Feel Great Naked, After You Unlearn What Made You Try
You don’t become human through control. You become human through contact.
When the body moves, it remembers what the mind forgets. And when it remembers, it begins to make meaning — not with language, but with presence, adaptation, and reach.
But modern fitness sells a different story. It tells us to track, to optimise, to compete. To treat the body like a project, a checklist of parts.
You make a plan. You visualise the “after” image. You buy the supplements, the gadgets, the rags. You tell your friends. You even get a few good weeks in.
And then — you don’t feel great yet. You don’t look different yet. You’re still you.
Cue the shame spiral. Cue the cheat weekend. Cue the YouTube video that convinces you to start over with better macros this time.
Most health goals aren’t goals at all — they’re negotiations with self-loathing. They’re attempts to become acceptable by achieving something visual.
But the body isn’t here to decorate your life. It’s here to carry you through living — and through everything that asks something of you.
What if Looking Healthy isn’t the Point?
What if you moved your body not to look good on a beach — but because climbing a wall teaches you to make decisions and stay calm when you don’t know what comes next?
What if your body wasn’t a side project — but a co-author of your thoughts, a partner in your choices, an instrument for your joy?
You don’t need to strive for perfection. But you may want to pay attention, experiment, and play.
Play isn’t the absence of discipline — it’s discipline that’s found its purpose. It’s the kind that sinks into your muscles, settles in your bones, and rewires your instincts. The kind you return to because it makes you more alive.
Walk places. Carry heavy things. Crawl under fences. Hang from bars. Balance on edges. Roll on the ground. Not because it burns fat — but because movement is how your body makes meaning before your mind catches up.
If your “fitness journey” has zero friction with the real world — if it’s just you, a Bluetooth scale, and a $90 monthly HIIT subscription — then you’re not becoming healthy. You’re just becoming marketable.
Yes, metrics can help — but only if they reveal, not reduce. Measure what connects you to life — not what makes you second-guess your choices.
Because the body needs purpose more than it needs numbers.
Stand where you usually sit. Learn jiu-jitsu. Dance until you feel your heartbeat in your fingertips. Practice yoga, but not the kind where you’re worried someone’s comparing your asanas to Instagram. Walk uphill with your groceries and call it resistance training for a sovereign life.
You don’t owe anyone a visible reason to live. You don’t have to feel great naked — but play long enough, and one day you will.
Ask yourself:
- What are you doing by treating your body like a problem to fix?
- What part of you believes you must earn the right to feel good in your skin?
- Whose instructions are you following — and what do they cost your ability to be yourself?
- When did your body stop being yours — and start becoming everyone else’s project?
What you do to your body is how you treat your life. So stop editing yourself into something visible. And start living something true.
This isn't advice. It's unsolicited permission. Pass it to the person whose camera roll is cluttered with screenshots of "fitness inspiration". To remind both of you: you weren’t born to perfect your form — you were given a body to build a life no algorithm can explain.