Hi. I'm Erika.

Hi. My name is Erika and this is my first blog entry. If you could see my face right now as I'm typing, it looks like I'm about to jump out of a plane for the first time (something I would never ever do). I've been thinking about it. I've been snooping on my friends' witty and amazing blogs. I've been thinking about WHY. WHAT I want to say. And why anyone would care.

I am a teacher at Equinox Fitness in NYC, and I share a lot of personal stories with my intenSati classes to tie into the theme of the month. And almost every time I ask the question "Does anyone else ever feel this way?," the sea of sheepishly raised hands never fails to knock me on my ass. So here I am. An attempt to bring together the confused people, the happy people, the inspired and inspiring, while keeping a sense of humor about it all.

I've decided to call my blog "It's Just The Gym" because this is one of my favorite things to say in class. It usually happens about 25 minutes in... everyone has that serious, furrowed, determined, borderline frustrated look about them... determined to remember what comes next, to complete that set of bent over rows, to grasp that bootylicious hip hop move... and it's palpable. There is a pressure to get it right. To look like a rock star. To do it with confidence. And the pressure is tangible. So I see this happening, and I feel the joy draining from the room. I say something along the lines of "Just try. If you fall, don't worry! It's just the gym!" Magically and instantly, something happens in the room. We laugh at ourselves. For being so unforgiving, so hard on ourselves, so Little-Miss-Perfect-Pants, in the midst of a sweaty (yet sleek, thank you Equinox) midtown studio on a Tuesday night. "It's JUST THE GYM" is a reminder-- you're not going to die. You're not going to lose your job, or get an "F," or fail your mother, if you do seven bicep curls instead of eight. But you ARE going to get stronger, because instead of worrying about the certain apocalypse sure to be brought about by your failure to jack it out for 30 seconds, you do your best, without judgement, and save yourself a headache.

And it always makes me think. Holy crap, we are really really hard on ourselves. It's the New York Way, "Go hard or go home" (Thank you Rihanna for the reminder). We forget that we can still go hard while having a laugh and preserving the lightness of it all. Voila: Self improvement with a smile!

As the eldest of five, perfectionist overachiever with an (albeit unhealthy) obsession with building my resume and impressing the pants out of everyone I meet, I need the "it's just the gym" reminder as much as anyone else, in every area of my life (I am also a dancer and choreographer, so "it's just an audition" or "it's just class" also apply to me on a regular basis). As I blog more, I will talk about other devices that really help me in my quest to stay sane: meditation, laughter, great friends, good books, and maybe even food! I don't know. I'm making it up as I go along.

So my intention is to keep perspective. To enjoy the day-to-day. In the immortal words of Al Jarreau, We're in this love together. Let's do it!