Yesterday on my way to get a new fitness certification I broke out of my comfort zone and hopped on Facebook Live to ask women to share their stories with me for this blog. It occurred to me that sometimes maybe we don’t share because we don’t feel that our story will have value or impact. Maybe we don’t think our stories are even “story worthy.” My point was to covey to everyone that EVERY STORY has the opportunity to be inspirational to someone in some way…but only if people are brave enough to share it. This became abundantly clear to me yesterday during my fitness training.
After posting my road trip Facebook Live video, which I felt awkward doing in the first place, I made my way to the location where our training was. I walked into the studio (JACS Figure on Fit) and was instantly greeted by warm welcoming faces. As part of our program introduction we all had to sit in a big circle and share who we were, where we were from, why we were at the training and what our goals for the day were. Let me first say that SHARING was a way to feel connected…as part of a community and I was in awe of the amazing people there. As I say and listened to all these people (mostly women) tell their stories I was moved by the emotion and passion. One lady was moved to tears in speaking about why she was there.
When it came to my turn I shared how I had been instructing on and off since 1997; how I was an attorney and my line of work had me dealing with some pretty ugly and stressful things; that I have been battling injuries and illnesses for a few years; how I was stuck in a rut in spite of my instructing a class or two a week and how I didn’t like the person I saw in the mirror anymore (that I wasn’t the happy go lucky all the time person I once was and I wasn’t in the shape that I used to be); and how I came to the training not only learn something new but in hopes that perhaps this new class could light the fire in my soul again and revive my energy. As I was telling my story I looked around and saw the faces of people who could relate – the head nods or the comforting smiles assured me and I knew the others in the room had to have felt the same. We were bonding and most of us didn’t even know one another.
We went through our class…busting our butts for 8 hours learning new skills and choreography and when the class was over we all had a sense of accomplishment. There wasn’t one goal that anyone had listed out at the beginning of the day that wasn’t met, including myself. The icing on the cake? Our master pro instructor shared with us her own personal story which had moved half the room to tears (myself included). I’ve asked her to write her story so I can share it with all of you.
So yes, while we all got our certificates of completion and had a sense of accomplishment, even bigger was the opportunity to connect with the amazing people I was in the room with. Hearing their stories, and feeling that connection, was incredible and some stories really resonated with me and I found these people inspiring. That was as good if not better than the task itself and this made me realize that sometimes we are each other’s happy pills. You may find me inspiring for one thing and at the same time I’m sure I’ll find you inspiring for something else.
At the end of the day we all want to belong, we all want to connect, we all want to make a difference and matter to someone. I want you ALL to know that your stories are pricessless and valuable and indeed will be inspirational to someone. I want you to share them. Go to the contact page and share with me so I can share with the world. I genuinely want to hear about you and the story can be posted anonymously.
Until next time friends…
~ Memoirs of a Strong Woman ~ 