Who needs a comfort zone anyway? Last weekend I not only stepped out of mine, I jumped out of it without my parachute !!
Not even those closest to me may have even realised the inner turmoil I was battling with …… Fizz knew, she kept me calm, she kept me from falling apart and she kept me safe every time I needed her to put on her harness and be my eyes.
Any event/conference/summer spectacular is daunting for many!
A room with 2,000 other people is also terrifying in itself!
Then add to the mix you can only see shapes and colours; the lighting is set up as corporate and moves with the music; the music that is loud, pumped out around the room to ‘raise the roof’ to ‘motivate’ and to ‘excite’ EVERYONE in the room.
Having recently decided to stop ‘messing around with diets and fads’ and actual take control of my eating, my inner nutrients and my health, I looked to my cousin for support. She introduced me to Herbalife, a safe, clean, nutrition fuelled way of eating, not a ‘diet product’ rather a way to live, a way to improve myself from the inside out, while being able to support me through training, rock climbing, bringing up my children and running around with each of my volunteer roles.
… Fast forward a few months and here I was, sat in Manchester, watching, learning and feeling empowered by The Herbalife Summer Spectacular.
The chosen venue was literally a large box! A MASSIVE exhibition space that was broken up and segmented by heavy curtains, false walls and carpeting.
Having previously been to Manchester a few years ago, this didn’t concern me. With the new Google Street View App on my phone I was able to walk around the outside of EventCity, I was able to find Starbucks, plan how to get from the hotel in MediaCity, again having visited the area before, I felt OK here.
I had a room-mate for the weekend, she absolutely adored Fizz and was wonderful, even volunteering to take her out for walks having never met either of us before.
…. Back to the venue…. I was invited to sit at the front of the room, an area reserved for those prestige members, an adjustment made just for me if it would help me see the event clearer. Sadly no where I sat would have done that, so I stayed sat with my cousin and her friends. Fizz was fabulous, she was so calm and took all the noises and light changes in her stride, not letting it bother her at all.
In the evening, we returned to EventCity for a dinner and awards ceremony. I though I would be OK, I though that I now knew the venue and would be OK. I had realised in the 2 hours that we had left the venue for, that the room had changed, the big round tables were still in place, but upon our return they were dressed in white linen cloths, fully dressed with red, white and blue balloons. The large screens were in place also, but now decorated with the same colours, there was now also a checkered dance floor and the lighting was much dimmer.
Dressed to match the colours, as advised on the invitation I found a seat with my roomy and sat down to enjoy the show. I had preordered drinks, that she kindly collected from the bar, we had a fabulous time, laughing, chatting and watching the awards ceremony; that saw my cousins husband won first prize of £10,000 !!!
The food was interesting and incredibly difficult….. Apparently it looked very pretty, but served on white plates with dim lights and light coloured food, it was a bit of a struggle for a VIP like me !
I survived though, my anxiety didn’t get the better of me, I had a pretty good time and I am now going to be giving away my inner turmoils of the weekend to those who were with me and will hopefully be reading this.
