The Best Thing in 2019!

courage fear busting gratitude soul wisdom

I did something amazing in 2019.

I didn’t expect it.

I didn’t plan it.

But I wanted it.

It all started because I was forced to do something different. I discovered after a doctor’s appointment that I had moderate to severe osteoarthritis – in my back and hips.

Honestly, I was mad.

And, in the back of my brain, I remembered when a fellow Life Coach, several years older than me that she did dance class every day, because if she didn’t, she couldn’t move because of a past car accident. I remember almost wishing for an excuse like that.

I must have wished louder than I thought.

So last summer I started Zumba class. I wrote about that HERE. It was a baby step towards living in my body once again and not just expecting it to always be there for me.

I also made another wish. I wanted to be in a group of women, that felt like a sports team (like one’s I’d been on in high school) and I wanted to sweat and move to music (like I did when I went out dancing, every weekend during my 20’s). I didn’t know how this could happen, but that was my wish.

So in September, after a summer of doing fun Zumba classes, I started going to the morning exercise class at a women’s fitness club close by.

And it was hard.

I couldn’t do push-ups on my toes.

I couldn’t lift the weights that others lifted.

I didn’t know the choreography for the classes.

I didn’t know anybody in class – and they obviously had been going for EVER.

I was a beginner.

The only thing I knew was that when I worked out with a group of women and there was great music – I loved it….even though I wasn’t very good.

Things have changed.

I’ve gone to class 4 times a week since September.

I am shocked at how strong and how much more flexible I’m getting. I don’t think I really believed that I’d get any stronger or any more flexible.

I know the women in the group now.

In fact, I’m not the newbie anymore.

The other day I had to laugh because one of the women told me that she always followed what I was doing because my form was so good, and I must work out a lot. If she only knew how hard it’d been for me to start going. I laughed and thanked her for her words still feeling incredulous that I was a model for anyone!

I didn’t start working out to look better or to lose weight.

I started working out to feel better and to get  stronger and to break the isolation of working on-line without having a workplace to go to.

I’ve learned a few things that I think are applicable to anything new that you do. I’m taking these lessons with me and sharing them with you because I know that the biggest problem for most people is GETTING STARTED. It’s the resistance you feel about starting something that pushes you out of your comfort zone, that keeps you stuck in a life that you’ve outgrown or don’t want. 

The best thing I did this year was go to exercise class – consistently, 4 times a week.

It lifted my spirits, made my body stronger, and helped me to start believing in myself again.

Here’s what I think it takes to break your resistance and start doing what you really, really want to do:

1. Have a really good reason “why”. I didn’t want to be immobile in my next decade – important because I’m not getting any younger.

2. Put your disbelief aside. Identify your true desires even if you don’t believe it’s possible. I’m not great at listening to what I want – because I’m always trying to figure out the plan to make it happen – and when I can’t, I drop the desire. Don’t do that. Listen to your true desire and put your disbelief aside.

To do that, what I find is most effective, is to identify what you want to feel, not what you have to do to get it. My desire was be part of group of women, like a team, where we exercise to good rhythmic music and sweat (yes that’s true). I wanted to feel a sense of belonging and fun. I didn’t know how that would play out and I didn’t even believe I could get it.

3. Take baby steps in the direction of your desires. I started with Zumba which was non-threatening. Then I built up to exercise classes that involved weights and high intensity interval training, but I only did what I could. I just needed to show up – do what I could and then leave. That’s it!

4. Be consistent. Keep doing it, even if you don’t know how, make mistakes, or feel lost and inadequate. Keep doing it, even when you aren’t very good. Keep learning and doing.

5. Ignore your thinking mind. What I mean by this is that my mind likes to compare me with other people. My mind likes to tell me “You aren’t very good.” “You should be better.” I ignored my mind – much easier to do when you’re listening to music and sweating than when you’re at a computer. I kept making sure that I was doing the exercises right, and I wasn’t so concerned about being the best or lifting heavier weights or jumping for longer or higher than anyone else. I focused on ME and on no one else.

6. Notice when things start to change. Recently, I realized I wasn’t a beginner anymore. My body seems to have made a huge leap. I seem to have re-discovered my inner athlete that was hiding for many years! Consistency works! No one is more shocked than I am.

7. Give yourself some praise and get grateful for all that you can do, when you finally dare to decide to start.

This story is about my journey back to feeling good about what my body can do, but I think these steps are good for anything.

As we move towards a new year and a new decade, maybe it’s time for you too to start something you’ve wanted but been afraid that you can’t do.

I think you can!

 

Sending you SO much love for 2020.

 

Big love,


 

 

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