Congratulations to Meet You

Last year I was given the book, Eat, Pray, Love by one of my girl friends. I placed the book on my coffee table, and there it sat for well over a year. Recently, just by a lark, I decided to give it a read. I couldn’t put the book down. In it was a section where the author meets an old shaman who greets people by saying, “Congratulations to meet you.” My interpretation was to try something new, and make sure that give yourself a pat on the back for trying—even if you feel like you’re failing miserably.n nAround Christmas I began feeling like I was in a personal rut—especially my workout routine. I decided to go completely out of my comfort zone, and join a new gym, Equinox Fitness. I began taking level 1/2 yoga classes as I thought that would start me out right spiritually. That went well (although I fell more than a few times trying to do some poses along with twisting my body into shapes it did not want to go). Now, I can happily tell you that I am able to master the crow pose and do a head stand (for a whopping 2 seconds). I did meet and make friends with a couple great energy yoga instructor gurus, Stella Valente, Jill Miller, and Brock Cahill. They all have such beautiful light blue auras, which is lovely to experience and be around them.n nA few weeks ago I decided to screw up my courage yet again, and take a dreaded dance class. (I am a peak performance enhancement specialist—not a trained dancer, so I had more than a few self-doubts.) I chose a hip-hop dance class by my friend Patrick Goudeau. I walked into the very back of class trying to make myself as small as possible. The infectious hip-hop beat began pulsing. In the front Patrick was calling out the cues—effortlessly moving, swaying, and gyrating to the beat in ways my brain and body never will, while I was in the back of the class all left feet feeling like a complete failure. My brain was telling me to relax, have fun, and be positive, but my emotions were screaming at me to run and leave immediately, because I had 2 left feet, a bum knee, and no damn rhythm. n nMercifully, the class finally ended. Afterwards I went up to Patrick to thank him, and apologize for my horrible ineptitude. (I think I mumbled something about being the ultimate white girl with no rhythm.) As I began mumbling, Patrick apologized to me for the class being too difficult, that this was the end of a dance progression series so how could I know this routine, and a couple other things that I can’t remember because I was still too caught up in my feeling like a failure.n nI was stunned, because he was apologizing to me. n nDriving home from class it hit me that we can all be too hard on ourselves. We all need to keep congratulating ourselves for our accomplishments and failures, because it’s trying that counts. Like the expression goes, “You haven’t failed until you stop trying,” or as the old shaman said, “Congratulations to meet you.”n nThere's still time to shed your winter weight before summer and bathing suit season. Order my SOUPer Slim Diet ebook today. Click here.