dance

Long before I was a yogini, I was a dancer — a really bad dancer. My mom enrolled me in ballet as soon as I could walk. I remember the pink tights and black leotards and the DREADED recitals. One Christmas, at age 4, crippled by stage fright, I flat-out refused to wear my Sugar Plum Fairy costume and instead watched my sister dance her way through both of our parts. She was a star, and I watched from my seat feeling queasy relief.

I had a client who was struggling with his weight but, unfortunately, felt about as excited about exercising as he did about doing laundry. We looked into his athletic past, and found that he had been discouraged with his physical abilities, which turned into almost like a fear of moving his body. We both knew that he would have to exercise to achieve his weight goals. Together we implemented a short walking program. He started with walks around his block, listening to his favorite music. I encouraged him to think about what that one thing was, which he felt strongly about when he was a child, before the fears started building. After all, all children like to play.