Sonya's Patates Braavos: Edition #27 💌🥔

TLDR: overcoming the fear of trying new things

welcome 👋 

Hello, brave patates! 🥔 This week I was very brave and attended my first barre class with my friend. It kicked my ass lmao. I’ve been a yoga girly for 4 years, which is low impact, and slower-paced. This workout class used weights, resistance bands, a squishy ball, and there were multiple intervals of cardio, strength training, abs, and literal ballet. I felt like I was gonna pass out but made it through. Gotta build up the endurance. I was offbeat sometimes and can’t coordinate right arm with left leg but we all gotta learn somehow.

I’m super proud that I wasn’t hard on myself and still had fun and felt great after. One of my metaprograms is perfectionism (91/100) so that’s stopped me from being bad at new things before. It’s kinda sad to think about on how much I missed out from fear of making a mistake.

I signed up for ClassPass, which gives you a free month with credits to try workout classes, and tried a yoga class at Sweat & Tonic (boujee 25,000 sq ft fitness club downtown) and it was really nice. Tomorrow I’m trying a new studio for “honey flow” yoga. Just a few months ago, I’d say I’d never do a group workout class or try 3 new studios in a week. But hey, things change, cardio feels great, endorphins are nice, and being a first-timer is pretty cool. Look at that brain rewiring in action!

• Work: delightfully occupied writing articles for Telfer and the Canadian War Museum. writing is truly my talent and passion that brings me satisfaction and I lose track of time, entering the sought-after flow state. I have room to write SEO articles, website copy, or blog posts this fall so reach out if you or your work have a need for these services! Happy to answer any questions or share my portfolio.

• Exponential Coaching: now that we’ve learned all 18 metaprograms (some more common than others) and the parts they are associated with (like inner child part, avoidant part, people-pleasing part, dominant part), we’ve also learned OCEAN. It’s a psychotyping modality that you may know as CANOE. I remember even learning it in business school. The letters are Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness, and Extraversion. The cool thing about this modality is each factor is independent of the other—there is no correlation. This means it’s more accurate and scientifically stable, compared to the popular Myers Briggs, for example, that contains correlated factors. As your coach, the first intro session is to understand where you want to go and what you want to work on. Then you fill out tests for metaprograms and OCEAN, and I interpret them for you. Then we understand what we are working with and set out to notice patterns and rewire your brain. The cool thing about coaching is there is no judgment. You can do what you want. My goal is to show you the patterns so you have awareness and see a different future. It is your choice of when you are ready to do something. I have a couple of spots for clients this fall.

• Yoga: energizing 12-minute core & hips Yoga with Adriene - easy enough to get started, quick enough to not dilly dally, challenging enough to get the cardio going. Highly recommend it in the morning before/after coffee.

• Israel: want to know what’s happening with this multi-front war? Will Hezbollah pay for their attack on the Druze in the North? How does the US election impact Israel? What should we know about Iran and its 19 terrorist proxy groups? Read this clear and straightforward newsletter written by journalists of The Free Press.

• Watch: Tex Mex Motors is a car makeover show on Netflix, where two people (real characters) source cheap American classics in Juarez, Mexico, then the shop team flips them and renovates them and they resell the final result to American buyers for a wild markup, profiting like 20K per car. They just got a racing Porsche with an engine of 880 horsepower and it absolutely blew my mind lol.

If you got this far, thanks for reading ❤️ cooked something yummy? lmk. went to a cool event or read a fun book? lmk. see you on the flip side 🥔