When people hear the word "therapy," they think of a land with neutral colored offices with a comfy chair or couch that sits across from a desk. When I hear the word "therapy," I see a world with treadmills, weights and workout equipment. I don't know when I realized the gym was my safe haven for working out my emotions, but I'm glad I did. Working out and being at the gym always puts me into a better mood, no matter what I'm dealing with that day outside those doors.
Having a place where you really don't have to talk at all is amazing. You can say "Hello" to whoever is checking your membership, but after that you don't have to say a word to anyone, and I think that's the best kind of therapy for me. Everyone just keeps to themselves and their workouts make enough noise to fill the void of what is supposed to be silence. Instead of words from people you don't know, you hear the clanking of metal on metal, the small motors of machines running, the beep of people scanning their membership IDs and the music playing over the speakers for people who don't have headphones.
At the gym, I can workout my problems in my head and just think everything out. I don't need to say anything out loud and feel like I have to explain everything to someone else.
I like routine for the most part; I don't like being surprised by something coming up that I wasn't expecting. I do the same routines each time I go to the gym, even if it may not be at the same point in time each day. I do my round of exercise around the gym, and then I'm on my way. Just the way I like.
The gym is a place of starting over and bettering yourself not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. Exercise releases endorphins into your bloodstream that improve your mood, that's why doctors suggest physical activity for people with mood disorders. Knowing that I'm helping put myself into a better mood, along with working on my physical strength, makes the sore muscles and pain to walk the next day worth it.
Therapy itself is all about working on a better you. It's about working on yourself hard enough to be happy with who you will be soon, to be healthier and in a better mental state. That's also what working out is for. You're working on making yourself stronger, and the more you workout the more you release good chemicals into your body. I'm not saying you have to workout everyday in order to do this, but a couple times a week even helps tremendously. No one is judging you, because they themselves are there to work on themselves too. You'd be surprised what working out has done to many people's everyday lives.
In no way shape or form am I bashing any other way of therapy, this is just what I prefer over any other form of therapy.
