Running as stimming: Finding flow, freedom, and self-regulation through movement
Run clubs offer a powerful sense of connection. Nathalie Limon explains how shared movement helps process emotion and makes it easier to show up when it matters most.
For many of us, the most transformative part of running has nothing to do with performance metrics - it’s the people we run with and what’s going on in our lives at that moment.
Nathalie Limon, a neuroscience-informed movement and breathwork teacher and co-director of East London studio Waking Dreams, shares her own personal experience on how the Queer Running Club creates a space where she doesn’t need to perform or be “on” to feel supported.
Recently, after experiencing a close and very sudden bereavement, I found myself leaning into run clubs in a way I never really had to before.
What stood out wasn’t the training advice or the routes or the structure. It was the way people showed up.
Friends, acquaintances, even people I’d only met once messaged to say: If you want someone to run with, I’m here. If you want someone to walk with, I’m here. If you want to talk or say nothing at all, I’ll hold the space.
That is co‑regulation in its purest form. Not “fixing”. Not “cheering up”. Just someone saying: I can hold steady while you fall apart. I’ll stay anchored while you move through whatever you’re carrying.
And that’s what run clubs quietly offer –- a kind of everyday emotional architecture that most of us don’t notice until we really need it.
Belonging gets talked about as a “nice-to-have”, but in moments like these, you realise it’s an underrated performance tool. Being around people who breathe beside you, who match your pace, who mirror your effort - it creates a physiological synchrony. Breath lines up. Footsteps fall into rhythm. Your nervous system gets to settle because someone else’s nervous system is settling next to you.
You don’t have to be funny or impressive or “on”. You don’t have to perform socially. You don’t even have to speak. Just by showing up, you’re part of something.
In a world where so many of us feel increasingly isolated, run clubs offer a rare middle ground between solitude and socialising.
You can arrive quiet, tired or low, and still leave buoyed by endorphins and connection. That emotional uplift is contagious; mirror neurons do their thing whether you intend them to or not.
For people dealing with grief, stress, anxiety or burnout, and there are many of us, that shared movement becomes a way to process emotion through the body instead of getting trapped in the mind.
And you don’t need to be a “runner” to step into this. Most run clubs have beginner sessions. Most are free or donation-based. And most will tell you in about five minutes that pace doesn’t matter – presence does.
Belonging isn’t soft.
Belonging is performance-enhancing.
And sometimes, belonging is simply someone running beside you and saying without words:
You’re not carrying this alone.
How to find a club that matches your energy
- Search Instagram – use hashtags like #runclub + your area
- Check local pages – look at local gyms and studios as most will partner with a crew
- Use apps – explore groups and events on Strava
- Try a few out – test a few to find the right fit
- Don’t settle straight away – give yourself time to find your people
