Why is it so darn hard?!

[WendyMichelle]

To get up for my 10:30am Saturday ballet class?! My classes during the week, after working an 8 hour day, I actually look forward to. But it seems like on Saturdays I have the hardest time dragging myself out of bed, getting ready, and making the half hour drive to get there. Most weekends I wake up, glare at the clock, decide it's too much trouble, then promptly roll over and go back to sleep!

 

Granted I am spoiled to sleeping in late on the weekends. I suppose part of me feels like I've gotten up all week to go to work and if I want to sleep in for two days then it's my right. And even if I do go to class I'm so pooped out by the time I get home I usually end up crashing and taking a nap afterwards.

 

Any suggestions on finding the gumption to get up and go on Saturday mornings?

 

WM

[lampwick]

Can't help you with this one. I always do the same thing:) When I worked full time at a job and trained for ballet, I always missed the Saturday morning class. Luckily, there was a later one during the day.

[TemptressToo]

I couldn't do it. Not a morning person for regular work, I'm sleeping in on weekends. ;)

[Dance_Scholar_London]

Ahhhhhhh, my classes are ususally at 8:45 AM every morning during the week before I go to work, thus 10:30 sounds not too early

[Redbookish]

Yeah - like D_S_L, my Saturday class is at 8.45am so 10.30 is easy!! I get up most days at 6.30am anyway, and 5am if I have a deadline to meet, and I tell myself that the 1st five minutes will feel awful, but after that I've usually started drinking my coffee & feel great. Getting up early means you can get so much more done during the day. Saturday class cancelled today so I "slept in" to the lazy lateness of 7.30am! Now eating bacon & eggs....

[jimpickles]

WendyMichelle - maybe you're just exhausted??

 

Could be??

 

I know in our culture we are never supposed to consider out physical limitations, or at least try to overcome them - but is that always realistic?

 

Also - imagine how humans evolved. On average over the year, the sun was up for 12 hours and down for 12 hours. There was nothing to do after dark, if you couldnt see (not every night, anyway...). So on average, we would probably have spent 10 hours a night asleep. I have heard that even in the 19th century, before there was much artificial light, and when candles were too expensive for most people, people also slept for 10 hours a night. It is only with artificial light that we can keep going for so long. So I suggest that the short hours many people are expecting to sleep (even if it is 8 hours which is very long by many people's standards) is an unnatural situation. Some people thrive on it, but maybe many cant deviate too far from how we evolved. Just an idea.

 

And Redbookish - maybe you should move from Birmingham to Queensland if you are such a morning person - Brummie mornings cant be much fun at the moment. People here seem to relish getting up at 4.30 or 5 am and enjoying the morning air before it heats up. But then they seem to collapse at 8.30 or 9 at night, just when the evening's getting going. Weird!!

 

Jim.

 

PS Actually what gets me about morning people is that they are so smug. And they make me feel so guilty about how much they've done even before I've woken up.

[cassy]

Sounds good Jim,

I would spring out of bed in the mornings if it was warm and sunny - even for work

Not sure why its so difficult at the weekends, i have to work Saturdays anyway and getting up at 7.30 is hard enough, I imagine that if there was class to go to instead, it would be a different story.

Wendy

Maybe you are just tired and need the rest, sometimes its best to do what our body is telling us and other times we just need a bit more discipline and to push ourselfs a bit to get into a routine

[Toadette]

I'm sure we all have to push ourselves sometimes to go to class, and that's good, you have to be disciplined if you want to be good at something. But if you really have a problem with a particular class, just don't go. If it becomes a chore you might even start resenting ballet and lose interest which I'm sure everyone will agree would be awful! My opinion is, remember why you're doing ballet in the first place - because you love it.

 

And speaking for myself, the world of ballet will manage to go on if I'm absent from some Saturday classes! A sad thought but it helps to solve those "shall I or shan't I?" agonies!

[WendyMichelle]

Surprisingly.............I'm up! This is only due to the fact that I'm having car trouble and was trying to get my car in the shop today, thus waking up at 8am to start calling.

 

As for ballet........there is a second car. So now I'm off to get ready and hit the road. And no nap this afternoon either......we're taking the car out to get it worked on. *shakes fist at car for getting in way of my sleeping* ;p

 

Jim.......now I have some fodder for my Mom when she complains about me sleeping 10 hours on Saturday and Sunday! Thanks for the history lesson!

[Redbookish]

And Redbookish - maybe you should move from Birmingham to Queensland if you are such a morning person

 

Jim, LOL!!! I lived in Sydney for far too long and it's just too hot there, let alone Qld. I could only manage Brisbane in July - once was there in Febnruary & I could hardly breathe ... Much prefer Brum, and the culture's better, I'm afraid. And if you remember, in the summer here in the UK, it's light at around 4.30am and doesn't get dark until 11pm with that wonderful long twilight period. Unlike Australian sub-tropical sudden darkness at 8.45pm.

 

Although I do know what you mean about how difficult it is the depths of winter in the northern hemisphere top wake up before 8am.

 

But we're promised 20cm of snow tomorrow - wot larks!!

[WendyMichelle]

*EGADS!!!* I was up and ready and made the 30 mile drive (one way). Get there and there were only three cars in the lot. So I'm thinking, um........something's not right here. Went inside and the dressing rooms were dark, the office was locked, and the studios were dark. The three cars were people doing yoga in the yoga studio. So I whipped out the trusty cell and called the AD. Class had been cancelled! And guess who they forgot to tell?! Yep............ME!!! There was a very good reason for it though, so I'm not upset. So then I got in the car and made the 30 mile trip back home.

 

Now I can take a nap!

[ami1436]

Oh WendyMichelle, isn't that just typical!!!!

[Fiz]

Argh!!!! That happened to us when Char had an early tap class once- we were not thrilled! At the moment her Saturday ballet class is at 1.45 - very civilised! For Wendy Michelle! Fiz. xxx

[dianec]

WendyMichelle, that's so frustrating!

In fact, I'm good at mornings, but some of my classes are in the evening and it's SOOOOO hard to go out for an 8pm class when I only got home at 6 and it's dark and cold ..... but always worth it, & I get home two hours later full of beans.

[WendyMichelle]

DianeC........I used to have that problem as well when I first started back in August. One of my classes was at 9pm! It was hard to come home and unwind, then get motivated to get ready and go to class, then get home after 10pm and try to unwind again and get in the bed before midnight!

 

Thankfully now all of my classes are directly after work (4:15pm one day when I work straight through and leave early to make the class, 5:15 another day, and 5:45 the third day) except the one early Saturday class. Fizz who has class at 1:45.....I am so jealous! I could totally do that class with no problems!

 

As for class being cancelled yesterday there was a sudden death in the family. I suppose they had emailed everyone else but I've been having email issues with the AAD and I don't think she's put my new email address in her address book.........hence why I didn't know about it. So like I said, I can't be upset at all about class being cancelled. Completely understandable, imo.