Cardio Therapy

I'm feeling quite accomplished right now. It's 11:44 pm, I'm sitting in bed with completely drenched hair, the result of an 11:30 pm shower. 
And do you want to know why that's something to be proud of? Because you don't shower at 11:30 pm unless you're absolutely, but absolutely...disgusting.  And it takes hard work to get absolutely disgusting. I just finished playing 2 hours of volleyball. And that was just the capper. 
The real disgustifying came at my 10:30 am Soul Cycle class. You all I'm confessing... I've got the fever, I'm a Soul Cyclist! Joined the cult and am proudly owning up to it. Tomorrow I'm going to get the tat, to make it official you know.
I'm just kidding. Mom, I'm just kidding. My mom commented on my blog for the first time ever yesterday so now that I know she's reading, I have to be careful what I write....  Would hate to get a 1 am phone call--
"Gabey, don't you dare get another tattoo. I know you're an adult and can make your own decisions, but I will be very sad... And your kids, YOUR KIDS, you've got to be a good example."
But I digress. My point simply being I'm digging this whole Soul Cycle bidness. If you've being reading my blog for awhile, you've heard me talk about Miraval. It's the resort where being active meets therapy and teams up with luxury. It's my kind of vacation. You solve your own world problems while doing crazy activities, like climbing a 35 foot telephone pole and then jumping off. 
I'm finding that Soul Cycle offers me the same nugget of introspection and motivation in 45 minute stints. The girl whose class I took today pushed and pushed, as instructors are paid to do. "I WANT YOU TO FIND THE BEAT AND PEDAL TO IT. BAH, BAH, BAH, BAH. 1, 2, 1, 2. YOU DIDN'T COME HERE TO BE AS COMFORTABLE AS YOU WERE SITTING ON YOUR COUCH AT HOME. NO! YOU'VE ALREADY DONE TH HARD PART, YOU GOT YOURSELF HERE. NOW MAKE IT COUNT."
The beat of the music kept rising, intensifying the need to pedal pedal, increasing the burn that makes you want to say I QUIT and throw your hamstrings away. Just when I thought I couldn't go anymore, that one single pedal stroke was impossible, that the burn wasn't worth the reward, the instructor set into sharing her own personal story, of the hard path she'd been on of becoming a professional dancer girl. Not the stripper pole type, we're talking legit here. And after facing try out after try out, year after year- 7 years to be exact- she found Soul Cycle. She got certified and everyday she gets to show up and teach a class in an effort to touch one person, inspiring just one person to do good, to be better. And in doing that she's found the thing that she didn't know she was looking for all along.... she found purpose.
At this point, my legs were begging to fall off. But all of a sudden, instead of wanting to quit, it felt good- to be working toward something, to be doing something that is so physically hard, yet choosing not to give up. I'm just it was no coincidence that just like that, the work I was doing right then and there became the analogy for the burning question that she was really asking.... What is my purpose?
A question so simple and in the same breath so complex. A question so powerful and heavy and intimate that the emotion of it practically brought me to tears. I was pedaling with more energy than I thought I had more resistance than I had ever attempted. Amazingly, I wanted to do nothing less than give 100% percent. That might not mean a lot to you, but I'm a quitter and have no problem quitting almost anything. And I sure as heck have no problem wussing out on a spin class when the going gets tough, especially considering I was in a dark studio where I had no one watching, no one to impress, and no one to disappoint.
But quitting wasn't as option anymore. As soon as the expected words left her mouth, "What is your purpose?", I began to feel my purpose. I know some of my day-to-day purposes, but I don't always feel them. They get lost in the ordinary, in the mundane. But in those tender moments I was feeling them- their importance, their direction, their impact- and I was physically, metaphorically going after them, and it was emotional. Nearly-tears-emotional. And I absolutely loved it.
I was inspired in those minutes to go do my ordinary- live my day-to-day life of being a mom and taking care of four of the most precious human beings out there, but I was going to do it more deliberately, with more purpose.
And that right there... is why I'm jumping on the band wagon. 45 minutes of sweat and tears left me wanting to give MY life 100%. I've got Soul, baby!

I can guarantee that you'll leave the class totally DRIPPING.
They know how to make a client feel good!