My Body Finally Feels Normal—Now I Want to Do Something With It!

I started running on New Year's Day this year.

The impetus came at the end of last year when an editorial department asked me, “Would you like to participate in the New York City Half Marathon this August?” Around that time, I had been vaguely thinking, “I want to do something with this body of mine,” so I immediately accepted the offer.

To be clear, when I say “this body,” I don’t mean a toned physique.
I mean a body that, after 10 years of visiting chiropractors and massage therapists, and doing daily stretches, has finally returned to a normal state—a body that was so stiff and imbalanced, I couldn’t even turn my neck, and my back and shoulders felt like iron plates (even a Taiwanese massage lady was shocked!).

When I first started stretching, I would do it for about three hours every night. I was so engrossed that I’d be crying, “This part hurts, that part is stiff,” and I’d end up with no time to sleep. My body was abnormally stiff from childhood, and then my work as a hair and makeup artist, which requires contorted and bent postures, turned it into a truly complex, hardened structure.
Every massage therapist and chiropractor I saw would sigh, “Hmm, this is not an easy body to work with,” and some would even express a sort of impressed (or perhaps bewildered?) admiration, saying, “You’ve really learned to utilize your imbalances.” Because of this, it took me a full decade to reach a point where I could genuinely feel, “This feels good.”

What Unexpected Benefits Came from Daily Stretching?

People often express admiration, asking, “How do you manage to stretch every day without getting bored?” The truth is, it’s simple: if I don’t stretch, I feel a sense of suffocation, and my body cries out, “Please stretch me!”
Another major factor is that I could clearly see my own progress day by day. Every day brought tangible improvements: I could bend forward an extra millimeter, or spread my legs open a millimeter further. The more I practiced, the more evident the changes became in my body. To someone naturally flexible, it might seem like a negligible improvement, but for me, these millimeter gains were monumental. I was delighted and found joy in this progress. Of course, there were days when I didn’t feel like stretching, but the fear of “losing the progress I’ve made” was also a significant motivator for continuing.

It was about four years into this grand project of overcoming my body’s imbalances and stiffness that I noticed an unexpected benefit: my mind began to feel lighter.
“My body feels more flexible lately... Wait, come to think of it, I’ve been feeling more at ease mentally too…!?” As my body began to feel liberated from its stiffness, experiencing a sense of freedom and lightness, my mind too started to feel lighter. I had often read or heard that “the body and mind are connected,” but it wasn’t until then that I truly understood it, not just intellectually, but with my whole being. It was a moment of profound realization.

Another Welcome Bonus from Correcting My Body

For a long time, I considered myself stoic, but perhaps my body’s condition played a significant role in that perception (though I still appreciate a stoic approach). When your body is stiff and imbalanced, even a simple act like “standing” requires immense effort, making it almost necessary to be stoic.
But when my body became more liberated, I could stand without unnecessary tension. The joy I felt experiencing that was immense! At the same time, I realized that because my body had been so stiff since childhood, I could truly appreciate this newfound ease and its importance. Perhaps this realization itself was a form of happiness.

Furthermore, correcting my body brought another welcome bonus: I lost excess weight. When the body is imbalanced, it tries to protect itself by accumulating unnecessary fat. By correcting these imbalances, blood and lymph circulation improves, leading to the shedding of that extra weight. Naturally, improved circulation in the neck and shoulders also enhances skin radiance and refines facial features. Therefore, based on my own experience, my core beauty philosophy is that correcting bodily imbalances and stiffness is the fundamental and most crucial step, even more so than applying skincare products or focusing on dieting.

After a decade of this journey, it was only at the end of last year that I began to see the next stage, and that’s when I encountered marathon running. I wonder what lies ahead— To be continued in the next installment!