This morning I woke up 15 minutes before my alarm sounded off. It was 5:15, completely dark, and I had sinus pressure so severe I was nauseous. Of course, the first thing that came to my mind was, “Go back to bed!” The last thing in the world I wanted to do was get up, drive 20 minutes, and sweat for 90 minutes.
But I did. And about 30 minutes into Bikram Yoga, Terry, the instructor tells a new girl not to quit. In a very calming voice, Terry says, “Just stay in the room, lay back and relax. For today, just make it a point to stay in the room.”
So the new girl is on a matt right next to me. Now it’s 105 in the room and she’s watching these people in the front row doing things with their body that are mind-blowing. You’d never believe the human spine can bend six different way unless you've actually seen it. Anyway, I see fear in her eyes, the last thing she wants to do is “stay in the room.”
Then Terry says, “If you quit now, you’ll never know what you might have been able to accomplish.”
So the young girl stays. The last 30 minutes of class are floor exercises and every minute she stayed in the room brought her another minute of confidence. In fact, by the end she looked like a veteran.
Later, I saw her by the front desk. She was bubbling with energy, a Cheshire cat smile on her face. She was ready to take on the world.
I thought about that young girl all day. How easy it would have been for her to quit. I wondered how different her day would have been if she broke through those doors, sat on the bench, and watched us all finish the class as her body temperature cooled and fear subsided.
That young girl’s courage is a wonderful metaphor for each and every one of us. Stay in the room. You’ll be glad you did.
BTW, my sinus pressure went away half-way into the class.
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