So my hubby says “hey baby come to the gym with me”. I give him this look of pure fear as the gym is so intimidating to me. Now, I’ve used a personal trainer before however it didn’t work out as I expected and I’ve also had a gym membership which wasn’t so friendly. I finally give him an answer and out of all of the “No’s”, I surprisingly said “sure, I guess I’ll go.” He was so thrilled! Yea I know, it wasn’t a yes but please understand that the months of absolute No’s to a possibility was a huge step for me.

Fast forward to the arrival… so we arrived at the gym and here we are in this building full of equipment, mirrors, and a ton people. “Oh my world, what do I do 1st” I thought as I went into this place of mental fear. True I wasn’t alone but I was mentally distracting myself from reality, I’m sure I’m not the only one that has felt this way. You can silently admit it, it’s ok.

As we walked to the back of the gym, my honey says “get in the sauna for 10 minutes”. WHAT!?! Oh no here we go again… I have to go in that hot place with only 1 exit! He said “yep now go on and meet me back here in 10 minutes” (which was outside of the women’s locker room), “Fine” I said. I walked in and through the locker room until I arrived at this dark room. I opened the door thinking that a light was going to come on and of course it didn’t but I figured out where the switch was shortly after.

In the beginning I thought I was suffocating but eventually relaxed and realized that it wasn’t that bad. When my time was up I met him outside of the locker room so that we could begin the workout. We started by stretching and moved on from there. In all honesty it wasn’t as bad as I made up in my mind that it would be. I do know that my experience was better because I had a wonderful workout partner that showed me what to do and how to do it. I’m sure that I wouldn’t have been able to do it without my positive motivator cheering me on.

From this experience I’ve gained a new perspective of the gym. Can I say that I’m ready to tackle it on my own, heck no but I don’t think I will be as fearful. A major factor in most fear is the story that we make up in our head from a previous experience of our own or someone else. So much can be accomplished if we would stop thinking of the negative things that has happened and focus on the present. Now, the question is would I go back? It’s a possibility but I haven’t made a final decision just yet. Ask me in a week to see if I returned.

Mona’s Marmalade