I have a lot of experience having to overcome fears in my life. Mostly because I get anxiety over things most people probably don't have issues with. Sometimes I get so nervous I actually shake.
So often I find myself having to push myself through those fears and through the anxiety. I honestly can't help it, but I try not to let it stop me from doing things that I want. Which is why I served a mission, not because I necessarily wanted to, but because I knew that is what the Lord wanted of me and therefore it became a desire of mine, because I desired to serve him with my heart.
Fast forward to the beginning of last semester. I was completing an independent study with one of my professors. One of the requirements for this course was to become certified in a group exercise class. For the past 6 months-ish I had been participating in a Zumba class. It is soo much fun! I love to dance and shake my hips and it is fitness! YES!! So of course my heart was set on this.
I told my professors what I wanted to do and I swear they looked at me strangely and then offered their thoughts of thinking that I would be better suited for yoga. Yes I do have a quiet and calming voice, I am a low key person, not very dramatic, sure I didn't speak up a lot in class. I get their thought process. :) But they don't know the part of me that if I think you care to listen to me I WON'T SHUT UP! Seriously it is a problem. I have had many a friend that has said when we first met you were so quiet now I can't get you to be quiet. Sorry, my room mates really get the brunt of this. Though I have to say my room mates have always loved me and are all life long friends so they must really love this about me. :)
Really there are many layers to me and my professors did not see the underlying layers. But this introduced doubt into my head about myself. Fear that maybe I was wanting to do something that was better left for someone else. I mean dancing in front of people. Seriously?? I don't like being watched it makes me nervous. But I wanted to do this.
My good friend Phillip encouraged me that if I really wanted to do it, then I should do it. He gave me the courage to go forward with it, even though I was doubting myself. To push through those fears.
I went through the semester with a few more mentions from my professors of maybe trying out yoga, but I pushed through and went and got certified. But I still needed to build up my song base to a full class. I did a little teaching for a few songs before the semester ended.
Then my internship came and I would have the opportunity to continue building up my song base. My first class I was so nervous for. I don't know why, I had taught the songs before but it seemed different somehow. My turn came to teach my song and I made it through the first one feeling a little queasy, then during the 2nd one, lets just say my stomach was not happy and if I had anything in it I would have given it up on the floor. I think the class just thought I suddenly caught a cough, but really my stomach was heaving and I was doing everything I could to hold it down and keep dancing. So yeah great first start to my Zumba career and hello to the fears and doubts. But I would not let myself give in. This time the encouraging words came from my parents letting me know of the confidence they had in me and that I could do it.
Every week I added more songs and never did I get to the point where my stomach was heaving. Of course some of the staff questioned why I chose to be a Zumba instructor, and then they took my class. And I quote, "My hips don't move like her hips, she has seductive hips, I get why you chose to be a Zumba instructor now." Ha ha, that's right I wanted it because I have seductive hips! ;)
What I love about Zumba is I can wake up in the morning and begin just going through the motions to make it through the day, then after I do some Zumba songs, my energy is up and I am lively and I forgot that I was just trying to make it through the next few hours. I love when a person who has never taken a Zumba class comes into my class and hollers with me and laughs as she watches my hips shake and gets right in there with me shakin her hips. I love seeing the smiles on people's faces as they are working out because they are having fun doing the salsa, or cumbia, or merengue, maybe even a little reggaeton or belly dancing.
Yes I am calm and laid back, I am not very dramatic, and I am simple. But I am also complex, I can overcome my fears or others misconceptions, I can shake my booty and hoop and holler. I am a Zumba instructor, I wanted it and I love it.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
The Resurrection
A few weeks ago I prepared a talk in which I shared my testimony of the reality of the Resurrection and that Christ lives. I wanted to share some of my talk on my blog.
In writing my talk it brought me to reflecting on my personal witness of the Savior and my relationship with him. I hope that the same occurs for those who read this.
Have you ever been taught something and left wondering how can that possibly come to pass. Something that from your own experience or thought process did not seem possible to occur?
President Faust said, "The resurrection of Jesus is one of the greatest messages of all Christianity. It is a divine gift of the Atonement for all mankind. The idea that one who had died can live again was so unprecedented, so foreign to all human experience, that even the Apostles, who had been told it would happen, could hardly believe it."
Women had told the Apostles they had seen the resurrected Lord and yet they did not believe. Peter and John listened to the testimonies of the women and ran to the tomb to see for themselves and found it empty and Peter wondered to himself what was to come to pass.
I have a picture in my living room where you see Mary at the tomb with pain etched in her face. Her hands are grasping at her chest near her heart and there are tears dripping out of her eyes. Behind her you see the Savior, not his face, only his chest down. You see the markings on his hands, about to ask the question, "Why weepest thou?" I imagine Mary is in pain for what she has lost, her dearest friend lost to her, all she had hoped for lost. Grabbing at her chest because it is hard to breathe and because that is where her pain comes from. But just behind her there is one who understands, who bears the marks of her pain. Who has all the compassion in the world for her and who is her source of hope. He asks why weepest thou and in her grief she pleads for what has been lost and then he calls her name and his familiar voice prods her out of her grief and her hope stands before her. I love his picture because it shows her grief, her pain, but her hope and strength are right there with her.
I believe in the miracle of the resurrection and because of that miracle we have hope, hope for miracles in our lives even when the miracle may be hard to believe and we don't see how it is possible.
We can pray for, seek after, have faith in, and hope for those miracles in our lives because of the miracle of the resurrection!
There are others who have witnessed the living Savior. On the American continent he came to the people and spoke with them and taught them and healed them.
He came saying: "Behold I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world. And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that butter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning."
They thrust their hands into his side and felt the prints of the nails in his hands and feet one by one. He taught them and then when it was time to leave they wished to stay in his presence and he had compassion of them.
He asked, "Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Any that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy."
Are there any that are struggling around you? Are there any who are here but have been wounded? The Savior has asked us to bring them to Him so that he may heal them. My heart breaks when I hear of a brother or sister who has had to struggle alone. We are not to judge only to bring others to Christ so that he may heal them and in the process we ourselves come unto Christ and are healed.
Later Christ prays for the people and weeps with them. Can we not also learn from his example and pray for one another in our struggles. Instead of talking about the latest rumor can we not pray for their hearts and add our faith to the good use of the Lord's power for all.
I testify that the Lord can heal, that he can lift our burdens. I am a witness that he lives, that he has risen.
Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon declared, "And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing that he is the Only Begotten of the Father- That by him, and through him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God."
Jesus Christ did the most difficult thing that anyone has ever been asked to do. He suffered so much that he asked for the cup to be removed from him but he went forward with it and suffered for our sins, for our broken hearts, for our wounds, for our sufferings so that we might be saved. So that we might return to live with our Heavenly Father.
One of the beauties of the Atonement is that though he suffered and went through darkness the morning of the Resurrection came and he overcame and he completed his greatest act of love. The dark moments ended with a miracle.
In our lives we are required to pass through mini gardens of gethsemane's. We pass through dark moments and heart ache and say not my will but thine be done. We will go through moments where we feel all alone. But when it is finished we will have our miracles.
I have a testimony of this. In my life I have felt those moments of being all alone, praying to the Father seeking for his comfort and guidance. In those moments I have learned of the love of God when I have needed him most. My miracles have come. The beauty of these experiences is that they have brought me closer to Christ and I have been taught how to love as Christ loves. I have learned that I am never alone.
President James E Faust said, "At times I have stumbled and been less than I should have been. All of us experience those wrenching, defining, difficult decisions that move us to a higher level of spirituality. They are the Gethsemanes of our lives that bring with them great pain and anguish. Sometimes they are too sacred to be shared publicly. They are the watershed experiences that help purge us of our unrighteous desires for the things of the world. As the scales of worldliness are taken from our eyes, we see more clearly who we are and what our responsibilities are concerning our divine destiny."
I testify that we can rise from our garden's of gethsemane because He is risen! We can rise when we have spiritually fallen because He is risen! We can trust that he can heal us because He is risen!
I know that He lives because he has healed me, because I have witnessed his hand in the lives of my friends and family, because the Prophets have testified of this truth. I know my Savior lives.
In writing my talk it brought me to reflecting on my personal witness of the Savior and my relationship with him. I hope that the same occurs for those who read this.
Have you ever been taught something and left wondering how can that possibly come to pass. Something that from your own experience or thought process did not seem possible to occur?
President Faust said, "The resurrection of Jesus is one of the greatest messages of all Christianity. It is a divine gift of the Atonement for all mankind. The idea that one who had died can live again was so unprecedented, so foreign to all human experience, that even the Apostles, who had been told it would happen, could hardly believe it."
Women had told the Apostles they had seen the resurrected Lord and yet they did not believe. Peter and John listened to the testimonies of the women and ran to the tomb to see for themselves and found it empty and Peter wondered to himself what was to come to pass.
I have a picture in my living room where you see Mary at the tomb with pain etched in her face. Her hands are grasping at her chest near her heart and there are tears dripping out of her eyes. Behind her you see the Savior, not his face, only his chest down. You see the markings on his hands, about to ask the question, "Why weepest thou?" I imagine Mary is in pain for what she has lost, her dearest friend lost to her, all she had hoped for lost. Grabbing at her chest because it is hard to breathe and because that is where her pain comes from. But just behind her there is one who understands, who bears the marks of her pain. Who has all the compassion in the world for her and who is her source of hope. He asks why weepest thou and in her grief she pleads for what has been lost and then he calls her name and his familiar voice prods her out of her grief and her hope stands before her. I love his picture because it shows her grief, her pain, but her hope and strength are right there with her.I believe in the miracle of the resurrection and because of that miracle we have hope, hope for miracles in our lives even when the miracle may be hard to believe and we don't see how it is possible.
We can pray for, seek after, have faith in, and hope for those miracles in our lives because of the miracle of the resurrection!
There are others who have witnessed the living Savior. On the American continent he came to the people and spoke with them and taught them and healed them.
He came saying: "Behold I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world. And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that butter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning."
They thrust their hands into his side and felt the prints of the nails in his hands and feet one by one. He taught them and then when it was time to leave they wished to stay in his presence and he had compassion of them.
He asked, "Have ye any that are sick among you? Bring them hither. Any that are afflicted in any manner? Bring them hither and I will heal them, for I have compassion upon you; my bowels are filled with mercy."
Are there any that are struggling around you? Are there any who are here but have been wounded? The Savior has asked us to bring them to Him so that he may heal them. My heart breaks when I hear of a brother or sister who has had to struggle alone. We are not to judge only to bring others to Christ so that he may heal them and in the process we ourselves come unto Christ and are healed.
Later Christ prays for the people and weeps with them. Can we not also learn from his example and pray for one another in our struggles. Instead of talking about the latest rumor can we not pray for their hearts and add our faith to the good use of the Lord's power for all.
I testify that the Lord can heal, that he can lift our burdens. I am a witness that he lives, that he has risen.
Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon declared, "And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing that he is the Only Begotten of the Father- That by him, and through him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God."
Jesus Christ did the most difficult thing that anyone has ever been asked to do. He suffered so much that he asked for the cup to be removed from him but he went forward with it and suffered for our sins, for our broken hearts, for our wounds, for our sufferings so that we might be saved. So that we might return to live with our Heavenly Father.
One of the beauties of the Atonement is that though he suffered and went through darkness the morning of the Resurrection came and he overcame and he completed his greatest act of love. The dark moments ended with a miracle.
In our lives we are required to pass through mini gardens of gethsemane's. We pass through dark moments and heart ache and say not my will but thine be done. We will go through moments where we feel all alone. But when it is finished we will have our miracles.
I have a testimony of this. In my life I have felt those moments of being all alone, praying to the Father seeking for his comfort and guidance. In those moments I have learned of the love of God when I have needed him most. My miracles have come. The beauty of these experiences is that they have brought me closer to Christ and I have been taught how to love as Christ loves. I have learned that I am never alone.
President James E Faust said, "At times I have stumbled and been less than I should have been. All of us experience those wrenching, defining, difficult decisions that move us to a higher level of spirituality. They are the Gethsemanes of our lives that bring with them great pain and anguish. Sometimes they are too sacred to be shared publicly. They are the watershed experiences that help purge us of our unrighteous desires for the things of the world. As the scales of worldliness are taken from our eyes, we see more clearly who we are and what our responsibilities are concerning our divine destiny."
I testify that we can rise from our garden's of gethsemane because He is risen! We can rise when we have spiritually fallen because He is risen! We can trust that he can heal us because He is risen!
I know that He lives because he has healed me, because I have witnessed his hand in the lives of my friends and family, because the Prophets have testified of this truth. I know my Savior lives.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Hello Betty Crocker*
So I love to cook. I even have a friend who calls me Betty Crocker, hence the title. Really she is just humoring me, but I'll take it. I would probably even dedicate a blog to cooking if I had the time, but I happen to have other passions in life as well. I would also love to have a whole blog dedicated to fitness and health but then when would I sleep.
I am excited because in just 1 week my life will get a little less hectic and by less hectic I mean I will not have to wake up in the morning, work for two hours, run to my internship and work for 8 hours and then last but not least another 4 hours of work. It was worse than that at the beginning of the semester when I was working 10 hours at my internship plus the work. whew yeah, that was tiring.
It means I actually get to cook myself new meals. When I said I like to cook I mean new things. My room mate can attest I never make myself the same meal twice. Though I do have a few staples like crockpot chicken tacos which are awesome and easy. I also made a jumbalya not long ago that I loved that was also awesome and easy, so that will probably be a keeper.
I am looking forward to only having work. I am also looking forward to traveling.
Have I mentioned I am planning on going on a National Park graduation/birthday adventure!!!
This will be one of the many beautiful views I will be able to experience. I will be closer to reaching my lifetime goal of visiting and hiking all National Parks.
How can you put a price on this?
I am excited because in just 1 week my life will get a little less hectic and by less hectic I mean I will not have to wake up in the morning, work for two hours, run to my internship and work for 8 hours and then last but not least another 4 hours of work. It was worse than that at the beginning of the semester when I was working 10 hours at my internship plus the work. whew yeah, that was tiring.
It means I actually get to cook myself new meals. When I said I like to cook I mean new things. My room mate can attest I never make myself the same meal twice. Though I do have a few staples like crockpot chicken tacos which are awesome and easy. I also made a jumbalya not long ago that I loved that was also awesome and easy, so that will probably be a keeper.
I am looking forward to only having work. I am also looking forward to traveling.
Have I mentioned I am planning on going on a National Park graduation/birthday adventure!!!
This will be one of the many beautiful views I will be able to experience. I will be closer to reaching my lifetime goal of visiting and hiking all National Parks.
How can you put a price on this?
Friday, April 8, 2011
Joseph Smith
It is my conviction that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God.
Much has been said of Joseph Smith both negative and positive.
What I know of him is that he taught of Christ, he prophesied of Christ, he preached of Christ, and he died for Christ. He was a humble, imperfect man who gave his life to teach of the Glory of God and Christ's everlasting mission on this earth that continues still today. Joseph Smith lived the kind of life that was faith filled and can teach us how to create our own personal relationships with Christ and how to receive our own answers from God to the questions of our souls. He did not force the truth, he lived the truth and he taught the truth and asked others to seek for themselves the truth of God.
I add my own testimony to Josephs' that Christ lives. I have seen his influence in my life and the life of my friends and family. I have read of His power, love, glory, and mission in the scriptures that God has provided for us. I have felt true happiness as I have deepened my relationship with Him and received strength as I have relied on Him in my struggles.
This movie below shares portions of the life of Joseph Smith and his own search for God. It shows his mission as a Prophet of God and a servant of Christ.
Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration
Much has been said of Joseph Smith both negative and positive.
What I know of him is that he taught of Christ, he prophesied of Christ, he preached of Christ, and he died for Christ. He was a humble, imperfect man who gave his life to teach of the Glory of God and Christ's everlasting mission on this earth that continues still today. Joseph Smith lived the kind of life that was faith filled and can teach us how to create our own personal relationships with Christ and how to receive our own answers from God to the questions of our souls. He did not force the truth, he lived the truth and he taught the truth and asked others to seek for themselves the truth of God.
I add my own testimony to Josephs' that Christ lives. I have seen his influence in my life and the life of my friends and family. I have read of His power, love, glory, and mission in the scriptures that God has provided for us. I have felt true happiness as I have deepened my relationship with Him and received strength as I have relied on Him in my struggles.
This movie below shares portions of the life of Joseph Smith and his own search for God. It shows his mission as a Prophet of God and a servant of Christ.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)