Member-only story
REHAB
Ironically, when I was an addictions counselor at a prestigious
sought-after in-patient rehab center, I had to intern in every
area of the center, including the one I was dreading the most:
the fitness center. The woman who ran it rode her bike up and
down a steep thirty-mile mountain before work every day only
to come in to swim several hundred laps. She was badass. She
scared me.
My dad saw her once when he stopped by and thought she
was a man swimming in a women’s bathing suit because of her
solid, massive muscles. I was still not embracing that I had any
athletic bone in my body. I did not understand why I had to
intern in the fitness center as an addiction’s counselor wanting
to run therapy groups. It was mandatory so I had no choice.
My first day in the orientation, I was in a mood. I was resentful
of this mandatory gym time. Seemed like a waste. I wanted to
be back in the therapy groups learning about addictions. The
first thing she says has stuck with me my entire life. It changes
my life. “To change a thought, you must move a muscle.”
What? What does that even mean? She tells us to think of a
time we were angry or frustrated. Well, that is easy, that would
be right this second.
