The word “strength” has a definition, but it’s also a word and a feeling that we each define in our right.

Just what does strength mean?

I was scrolling Instagram, as one does, in the morning hours before my house began to stir. I was enjoying the quiet, peaceful air of a type of limbo. A time before the sounds of coffee brewing and people moving and cats meowing. I could see the morning dew outside the windows and the chill in the air was welcome under my blanket. And so I scrolled. Stopping to leave hearts on the posts of friends, stopping to comment, and then stopping to have my mind blown—in the best of ways.

What I saw begged me to reassess my most basic definition of the concept of strength. An Instagram Reel asked, What’s the one movement we all need to improve our strength?

I thought to myself: I need strength. So I stopped.

I watched.

And then I asked myself: why the f*ck is my definition for strength defaulting to physical strength?

Merriam Webster defines it most commonly as “the quality or state of being strong: capacity for exertion or endurance.”

But this must be applied to physical strength, emotional strength, mental strength, and the list goes on. We aren’t simply searching for physical health in our lives. We need to show up for life with strength in numbers, our own numbers. We depend on the physical, the mental, and the emotional for a healthy, happy life. We can’t just depend on one type of strength in that case, right?

Mind = Blown.

Looking closer, Merriam Webster also defines strength as “a strong attribute or inherent asset” and “one regarded as embodying or affording force or firmness” and I believe that these definitions are closer to the strength demonstrated in this Instagram reel that may rest in my mind for the remainder of my natural life:

 

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May we all take a moment each day to practice this essential movement for strength in our lives. I know I will be.