232: Stepping Outside Of Your Comfort Zone

I recently went through a restorative yoga teacher training, which I loved. One of the things I enjoyed was the reminder to be soft and a true restorative yoga class you are working less than 30% in each pose and you should have lots of props. The other thing I really enjoyed was the homework we had which was to go to an event or do something outside of our comfort zone and see how we could use that experience in our yoga teacher training.

Now I'm from a farm and have lived in the city for almost just as long so there isn't much in terms of events to go to that is outside my comfort zone. Side note I use to help my dad castrate pigs, for petes sake. The reason you do that is so the pigs are not as aggressive as they literally will eat limbs off a farmer if they get aggressive one day especially in a pact mentality the other reason is you don't eat boar (which is an uncastrated male pig) but anywho.....

I decided to go to a CrossFit class. I notoriously wasn't a fan of it but truthfully never had been to a class. I just saw what people shared on social media and judged it without every experiencing it. So I went the first class was a free community class in which we kept things pretty basic and it was more of a HIIT workout and something I would normally do with my own workouts. So I was invited back to another class to test my labrum tear in my shoulder under a barbell. I was nervous and a bit intimidated. I really liked the experience of going to a new fitness class as it gives me insight as a trainer what I can do better when someone new shows up.

When you're new to a workout class you're nervous, you're unsure of what to do, you don't want to ask a silly question, you don't want to be finishing the workout way after everyone else, you also don't want to push so hard that you feel like crap the rest of the day. I did ask questions as I was the new person in class and the teacher stayed by me as we did barbell snatches to teach me and gave me the confidence to add weight to the bar after our practice rounds. She made me feel comfortable as did the rest of the class. One thing I've heard about CrossFit is the community and the community I wandered into was great. After class the instructor even took the time to come over and chat with me telling me I would love their 2nd location especially if I ever wanted to compete. Now I would have never thought that would be something on my radar but after doing class #1 I honestly won't rule that out.

Trying a workout class I previously thought I would hate turned out to be a huge awakening back to my inner athlete. I was a 3 sport athlete in high school & college and it really made me feel powerful and in my body in a different way than my usual workouts and yoga classes do.

I think we don't always give ourselves enough time to try new things, or do the thing we think we will hate. There might be a reason we have a strong reaction to something and never trying it.

Update

I'm not sure how many cross-fit classes I will be going to in the future as I was sore for 2 days to the point of don't touch me I'm in pain. I had ringing in my ears, woke up at 3am and my whole body was on alert. Meaning my nervous system was in fight or flight. My lesson in listening to my body more is not always better and just because I liked it during it clearly my body was telling me it didn't like it. #lessonlearned

Journal Prompt

What in your life needs a shake up? Where can you step outside your comfort zone & discover a new side of you?

Where to connect with Andrea

• Instagram- http://instagram.com/seasonallivingmamas
• Website- andreaclaassen.com
• Facebook- www.facebook.com/andreaclaassen21
• 28 Day Ayurvedic Toolkit- https://andreaclaassen.com/28daytoolkit