a global pandemic, we’ve been united by our fallible, fragile biology, and the idea of wellbeing has taken on deeper meaning. What has been put into sharp relief is not how we look, but how we feel within. The tyranny of performative and elitist wellness trends has shifted to a gentler, more holistic sense of wellbeing. Exercise has become as much about emotional and spiritual health as physical. I find I’m kinder to myself and more forgiving, exercising when I intuitively need it, not simply because my phone guilts me with a reminder.
With fewer distractions, I have had the space to gain a deeper understanding of my body. I can discern biological rhythms that previously went unnoticed, from palpable hormonal changes to an acute awareness of whether I’m stressed or jittery, irritable or hungry, tired or wired. Without long commutes and office distractions dictating the day, the ticking of the body’s internal clock can make itself heard.
During this past year of such quiet existence, social media has lost little of its influence. However, we are editing ourselves far less. #FilterDrop campaigns are challenging the pressure to appear ‘perfect’ online, and women are sharing openly about periods, body shape, scars and stretch marks, menopause, body hair and the realities of the changes associated with pregnancy and childbirth.
That’s not to say there aren’t elements of our physique that some of us might like to change. There has been the collective acknowledgement of lockdown weight fluctuations, but it seems, with less judgement of ourselves or others. And while bookings for injectables and tweakments have also increased this year, we’re talking about having had them in a way we weren’t before: a choice as empowering for some women as forgoing such treatments is to others. The truths about women’s bodies are being shared with confidence, pushing these important discussions ever further on.
On my first commute to work in nearly 18 months, I still felt that thrill of walking with purpose, this time allied with the joy of having somewhere to go. But as life gets louder, I will keep listening to all that my body quietly has to say.
In the face of a global pandemic, what has been put into sharp relief is not how we look, but how we feel within