Eyes up, arms straight, back plank, muscles aching-minute number 45 in an hour-long hot yoga class.

Authentic.

The word drifts in, smack dab between thoughts of “I can’t do this anymore” and “Everyone can see I am failing horribly”.

Even after four classes I am still the most inflexible one in the room.

My leg strength built up from hundreds of road miles does nothing for me here.

In this place I am struggling, but not hiding. My yoga mat and I are front and center.

I wasn’t always this open, so willing to display my faults.

Many times I hid the warts; masked the burdens.

Numerous situations where I altered who I was to fit the needs of others.

I am not the only woman guilty of being a “pleaser”.

Now to live my life authentically, that is the goal.

To model for those three little ladies that life must be lived from the inside out.

*This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day.

Hamlet Act 1, Scene 3

*Worth noting that this little nugget comes from Polonius’s to his son Laertes, who is in a hurry to get on the next boat to Paris, where he’ll be safe from his father’s long-winded speeches. My girls must feel like Laertes some days!