“This can help me visualize my reality and my future, which is the most powerful tool we have.“

Article by Alexandria Zimmerman, Ask Zimm

Wellness expands beyond the realms of physical fitness; sprinting on a treadmill, striding out your frustrations and being a beast with the weights is a massive outlet, but we shouldn't ignore our creative, emotional outlets.

For as long as I can remember, I've been a huge reader. Until college, when all my reading became academic. I've always loved to write, winning contests in high school and writing some poems here and there. But in college, that too became almost all academic. Rediscovering my passion to write and read has been huge for overcoming, continually overcoming, some frustrating times I'm currently handling and dealt with in the past.

I want this blog to be as honest as possible, so I'm gonna be really open on here!

Writing out and materializing my feelings has been extremely helpful for handling some anxiety, which mine is minor in the grand scheme of things, but still a scary place to be for anyone. If you know me, you know i'm pretty energetic and have been called "bubbly" lol. I'm intense and passionate too but I am generally full of energy and excitement about the smallest things. When I'm too stressed though, the pressure I put on myself turns into anxiety and I have to re-align. The gym does that for me. But when I need something deeper than the gym, I write. I write out when i feel loneliness, sadness, when i am confused, frustrated, I write out my anger, I write questions to someone who left me hanging, I write out my fears and what ifs. This is such an important practice because it allows me to confront my feelings when I used to just hide them and pretend I didn't feel anything, '

When I am feeling excited, I write down my goals and lately have been learning how to plan out in a detailed way how I am going to achieve them.

I threw discus at Villanova, and being on that level of competition is sooo mental it's unbelievable. I learned the power of the mind and of visualization in the most amazing way through track. When I had the biggest meet of my life, I practiced visualization almost as much as doing physical reps leading up to the meet. It helped me get recruited on the division I level, and I took that practice with me for the rest of my career and into my fitness life. My point is that writing out a goal will nearly force visualization which translates to actualization. I highly recommend doing this!

Try out writing to cultivate mindfulness, visualization, and remember who you are. A mf beast.

-Azimm