Eating represses feelings, Exercise lets them go.

#MondayMotivation!

Author Shireen Hakim

I’ve always been physically active; I played sports and fidgeted in my seat in class. I’m happier when I’m active. For the past few years though, in a household of TV watchers, I became couch potato chip-eater, and therefore depressed. I ignored my instinct to go outside and walk because everyone else sat inside. (Observation not blame.) Recently an emotional eating webinar helped me process my emotional attachment to overeating snacks. As my repressed regrets drifted away, I got up and started exercising. I felt happier, but it was more than actually exercising: it was the simultaneous act of letting go.

Science tells us that we’re happy after exercise because it releases endorphins, but I think it’s deeper than that. Exercise helps us release our negative thoughts and feelings, and we feel physically and mentally healthier after they’re gone. Whereas eating holds in those negative emotions, stuffing them deeper inside…

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Published by shireenhakim

Shireen Hakim is a Mexican and Pakistani- American author from Los Angeles, California. Her story "Home for Eid" will be published in DOOR IS A JAR literary magazine in Summer 2023, sold at Barnes and Noble. Her award-winning refugee story "Rabbi the Rabbit" is published in the anthology OUT OF MANY, ONE: CELEBRATING DIVERSITY by Houston Writers Guild. She has written for Buzzfeed, Book Riot, and We Need Diverse Books.

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