Do you ever feel misunderstood? Ever give up on activities because they don’t quite the meet your expectations? Does the cynic in your head continually put you off? Maybe it’s time to learn how to speak up for yourself.
Our inner monologue can often be misguiding when it speaks negatively. Showing you binary options, yes or no, right or wrong. Life is rarely black or white and learning how to monitor our negative self talk can help us achieve more balance in life.
This January I have joined a gym for the first time ever. I have already decided I don’t like running or cycling as they hurt my knees. I have started to try out the various classes on offer, and wanted to tell you a little of my experience,
So I bravely don my bikini and enter the pool for aqua class. I have no idea what to expect. The bright young girl instructions the class demonstrates the movements from the side of the pool, whilst holding dumbbells. I try to copy and can hardly move, Each time I put the float into the water my feet lift off the bottom. I laugh and try again, no improvement. She wants us to lunge from side to side. Again my feet float . I laugh nervously now, turning round to see the other 23 people in the class moving quite fluidly. Just to put this into context, I’m in my mid 40s and am one of the youngest in the class, many in 60s and 70s. I’m feeling disheartened. The class finishes and I go to leave, asking my neighbour about why I floated up. I’m assuming my high body fat level is just creating me into a float, She tells me I have to use force to push down.
I recount this tale to my friends and family with great hilarity but also embarrassment as I have no strength,
I booked to go to the class again today but with a question for the instructor. I realised that the problem was that the pool was too deep for me, At 1.54 m in a pool of 1.3, only my head was above wate. I asked the instructor if she had something I could stand on to lift my shoulders out of the ware. Sure she said handing me a step from step classes. Of course. It took only a quick moment to speak up, and n9w I can do the movements with…. well not with ease but with much more success than last time.
Inculd have given ul, my brain told me I was rubbish and that I couldn’t do it. But I spoke up, asked for help and then succeeded.
Speaking up doesn’t need to be difficult, doesn’t need to be aggressive, but being heard makes a reall difference
good luck in whatever you are doing to look after yourself,
x Morag