Zumba and Lessons for Life

I went to a Zumba class the other day, my fourth since they started at my gym so you could say my attendance has been a little sporadic at best .

However I was determined not to miss another one so at 11.30 on Monday morning myself and about 20 other women stood eagerly awaiting the aerobic studio filling with the sounds of reggaton and salsa music .

As we got going and I desperately tried to get the gist of the routines and steps that had been added since my last attendance I came to the realisation that actually when it comes down to it I am a terrible dancer ! I seemed to be going left when others were going right and backwards when my classmates seemed to be moving forwards in perfect formation.

The second thing I noticed swiftly after realising just how bad I am at the Zumba dance moves is how little it mattered . The other thing that struck me was that despite my ungainly display of movement no-one else in the class seemed to notice. Nobody stopped and stared and nobody laughed . This really made me think . I thought about life and the pressure we often put on ourselves to be perfect , to follow the right steps , to have to be good at everything we do and it hit me that actually I didn’t have to be good at stuff to do it or to enjoy it ! I was having a great time doing something I was totally hopeless at .

This was the first time I had really thought about this before . I thought about the clients I’ve coached who say to me ” I can’t do that because I’m no good at it ” I won’t try that because I’ll get it wrong” and I thought about how often fear of not being “good enough” stops us from taking part . As we neared the end f the class I felt great, exhilarated, energetic and uplifted and as I watched my classmates I noticed they, like me had red ,shiny but predominantly smiling faces.

I am going to attend the next class and make a real effort to go often and if I never become a great at the Zumba moves thats ok, I give myself permission to move to my own beat and just enjoy the music !

If you want to find your flow and dance to your music in life conatct elaine@elainegleeson.com