Dear You (who feels embarrassed and small),
I can't stop thinking about what you told me happened in that class yesterday. How the instructor loudly corrected you in front of everyone, how she made that comment about "keeping up," how you left feeling embarrassed and somehow wrong in your own body.
I'm actually mad about it. Not at you - AT HER!
Because here's what that instructor doesn't understand: her job isn't to make you into her image of what fitness should look like. Her job is to meet you where you are and help you feel stronger, more connected, more confident in your own skin.
When a fitness professional makes you feel small, inadequate, or like you're not enough - that's about their limitations, not yours.
I've been teaching for a long time, and I've learned the most important thing I can do is create a space where women feel safe to be beginners, safe to modify, safe to listen to their bodies, safe to go at their own pace.
Because movement should never make you feel shame. Ever.
I think about all the women who've come to me after experiences like yours - carrying this weight of "I'm not good at fitness" or "I'm too out of shape for this" or "everyone else knows what they're doing except me."
NONE OF THAT IS TRUE.
You know what's true? Every single person in that room was once a beginner. Every single person has felt awkward or uncertain or like they didn't belong. Every single person, including that instructor, has had to learn and grow and figure things out.
The difference is some people forget that vulnerability and start acting like experts instead of guides.
I want you to know that your body is worthy of respectful instruction. Your questions are valid. Your modifications are intelligent. Your pace is exactly right for you.
And if someone in a position of authority makes you feel otherwise, that says everything about their teaching ability and nothing about your capability.
You deserve to move in an environment where you're celebrated for showing up, not criticized for how you show up.
Don't let one person's inability to hold space for your journey convince you that movement isn't for you. It is. You just haven't found your people yet.
Keep looking. We out here!
