Facing Fears

Some people are scared of spiders and snakes, I'm terrified of Zumba. Yes, Zumba the dance workout. The entire idea is a billion miles out of my comfort zone.  I'm missing a key element for dancing....rhythm.  My rhythm is so bad I can't even spell rhythm. Spell check had to take 10 tries to figure out what I was trying to say. I also fear embarrassing myself in public.  So, Zumba is the perfect set up for a panic attack.

Fast forward to yesterday. We joined the ymca and I figured I would try out a fitness class. Standing in the back I ask what class I've joined, really should do that prior to joining next time, and hear I'm in EXhilarate.....Zumba with hip hop instead of Latin music.  I tell this poor stranger, "well that's terrifying, I think I better go".  I'm not sure why I don't make friends with that sort if awkward appeal oozing from my mouth. 

She is chipper and alll, "just stay it's fun...blah blah".  Apparently my need to people please outweighs my fear of dancing in public.....or I didn't want to look like a giant pansy running out of a Zumba class full of ladies, many of them my senior by a good margin.

So here I was, facing fears, starting 2015 accidentally kicking butt and taking names.

I can just thank my lucky stars no one tapes these classes.  There was more booty shaking in that hour than my entire life combined. And guess what......I had a blast. 

Once I realized no one in that room, except for the instructor, had any sort of rhythm or idea what they were doing, I decided to throw caution to the wind and get down with my bad self. It's like singing in church, no matter how bad you are you sing loud and proud because you're praising the lord......when you're in Zumba you go wild and booty shake like only ever done when you're drunk, because you're working out.

Before this episode I also thought of myself as a decently fit person.  I've been running and can bang out 3-4 miles no problem. I've never had to take so many water breaks in 1 hour in my life....and I ran a half marathon. The sweat was so bad it looked like I just got out if the shower. Some poor woman was being so kind and told me as I was walking out of the building, "I just love your hair, wash and go styles are the best".  I didn't have the heart to tell her it was a sweat and go style.

So 2015, first lesson learned. Get out of my comfort zone and it may be fun. The women were all so friendly and it was a ton of fun. There were definitely a lot of moments where I just jumped around trying to figure out what the hell I was doing, but I'm looking forward to next week and perfecting my booty shake.

PS Turns out I don't have any pictures of myself on my phone, so I leave you with this.....you're welcome.....