Life is the greatest experiment. Each of us is an experiment of one -observer and subject- making choices, living with them, recording the effects.
– George Sheehan
I am a child psychologist by training, and am fascinated by human behavior. I am particularly interested in the legacy of early experience. How do the events and experiences that we have early in life manifest in our later patterns thoughts, feelings, and behavior? And, if we know that we have liabilities, or “baggage”, from these early experiences, how can we get ourselves back on track? At work, I have the great fortune of being able to analyze large data sets to answer such questions. But sometimes the answers also reveal themselves in less obvious places. Like at the gym.
– George Sheehan
I am a child psychologist by training, and am fascinated by human behavior. I am particularly interested in the legacy of early experience. How do the events and experiences that we have early in life manifest in our later patterns thoughts, feelings, and behavior? And, if we know that we have liabilities, or “baggage”, from these early experiences, how can we get ourselves back on track? At work, I have the great fortune of being able to analyze large data sets to answer such questions. But sometimes the answers also reveal themselves in less obvious places. Like at the gym.
Photo courtesy of Sandi Hicks. I started working out at CrossFit Prelude in September 2015, so about a year and a half ago. I initially joined because I was getting too comfortable in my running routine. (As an aside, I first tried to liven things up with a drawing class, which ended poorly due my objective lack of talent). In the first few months of going to Prelude, I noticed something strange about my behavior: At the end of class during mobility “circle time”, I found myself sitting right next to the coach. Always. One day it dawned on me that this behavior perfectly mirrored what Sroufe and colleagues (1983) found in their study of infant attachment and children’s behavior in preschool. They found that children who had an insecure attachment relationship with their primary caregiver in infancy later exhibited higher levels of dependency on their preschool teachers. How did they measure dependency on the teacher? One indicator was how often the child sat next to their teacher during the daily song and story “circle time” over the course of a summer-long preschool.
It would be a stretch to make any conclusions about my infant attachment security based on my proximity to CrossFit coaches during mobility “circle time”. Yet, over the past year and a half, as I’ve gained more confidence in my abilities with the help and encouragement of coaches and fellow Prelude athletes, I find myself sitting next to the coaches less and less during circle time. This self-observation led me to reconsider the variety of environments that may provide people with “corrective” experiences for whatever insecurities they may have. In my research, I focus on the transformational power of romantic relationships in adulthood. My experience at Prelude makes me recognize that there is “ordinary magic” in going to the gym, too.
It would be a stretch to make any conclusions about my infant attachment security based on my proximity to CrossFit coaches during mobility “circle time”. Yet, over the past year and a half, as I’ve gained more confidence in my abilities with the help and encouragement of coaches and fellow Prelude athletes, I find myself sitting next to the coaches less and less during circle time. This self-observation led me to reconsider the variety of environments that may provide people with “corrective” experiences for whatever insecurities they may have. In my research, I focus on the transformational power of romantic relationships in adulthood. My experience at Prelude makes me recognize that there is “ordinary magic” in going to the gym, too.
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