Of kindness and sweat

(Kind of a random title for a post but trust me — the two go hand-in-hand I swear.)

So by now you’ve all heard me talk about the #b9poseadaychallenge going on at the studio the past two weeks, right? And you’ve no doubt seen me posting my fare share of poses on instagram in support of the challenge. I’ve had WAY too much fun both sharing some fun #instaposes and seeing what our clients can come up with for creative poses and such.

However. What really did it for me? The ‘twist’ that Tanya put on the challenge for the final four days (it ended yesterday). In the spirit of the #26randomactsofkindess movement going on in support of the school shootings at Sandy Hook a few weeks back, Tanya asked clients to start sharing their #b9actsokindess on instagram in lieu of ‘just’ sharing poses. And if I was blown away by how many were participating in the pose portion of the challenge, the overwhelming participation in the acts of kindess movement has been unreal.

Just take a look at that quick little snapshot I took of the #b9poseadaychallenge hashtag on instagram:

There are 560 pictures in there!! And if you looked at how many are just for the random acts alone? It’s kind of amazing. Our clients are a special breed, I do believe — the kindess they’ve shared with both complete strangers and fellow clients has been so, so cool to see. Talk about paying it forward — everything from buying a stranger behind them a cup of coffee in line at Starbucks, to dropping off clothes at a homeless shelter or dropping home-baked treats at the door of every single neighbor in her apartment building (YES, every single one!).

Kindess, particularly the ‘random’ kind — beautiful. And far too rare in this day and age. This is as much a note to self to me as it is to all of you — let’s be more random with our moments of kindess going forward, shall we?

*****

Now for the SWEAT part of this post — which still relates to the ‘paying it forward’ aspect of the #b9randomactsofkindess story I just shared above. You see, on Saturday, I had the chance to teach my first-ever barre n9ne intensive class — essentially a 75 minute class where I was given the chance to create an even more challenging version of our classes, with fewer breaks, more compound moves and a LOT of sweat.

I won’t lie — I was a wee bit nervous that all the build-up to the intensive from clients who were SO anxious for the big day to arrive would work against me. I wanted it to be PERFECT in every way. I wanted our clients to get the best damn workout of their lives. And I wanted to be the one responsible for it.

…and wouldn’t you know, it turned out far better than I expected. And not because I think I’m some crazy-awesome instructor or something. But truly because each client in that room poured their heart and soul into that workout. Just as I poured all that I had into teaching a killer class, they showed me their gratitude through their hard work.

And when all was said and done, and I had sweat dripping from the tips of my hair all the way down my shoulders and onto my forearms and back — I looked around that room and was overwhelmed with my own sense of gratitude. That yet again, I had been given a chance to pay it forward — the ‘it’ being all that barre n9ne has meant to me this past year-and-a-half since my own personal barre journey began.

Just awesome. It just keeps getting better. ❤

(and if you didn’t believe me on the sweat factor — here’s picture proof!)