Finding your edge — a lesson from my barre3 workout

How muscle failure relates to empathy

Sweat was pouring down my face. My arms and legs were shaking. I was forty-five minutes into an intense barre3 workout, holding my second plank. For sixty seconds.

“Find your edge,” the instructor challenged. “You’ve got this.”

That single minute felt like an eternity. I hit muscle failure.

“Take a break if you need to, then come back stronger.”

Fitness trainers know that real change occurs when our muscles are worked to their limit (muscle failure or training to failure) because as our body repairs them, they’re made stronger.

Cultivating empathy involves a similar process.

We need to find our current limitations to showing empathy. At what point do we begin criticizing instead of asking questions? Let’s get to that place where we’re uncomfortable, where we might fail. (We might discover we’re capable of more than we thought.)

Once we’ve reached our empathy ‘edge,’ it’s time to recharge emotionally. Then we can begin again — this time more resilient and with a new ‘edge.’

Find your edge. Take a break. Come back stronger.

You’ve got this!