Embrace Your Strength

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One of my favorite things to hear in a barre class is when the instructor says "Embrace the shake!"  For those of you that don't take barre, let me explain.  Barre work is repetition, repetition, repetition.  You are focusing on one main area time (thigh series, seat series, abdominal series, etc) and your muscles start to get fatigued and they begin to shake.  As uncomfortable as this feeling is, we always want to embrace it because it means that our muscles are changing and ultimately, that's why you take class.  I have started using this phrase in my classes and I love that some of my students really do take the challenge.

Last night, I was chatting with a group of women and we complemented one lady on her back. It was so strong and her movement in class during back exercises were so pretty.  She naturally did what EVERY woman does, "Oh thanks, I wish my abs were the same." Instead of basking in the compliment, she immediately had to deflect to what she saw as a flaw in herself.  One of the instructors then said "you're supposed to embrace your strengths" and I swear to the good Lord above that a light bulb went off in my head!  I thought that was a perfect mantra for women these days.

You see it happen all the time.  A woman gets a compliment on her outfit, figure, hair, cooking, etc and instead of just saying "thanks" and moving on, she automatically points out a flaw. "Oh but my tummy isn't flat" or "but I burned dessert" or any other number of things.  It starts to become a negative cycle and pretty soon the whole group is spouting out all of their weaknesses.

I am super guilty of this but you know what?  NO MORE!  I am vowing today that from now on, I will try to "embrace my strengths".  It is so easy to get down on ourselves for 1 small thing and turn it into a bajillion things.  Yes, I have 2 zits right now, and yes, my jeans are a little tighter but guess what?  My hair looks DAMN good today.

I challenge you to stop pointing out your "flaws" and start embracing your strengths.  Just like in barre class, when we start embracing, that's where we see change.

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