The Role of Fitness and Resilience
The world feels increasingly unstable. With basic human rights under threat and empathy often in short supply, focusing on things like fitness or self-care can feel misplaced, even frivolous. But caring for ourselves isn’t a distraction from what’s happening around us. It’s one of the ways we remain grounded, resilient, and capable of showing up for others. Before we dismiss self-care as unimportant, it’s worth asking what it actually gives us in times like these.
The World Feels Heavy Right Now
The world feels overwhelming. Every time we open our phones, we’re met with another reminder that things are deeply broken—basic human rights being questioned, entire communities fighting to exist safely, empathy feeling increasingly rare.
In moments like this, talking about fitness or self-care can feel trivial, even irresponsible. Like focusing on the small stuff while everything else is on fire.
When Fitness Feels Like the Wrong Conversation
I’ve wrestled with this myself. How can we talk about workouts, movement, or personal health when so many people are just trying to survive?
It can feel indulgent to focus on ourselves when others are hurting. Like caring for your body somehow means you’re ignoring the larger fight. But that belief doesn’t hold up for long.
Burnout Helps No One
Outrage and grief are powerful, but they aren’t sustainable on their own. Burnout doesn’t make us more committed—it just makes us exhausted.
If we’re constantly depleted—physically, mentally, emotionally—we lose our ability to think clearly, connect deeply, and show up consistently. The world doesn’t change because we ran ourselves into the ground.
Self-Care Is About Capacity, Not Escape
Taking care of your body isn’t about aesthetics or productivity. It’s about preservation.
Movement can be grounding when everything feels chaotic. It reminds us that we are still here, still breathing, still capable of agency in at least one part of our lives. That matters more than we often realize.
Fitness as a Quiet Form of Resistance
When stripped of ego and perfectionism, fitness is deeply human. It’s choosing to tend to yourself in a system that often benefits from your exhaustion.
Resting, nourishing yourself, and moving in ways that feel supportive—not punishing—isn’t selfish. It’s a refusal to disappear under the weight of everything that’s wrong.
Caring for Yourself Helps You Care for Others
Self-care doesn’t mean disengaging. It doesn’t mean ignoring injustice or retreating into comfort. It means building the resilience required to keep fighting for something better—long term, not just in moments of outrage.
If you’re taking care of your health, you’re protecting your ability to stay involved, stay compassionate, and stay human.
Staying Well Enough to Stay in the Fight
The world doesn’t need more people who care deeply but burn out quickly. It needs people who are sustained enough to keep going.
Taking care of yourself is not separate from caring about others. It’s one of the ways we remain strong
enough to fight for a world where everyone’s basic humanity is respected.
And that fight is worth being well enough to stay in.
