The Great Hip Escape

Written by Lucy Dunnet, Tuesday 23rd July 2024

Life is stressful. We are living 24/7 on-call lifestyles, thanks to the availability of, and, as we were dramatically reminded last week with the CrowdStrike Microsoft IT outage, our reliance on technology. The need to find options for escape is greater than ever, to manage the pressures of life and maintain a semblance of mental and emotional stability. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is an increasingly popular form of escapism, with the mats offering so much more than just an intense physical workout: when the stress of life mounts you, hip escape.

Escapism can be described as when a person routinely uses an activity or behaviour to escape and distract from the reality of life. While escapism is more commonly given negative connotations, namely the implied inability to face the hard facts of the real world, there are many benefits to be had from frequent engagement. A 2012 paper on “Activity Engagement as Escape from Self” examined escapism through a two-dimensional model based on Regulatory Focus Theory, comparing those who engaged in activity with a promotion focus (where a person’s attention is on the positive outcomes of a desired end state) versus prevention focus (where their attention is on the inhibition of negative outcomes). Escapism can be beneficial to one’s well-being or a threat to it, depending on which motivational mindset is being reflected.