“No one forced you to be here”: it’s a statement I’ve heard many times in many different ways over the years; at parties I didn’t enjoy, on weekends away when I had, in fact, felt forced to attend. Most recently, I said it to myself as I shuffled towards the start line at the Hoka Hackney Half Marathon. It was true; no one had forced me, and while that saying had previously always felt loaded — usually spewed in sulky moments when I wasn’t being fully amenable to the whims of whoever was lodging the insult at me — more recently, I have found it empowering.
I have a history of recoiling at anything with even a whiff of bootcamp vernacular, but at my weekly Pilates session, instructor Lucy Borrie likes to remind us that we chose to be there, and for the first time in my life, I’ve found that reminder reassuring rather than reprimanding. Before, I’d taken the saying as confirmation that I wasn’t meant to be there — that the space, and exercise at large, were not for me. No one forced you to be here, so if you’re not enjoying this, or you can’t complete the routine, then you are the problem: that is what I took that saying to mean.
