Here’s the thing I’ve learned about my life – Whenever I spend the first 30minutes to 1 hour not mentally making myself stronger, checking my phone, dealing with other peoples needs or avoid doing difficult things that are good for me… the rest of the day is really hard to get through.

This is because my energy, like a cup being filled, is not being filled and at worst is being drained in the first hour.

So what I want to talk to you about are three tips in order to make your life easier. The first being super important is don’t check your phone in the first 15 to 30 minutes of your time.

For me, with an ADHD brain, dopamine is such a big thing. The neurotransmitter is the reward center, it’s that cheat meal after 6 days of dieting. I used to wake up in the morning and the first thing would be checking my phone, sealing peoples messages, questions etc…The problem is, I’m answering other people’s needs and I’m dealing with other people’s fires. I’m saying to myself, unconsciously, my things aren’t that important. My organization and my care are not that important because I got up first to take care of others. It’s so hard to separate from my phone like there is an invisible umbilical cord connected to this phone and it’s hard to break this off.

Don’t check your phone in the first 15 to 30 minutes. Start to take care of yourself. Start to fill up your cup so that it’s full and even some days maybe overflowing so you can offer more and give your best to others. Because if you wake up and you didn’t get enough sleep, you’re frustrated, you haven’t had food or you haven’t worked out, whatever you do, what kind of energy are you going to either way be capable of sending to other people? There is no emergency that you have to check your phone within the first 30 minutes so avoid it. You can put it on a “do not disturb” mode, flip it upside down, or put it in another room. It doesn’t matter how you do to avoid it, that’s the first tip.

The second tip is cold showers. I know it’s freezing but I’m telling you right now it’s the best! I hated the idea but here’s my biggest fear – I’m worried that if I get too comfortable and when I need courage or when I need strength or when a great opportunity comes my way, I’m just going to be too much in my comfort zone to be able to take a chance.

I think of courage as a muscle. When you exercise daily and by doing uncomfortable things especially in the morning, you would teach yourself that you’re the type of person that is not scared of uncomfortable things. When the time comes that you need to take the courage to change jobs, to start a new relationship, to work on a project, you think you’re not good enough you’re going to be able to tap into. So not only a ton of physical benefits to doing a cold shower, even a cold run, it’s even turning on the tap and just splashing yourself 5 to 10 times with cold water. It teaches you in the morning that you do uncomfortable and difficult things and when the rest of those inconvenient things come your way, you’re ready for them because you can tap into it!

The third thing that I do that really fills my cup is watching something positive. I have a ton of role models like Kevin Hart, Brene Brown, Maya Angelou. I have so many role models who have done a lot and they’re not in my immediate life. I watch their videos and I listened to their inspirational messages and reminders. Some days I need to feel like I belong and some days I need to kick my own butt so I watch David Goggins and his intensity about stop making excuses and go grind it out fires me up.

See, it’s so hard to offer a lot to others when our cup isn’t full. We need to go to others as well to fill up our own cups. I watched these people 5 to 10 minutes every day just to fill my cup with their energy and whatever source of power I need that day. Definitely, it makes it easier for me to stay focused on my goals and it makes it easier for me to offer more love, care, attention, affection, whatever the people need in my life because I fill my cup up.

So the third thing is, watch something inspirational, read something incredible, listen to podcasts if you’re on audio, or even do yoga. It doesn’t matter how you do it to fill your cup with energy.

So the three tips are – we got the physical, we got the avoidance of the phone and giving yourself that 5 to 10 minutes to remind and teach yourself that your needs are important. We have to admit this, that when our own needs are met, it’s so much easier to offer other people what they need.

If you have a comment or a question you want me to answer, please send us an email. I’d love to hear from you.

The post Coronavirus Sucks – Thrive not just Survive – Power of Morning Routine appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

Today, I want to talk about how do we pull the right people into our life.

My story starts when I first took over the school. I was bringing a brand new culture and it was tough for a lot of people to adjust. A lot of people were uncomfortable with it, understandably so.

The hardest part as a leader for me, when I took over, was I never want to force people to do something that they didn’t believe in.

It was a big change and through those changes, people voiced their unhappiness.

I had many days during the first few years where I wanted to quit on the school. Quit on my dream because it felt like everybody around me was against what I was doing and against what I believed in.

So like a light, I started to dim it and make it smaller, but I felt trapped. I felt frustrated, lonely, that I did not really belong at my school and to the people around me.

I look at my school right now, five years later, and all the people around me believe in my vision. They want to follow, they want to lift other people up and do all the different things that I do in class to spread belonging in their own way.

So how did I get there? The biggest tip I have for you is to take responsibility for being a great lighthouse keeper.

Imagine you are on a cliff and you have a lighthouse. The lighthouse faces out into the sea of your dreams, your hopes, and all the people (ships) that will pass through either getting pulled towards your light, not see your light and pass by or avoid it because it shines too bright.

So you are a lighthouse keeper. A lighthouse keeper can’t control the weather outside the lighthouse…whether a fog wraps around it and it’s light doesn’t break through on some nights.  A lighthouse keeper can’t complain when there’s too much snow or it’s too cold.

All he/she can control is going up those stairs, taking a rag, wiping the lens, making sure to replace the bulb, and just working on inside of the lighthouse to make sure that your light beams out into the world.

What I’ve learned is, every time I’ve dimmed my light those were the moments where the right people that I needed in my life would float on by because they wouldn’t see it.

Life is so messy. The Coronavirus is like a fog that we can’t see still out of. The only control we have is inside the internal work we do. And sometimes when you shine, bright people will look at you and be like, “that’s wrong and that’s weird”. They’ll ask questions like, “why is it green? why is it blue?, why is it a different color? What are you doing?”. They’ll start yelling at you and you’re going to look down over the rail. At people criquing your light and as a consequence…you dim it or turn it off completely.

You throw a tarp over it. You go downstairs, you lie on your cot and you shut yourself off from the world. Then you get lonely because deep down you want to bring that light out. But too many times, people downstairs would look up and say, “that’s too bright or that’s the wrong color”. Whatever it is, while they’re not maintaining their own lighthouse, ironically, they get uncomfortable with what you are doing.

So you try to go back up…but now it’s hard just to get up those stairs because you’re so exhausted. Or because your knees hurt because you’ve been beaten down all your life.

We can’t control the outside world. If you want to pull in the right people like I’ve done, I’ve just had to work hard to bring out my light especially on days when it can’t fully cut through the fog. We can just keep climbing up.

Here’s the best part, some days will be easier than others. The days when it’s pitch black and you’re downstairs and just a brand new day, you don’t have the strength to go up. You can’t even see the stairs.

In those days, reach out to the people that you do trust. People that make you feel like you #belong. The other lighthouse keepers to walk into your lighthouse and just bring a candle.

That’s the other thing I struggled so much with, letting in the right people to support me. I did not want to burden the other lighthouse keepers, worried that I will take away from their light. Forgetting that, just letting a person I trust step in and bring a candle doesn’t take away from how bright their lighthouse shines.

I was focused in my life too much on the people who did not want the same thing as I did. Those people telling me that the light is wrong, that light is bad or it’s the wrong color.

But the world needs more light. We all have a duty. So in the darkest nights, in the foggiest of days, we’re shining bright to give guidance to others.

Sometimes you will shine so bright that it will overwhelm the ships out in sea. That’s not on you. It’s not their fault. They’re just not ready.

But with focus and light, when you shine it into the sea of potential of whatever you want to build, the people you want to pull in, suddenly…I don’t know when. One day, one week, 1 month or 5 years…you will be surrounded by exactly the people you need most.

Be your own lighthouse keeper. Climb up. Sometimes you have the strength just to go one step at a time. Sometimes you have five, it’s okay and it’s worth it. When you dedicate your life to going up, polishing, changing the light bulb, making those internal adjustments, suddenly you look around and there’s light all around you. There are other lighthouse keepers all around you. They are laughing and being joyous to understand you. Be your greatest lighthouse keeper!

I really hope we brought you value and if you have a question you want me to answer, please email us. I would love to have the opportunity to hear from you so we can more thrive and less just survive.

I love you all.

The post Coronavirus Sucks – Thrive not just Survive – Good People (Lighthouse Keeper) appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

The Coronavirus does suck but how can we still thrive and not just survive through all this.

Today, I want to talk about motivation. This is a really hard topic for me to talk about because I still struggle with motivation up to this point.

About two weeks ago, I found out I have ADHD. For people who do have ADHD, motivation is really critical and really important. This is because either we’re super obsessed with something and we just doubled down, focus on just that one thing and ignore everything else. Or we can’t seem to sit still and focus cause we’re taking in a lot of information and we always need that rest.

So, what I want to talk about is dopamine. It’s super critical without getting too nerdy. Basically, dopamine is a neurotransmitter that does a lot of things, which includes motivation. It’s our reward neurotransmitter.

For example, when you get that promotion and you get that excitement, that rush and you feel great, dopamine is playing a major role. Imagine, for example, a relationship starting to get really boring cause everything is repetitive. You’ve had the same conversations for millions of times and maybe your partner has told you the same jokes and it’s just not funny anymore. Dopamine plays a role because the same experiences don’t give us the same rush, and with an ADHD brain, we starve for it.

So, I’ve had addictions to scrolling through TikTok, through YouTube, avoiding emails, and even just avoiding having hard conversations. It’s hard sitting on a couch trapped on my phone for an hour and a half, three hours on the computer on YouTube.  Because I need to just do 10 minutes of work I’m not looking forward to it.

The thing with people who have particularly ADHD is trying to force ourselves or having, especially someone else forced us to do something we’re not motivated. It’s like a death sentence. It’s like life is being sucked out of you. So I’ve been focusing that ADHD is a superpower and I need to just direct it. I need to learn to hack it.

So here are three things I’ve done to help me stay motivated and engaged. You can do these to hack motivation:

The first one is to break it down into microtasks. One of the things that happen to me, which also doesn’t help with motivation is I can get anxious, overwhelmed by having to tackle a major task. Because for me, all the planning that has to happen, with an ADHD brain, it gets confusing and foggy. Organizing thoughts is hard for me.

So, how would I do that? If I have to go through our website and spend two or three hours looking for bugs and problems with registration, it’s just torture for me to imagine it. So the way I do it is just in two minutes and then feel good about myself. Just two minutes. Cause I know that if I just do two minutes, I’m going to get obsessed about it. At some point, I’m going to start to lose myself to the float. So chunk it, you need to do is simplify it into micro tasks and let those little things be a reward in itself.

The second thing is to make it a game. I love games. I love video games. A video game is something that’s easy for me to get obsessed about because there’s a micro reward everywhere. Like I can be killing the same monster but if I know that they were level 20 when I was fighting them and now they’re level 28, it’s still fun because that dopamine rush is still being released. So the way I hack it, for example, is I need to drink 3.5 liters of water every day. What I do is I’ve set up 10 loonies. Every time I drink a glass of water, I slide across the counter a loonie. Each looney is 10 ounces or one cup of water. What I do is I slide the first 10 loonies to get to the silver twoonies that are the last 2. I want to get the toonies because it just feels so good for those last two loonies to slide them and that’s 120 ounces.

What I’m trying to say is I’ve hacked one motivation by creating a game, something fun and it could be anything. As basic as you think it is, it works! Now I also realize that at some point I’m going to get bored with it and I’m going to have to switch it up then I create a new game. So the second thing is to make it some kind of a game and give yourself a reward.

Three, realize that motivation can only go so far, I’m realizing that too. Discipline is the last part.

Discipline is the last part because today when I woke up in the morning at 7:00 AM, I don’t have to wake up a tone. I can set my own schedule, but I promised myself I’d wake up, work out, go make people smile, and all these things. Honestly, when I woke up at 7:00 AM I was exhausted, did not sleep well. I wanted to hit the snooze and go back to sleep and I didn’t trust myself. So I literally got out of bed and I sat on the couch and it’s 7:08 AM and I’m like about to cry how tired I am. I’m just imagining putting my head down, but at 7:23 a little bit later than I’m supposed to work out, I started to do the workout. I started to gain momentum.

Here’s what I’ve learned about discipline and the moments when you’re not motivated, discipline will help you get through it. That’s a muscle. Things that we really care about that are actually important, we commit to doing to them long after that motivation has left. Motivation is short and yet there are short term hacks, but the real thing you want to address is discipline.

Stay tuned because next week I’m going to talk about ADHD brain and discipline. I can’t wait to share that with you because this is just a small tease. I love you so much, gang. I hope this brought you some values.

So the three things you want to do is one, micro chunk your tasks. Two, make it microgames with micro coins. And three, accept that motivation, will only get you so far, discipline will fill in the majority of your days when you’re not motivated to do the things you said were important to you.

If you have a question you want me to answer, please email us. I would love to have the opportunity to hear from you so we can more thrive and less just survive.

I’ll see you soon.

The post Coronavirus Sucks – Thrive not just Survive – Motivation (ADHD Hacks) appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

Today, I want to talk about toxic worry and how to deal with stress in your life in three easy steps.

My story goes back about three or four years ago when I first took over TDS. It was very stressful. I was learning to be a leader. I had to lead 40 to 60 people. I was living with my partner at this point and we were fighting a lot.

It was about two weeks of just massive stress. I was working hard on having higher standards for myself and not slacking off. Some of my emails are not being answered and there’s a bunch of things I’m just collecting in my body and in my mind. It’s all the stress.

About two weeks into it, I go over to my mentor’s place, my business partner, my boss. He can see like my energy is totally different and all he says was literally, “are you okay?” And out of nowhere, I start crying. I’m crying in front of this man. It just started coming out like on uncontrollable wailing. I can only remember one or two times in my life I’ve cried that hard. I collapsed into a chair and for like three or four minutes, maybe four or five words that are coming out for me, I’m just not making sense. I’m just crying because I’m so tired. I’m so tired, I felt lonely, not understood, and isolated. I feel like the whole world is collapsing around me and nobody understands me. I just felt like I was dealing with it.

That moment when he asked me, “are you okay?” All the walls came down. I don’t remember what he said. I do remember that after I cried I felt a little bit better. And then he’s like, “Dude, just go home, go sleep and you got to talk to your partner.”

So I drove home. I laid down on my couch and I know as soon as I laid down I just fell asleep. My body just shut down. Then I woke up to the sound of my partner coming home and I’m scared. I’m scared because I don’t want to put pressure on my partner. I don’t want to disappoint her.

So she’s like, “Hey, how are you? I did some shopping, blah, blah”, and I’m silent. I’m always talking so silence for me is very weird. She’s like, “Hey, are you okay?” Then I started whimpering again. She runs up to the couch, she goes down on her knees like, “Hey, what’s going on?” I just start letting it out again how I’m so lost. I mean, I feel frustrated in a relationship because I feel like she does understand me but I haven’t really communicated anything for her to understand me much. At school, I’m overwhelmed and I’m making all these and just all started releasing. She kind of hugged me and it just felt so nice being able to open to someone. I didn’t realize how heavy that weight was until I started to release it.

So, here’s the thing about worry, toxic worry, toxic stress. It survives because of isolation. We build up this isolation, loneliness in a dark corner and we put ourselves there. It can only thrive in that kind of environment.

I realized at that moment, as I tried to be more vulnerable and more open to the people that care about me and sometimes even strangers, that vulnerability is a superpower. The worst consequence of toxic worry is you just start to feel less and less like you #belong in your own life. You feel more lonely and you feel less accepted. I believe in my heart that the world would be a better place if we all felt like we #belong.

Regular worry is a good thing. Short bursts of worry. Stress can help us grow, can challenge us to go to the next level. But toxic, constant, daily worry even in micro doses will poison you.

So here are the three steps in order to deal with toxic worry:

One, you have to talk to someone. Anyone. As scary as it is, you have to talk to someone. Because when you shed light on that isolation like a cockroach, it gets scared of the light because that light is other people saying, “Hey, I want to be here for you. I never even knew you’re suffering. What can I do? What do you need?” We all need that.

Two, get your facts straight. A lot of our worries are based on just a lack of understanding. For me, when I was stressed in those two weeks I felt like nobody understood me. I felt like I’m failing everywhere but I wasn’t. I was making a ton of mistakes and sure there were some people that I cared about whose approval I wanted. I created these negative generalized facts in my head.

So, go research and go get the facts. Maybe you’ve been struggling with depression, clinical depression or maybe it’s ADHD like I have. Who knows but go research and get the facts about what the situation ACTUALLY is. Maybe it’s a struggling business. Go get the facts. What can the government do? What kind of support can you get? Get the facts.

Three, make a plan. How are you going to deal with this? What are the steps you need to address it. If the plan doesn’t work, don’t quit! Make a new plan, adjust, pivot and try again.

So from my personal example, how can we break those steps down.

One (Never Worry Alone) I couldn’t control but I just balled in front of my boss and told him all these things that I’m struggling with. He embraced me and shed light into that isolation that I put myself into.

Two (Gent The Facts), looking back I remember him telling me, “Dude, you’re not alone. There are other people and you’re blowing things out of proportion. You’re not ruining everything. You are missing knowledge and you have to learn through it through mistakes and all these other things you’re telling me.” Those were the facts.

Three (Action Plan), when I came home I made a decision to talk to my partner. I made a plan. I also made a plan not to keep bottling it up cause it was unhealthy for me.

It’s not healthy to put all that toxic worry on yourself cause you feel like you don’t #belong. That’s one of the worst feelings ever, to not feel like you belong in your own life. So, those are the three steps to dealing with toxic worry and I hope it gave you some insight. The biggest of all is always step one, talk to someone cause that vulnerability will set you free.

If you want me to answer another question or you want me to give you advice on something you’re struggling with, please leave it in the comments below.

The post Coronavirus Sucks – Thrive not just Survive – Toxic Anxiety appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

The coronavirus does suck but we can use this time in many meaningful ways, including how to thrive and not just survive.

As we go through this today, I want to talk about how do you know when you should quit on something. I want you to think about one thing, a decision you’ve been sitting on of quitting on a relationship, on a job, on friendship, on anything, or eveb a bad habit.

So now that you have that, to write it down.

Let’s talk about my experience. One of the hardest things for me to quit was knowing when I should quit on a serious relationship. I fell in love with this beautiful girl. She is intelligent, hardworking, loyal, just amazing and so many other incredible things about her. We fell in love.

We started dancing and she was the first girl I moved in with. She was the first girl I proposed to. About a year before we were supposed to get married, I felt like we shouldn’t be together. But I’m not a quitter, it’s part of my identity.

I proposed in front of her family and my family. There was a lot of weight there. I’m not a quitter. We had so much money down in non-refundable cakes and all that stuff. We built our whole life around each other. All her friends, my friends, community, everybody knew us as these two people, one person. Invitations flying out around the world. I’M NOT A QUITTER

Two months before our wedding date, we were sitting on our bed. We tried so many beautiful things, so much work, and so many adjustments. I look at her, I’m like, “this isn’t going to work right?” She’s like, “yeah I know”.

I asked her, “when did you know?” She said, “about a year ago”. I asked her, “how come you didn’t tell me?” She said “I’m not a quitter.”

So here’s the thing, I think we need to quit on many important things and we wait too long. why did we wait? Why did we wait when we already knew. Why do we have to work so hard to make sure?

I realized that a lot of our doubts come from, what we are afraid to lose.

“I put the time in, I put love in. I can’t give up all it all up. I put too much in. The thing is…its all just sunk cost. You’re never getting that time back. That time has gone, the love has gone and we get so stuck in the past. Whether it’s in a job, in a position, I’m senior in this and I put all this time and I can’t lose this.”

Instead of looking at the past why not look at your future and think  “I’ve got another 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 years years ahead of me” “Where do I want to invest my happiness.”

The biggest regret we will have is the gap between when we feel we should act on something and we wait. That’s the gap of unhappiness. That’s the gap of regret.

When we’re 80 or 90 years old, we’re lying on our death. The thing most people say is: “I wish I was just more brave earlier. I wish I asked that girl out. I wish I did this, but I didn’t act.” It’s the hesitation.

Here’s the amazing silver lining, with the Coronavirus we do have way more time on our hands. Whether you’re a parent, single or whatever, we do have more time. And all those excuses why we can’t start looking for a different job or start thinking about how to end that relationship. We have the time now so we can use this time to make the hard decisions. Then when we come out, we feel like we’ve thrived and not just survived.

I’m a wholehearted believer that big decisions go with your heart. That’s the thing that will lead you correctly. Because look at all the major regrets in your life. The real major ones out of 10 of them, no more than two were, “Man, I was impulsive. I shouldn’t have done this.” Most of your regrets would have been, I should have done it sooner. I wish I just listened to my heart and acted on it.

So whatever you’re sitting on, you already know you don’t need to go for more advice. Start taking baby steps if you have to. Start moving to the happiness and the life you deserve so you’re not just surviving, you’re thriving!

If you want me to answer another question or you want me to give you advice on something you’re struggling with, please leave it in the comments below. I love you guys.

The post Coronavirus Sucks – Thrive not just Survive – When to Quit appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

For our first episode, I want to talk about my physical health journey, and hopefully bring you some value in the process.

For the last six weeks, with that we’ve been in this Coronavirus, I’ve been working hard to include some physical activity. But it’s been harder than ever because I wake up, work from home and everything is just at home. I’m sure that definitely you’re facing the same thing. Gyms are closed and everything is closed. But what I really want to talk about is why did I want to start working on it in the first place?

You see, there was a bunch of nights and days where the body I was waking up to just wasn’t something I was proud of.  When I would wake up, I would look in the mirror and I wouldn’t be happy with what I saw. When I would be dancing, I’d be out of breath a lot. In the smallest decisions like between the escalator or stairs, I would pick the escalator I started to become more and more unhappy with the vehicle (my body) I was waking up into and traveling in.

So I tried doing the massive thing of going into intensive workouts and making these big promises, like a 30-day challenge and 20-day challenge. Sometimes I’d hit it especially in the days if I posted it all publicly for accountability. But I kept falling back and I was trying to understand why.

The deeper thing for all of us why we keep coming back to the place that we don’t want to be at is that we haven’t really made the decision deep down. I was looking for quick fixes and I think that’s the thing. I keep coming to the conclusion that there is no quick fix. That maybe I could be even stronger at 55 than I am at 33. That it is just the way of life. When I used to think like that, that overwhelmed me. I’m like “Well how do I get everything fixed?” “How do I do that?”

So where do we really start?

So before I give you any tips on how you can have more physical activity in your life right now. First, what I really want to say is the bigger why. Why is this important? You just want to have a stronger body and then really hone in on that.

Second, what’s really important is don’t push yourself down on all the moments that you’ve dropped the ball. That doesn’t have to define you.

Three, because I’m trying to learn to build trust with my own word instead of saying I’m going to do 30 pushups for 30 days, and then as soon as I imagine it, I don’t want to do it. And just handing it, I’ve noticed that I won’t make it to 30 days and maybe I will and then I’ll just not care about it.

You want to create a life, a schedule, and discipline especially at the beginning that you can look forward to. That you don’t HOPE you’re going to hit but KNOW you will.

So if you’re going into it already just HOPING… it’s done, it’s not going to work. It’s just not going to work because it’s never worked for me. It doesn’t. What we really need to do is build a reputation with ourselves. Trust that when we say something is actually important. We believe in it, we follow through and hit it consistently.

I would make excuses like “I can’t do it consistently because I’m not motivated” “Motivation is my problem.” “Gyms are closed” but those are all excuses.

Inspiration and motivation can help just get us out to start it. Inspiration doesn’t last because there’s the grind, there’s the work. So you want to start to build trust by having grind that you can, on some level look forward to honestly to yourself.

That may mean just once a day doing three pushups and that’s it. But just doing it consistently in a way that you’re not going to massively grow one on the easy days you’ll look forward to. And on the hard days, you can push yourself through. But if you’re already creating whatever schedule or whatever app you get, whatever it is, and you’re dreading it already, you hate it on such a massive level.

Your petition so far has been you’ve picked something up and you drop it. If you dropped it like I have, it’s a losing battle and then we’are back in the same place. So with that said, if you know your why and if you can be forgiving of yourself all the times that you haven’t hit it, that you’re not there yet.

Realize that it’s not a lack of motivation. It’s picking something that you look forward to, biting off and then you can always raise the bar.

Here are some ways to have more activity:

One, follow me on Instagram. I do a 10-minute dance challenge. I do Salsa and Bachata. If at least you know your basics then you can follow. That’s a consistent thing. I have 50 videos up, so it’s a quick thing with low commitment. You can just put it on first thing you do when you wake up. At lunchtime, put a 10 mins before you eat lunch. Just have a consistently a 10-minute commitment and it’s fun and it’s dancing.

Two, there are a lot of apps out there and you want the simplest one with the smallest commitment. There is a six-pack in 60 days, that’s one of the apps that I use. There are three modes and what it does for you is it gives you your workout. They’re about eight to nine minutes and you just do them. You have three days you’re working and one day rest. You just knock it off. What you want is easy consistency. There’s a ton of apps but you want something that you’d look forward to doing on some level. It could be legs, doesn’t matter, just want to build that reputation with yourself.

Three, accountability is great. Accountability with others whether it’s reaching out to a friend, a family member or maybe just posting online. It definitely helped me. I’ve been posting my weight on Instagram every single day, the worst or the best. It’s been great in that way. It’s a small part, it’s not everything.

Ultimately, you got to focus on your why. You gotta be forgiving yourself when you slip up. You got to build trust with yourself. That has helped me and that can help you on your fitness journey.

So if you pick five-minute pushups, if you pick dancing with Aleks or whatever it is, do it consistently and that little bit helps.

Just the only thing I’ll give you a kind of an asterisk about is, make sure that whoever you pick, the standards of these people should be higher than yours for fitness if that’s what you want to get better at. Because if you go to someone whose standards are lower and you’re trying to prove when you slip up, what those people do unconsciously is they’ll tell you to drop it and then you believe them which is not great. So definitely pick someone who’s just has a higher standard for fitness or whatever you care about.

So those are my three tips. One, join me for the dance videos. Two, there’s a ton of apps. Pick a basic app that you don’t have to spend money and something you could do daily that you’d look forward to. And three, accountability whether posting online or whatever consistently. But what you’re looking for is consistency. Then on day five or on day 20 you just start to see this transformation. Because the magic was you kept your word to yourself and now you respect yourself more.

If you want me to answer another question or you want me to give you advice on something you’re struggling with, please leave it in the comments below. I love you and I’ll see you soon. 🙂

The post Coronavirus Sucks – Building Fitness & Being More Active appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

I’m sharing with you some wisdom as you and I go through this Coronavirus, how we can all thrive and not just survive.

One of the things I think about is the importance of a morning routine. Having that kind of structure, especially for me who runs a business from home. Even when our school was open, I’d only really be teaching at the studio at night. Discipline and structure was something I struggled with.

The way I think about is how do you want to fill up your cup before pouring it to others?  Throughout the day, we have a certain amount of energy, and sure we can increase it but the start is where we can really fill it up.

Physical rest is not always enough to give us mental rest. When we wake up, we start to think about all the responsibilities we have and all the things we have to do for other people. These days, it’s getting so bad that sometimes I avoid my phone because there’s another person that needs something. Hey, don’t get me wrong…I actually love being needed. I love people, but just waking up and being worried and stressed is exhausting for me.

I’ve been working hard just having that first 20 – 30 minutes to myself so that I can fill myself up with positivity, hope, and joy. I feel that I am more equipped to deal with the world and everything it throws at me when I do that.

The good news, the bad news, all the people, all the fires, everything on the days, it’s just harder to deal with it if I’m not doing my morning rou1ine.

Those days just everything starts to slip away.

One of the most basic things I’ve been working on really hard is not to hit the snooze button. I made a promise to myself the day before that I’m committing to this. I think it’s super basic but everyone definitely should not hit the snooze. Snooze is the worst invention ever. It’s passing on the promise you made to yourself.

The real thing is, if the night before you’re exhausted just you need more rest then account for that. Give yourself extra rest and don’t feel guilty. I’m not talking about grind, I’m just talking about if the first decision you make not to do the thing you said you would….you’re already saying what you commit to is not important.

It’s a bad reputation that you form with yourself. Some of you may say grind through, but for me, I had to learn. First of all, if it’s two o’clock at night and I’ve been working late or whatever, and tomorrow I would love to wake up at seven and grind through. But even if I wake up at seven and somehow crawl out of bed, it’s a brutal day.

I’m going to sleep till eight but I’m gonna wake up at eight, so the first thing is don’t hit the snooze if that’s your problem definitely just fix that. As hard as it is, if you have to crawl out of bed, put the alarm in another room, whatever it takes just to get out of bed, keep your promise!

The second thing is I don’t check my phone messages for the first 15 to 30 minutes. Don’t deal with other people’s needs. You’ll get there. There is absolutely no emergency that if you had to check it couldn’t wait 30 minutes. I have on my phone “do not disturb”, so it removes all notifications except with special people like my mom, my brothers, and a few people. If they message me it will ring, it will get my notification and if it’s not an emergency then I’ll definitely have a conversation with them about it.

But other than the no disturbances, I need to fill my cup. I want to fill my cup with positivity. Physical rest is not enough for mental risks cause there’s a lot of stress that builds up. So one of the things I do is 5 to 10 minutes, I watched some inspirational and motivational video about someone I highly respect.

For me, videos are what I connect with. I’ll shower and I’ll turn on my speaker so I’m still being productive. Someone is talking, saying something and I’ll often pick something that I need for that morning. Maybe I’m struggling with something and I need some inspiration.

I listen because I think when you surround yourself with the energy that you need, with the positivity that you need definitely it’s a necessary thing that can pump you up to go and face your day.

As far as I’ve gotten here in life, it’s been on the shoulders of giants. There’s that famous saying that we can’t do anything alone. Maybe if you don’t have anyone immediately in your life that you wake up to or is really positive, then surround yourself with those through audio tapes or through books like Les Brown, Brene Brown, David Goggins, Tony Robbins, Kevin Hart, and Will Smith.

The first thing you do is you go wake up and you sit on a couch for 10 minutes and you read a book, maybe meditation is your thing.

The whole point of all of these suggestions is in the first 15 to 30 minutes how are you taking care of yourself when you wake up to face the day. Like for a business that’s closed down right now and you’re just trying to survive. How do you even have hope is definitely by gaining control of your life.

I’m not in control of the Coronavirus. I don’t know where my business is going to open. I don’t know when I’m going to see my friends and my family. But in this 15 – 30 minutes I’m going to make it a sacred time for me.

When you dedicate a sacred time for yourself, in effect you’re able to just give more and offer more to others. It’s kind of hard to pour from your cup and to others as if yours is always empty. So take care of yourself!

If you want me to answer another question or you want me to give you advice on something you’re struggling with, please leave it in the comments below. Otherwise, I’ll see you soon. 🙂

The post Coronavirus Sucks – Thrive not just Survive – Morning Routine appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

All of our registrations done online, so the answer is no.

This helps us organize this school and make it an amazing experience for every single person that joins. Part of what we offer in our school as a group experience is to make sure that the numbers are balanced. That means the ratio between the leaders and the followers are equal.

When people register online, I know how many leaders there are and I know how many followers. So if we have, let’s say, ten leaders and six followers, I will add four followers into that class to make sure that the numbers are balanced. Also, it prevents the chaos of first day registration…dealing with payments…etc.

The last thing that we want is for you or the instructor to worry about any last-minute payments that we have to take care of and help you with. We want you to be able to come in and have a smooth class experience. When you register online, sort of like buying a movie ticket online, all you need to do is just walk through the door and show your ticket and then you’re in and the lesson starts.

The third reason why we ask people to register online is because our classes sell out and we even have waiting lists for our classes. The maximum capacity of our class is 40 students. Sometimes we’ll have 48 students register and those eight students are on a waiting list. Definitely, if you tried to come in person and there’s a waiting list, there is no way that you’d be able to get into a class. So when you register online, we guarantee that we save you a spot that you have and a place that you #belong!

Now if you have any trouble registering online or maybe I didn’t answer fully the question that you were looking to get answered, then email us. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can to answer any other questions.

If there is a question, dancing or school-related, you want me to answer, please leave it in the comments below. And if you want to take classes with us, click REGISTER NOW.

Welcome to the family.

The post I want to join your class, can I just come in and register in person? appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

Yes, it just depends on the comfort level of the instructor you’re reaching out to.

In my experience, for example, I’ve had my Salsa students at different levels who asked me to come over to their place. They’re having a birthday dance and they want me to teach them and their friends a Salsa or Bachata. I’ve been happy to do that only because I’m familiar with the students, it all just feels safe and comfortable. The most important thing for us, for our instructors to feel safe and comfortable.

“So why not use our dance studio?” I honestly ask you that. The great thing about our studio is we’ve got great lighting and we’ve got great floors. A lot of other locations have carpets or linoleum and as a dance experience, it’s really tough to be able to turn on those kinds of floors. Also, we have a big wide open space. That means there’s lots of room to move around and nobody can get injured. We’ve got mirrors where you get to see yourself and your instructor in a lot of different angles. Plus, we’ve got an amazing sound system.

The best of all is every instructor gets to book the dance studio when they’re doing their private lesson to our calendar. They can book it off when it’s good for you and the instructor as well. So the student’s schedule is pretty flexible unless it’s evenings when we’re running our own group classes.

So yes, it’s possible! It just has to depend on the comfort level of the instructor whether or not they know you and also what kind of events. Just email us and honestly send us all the details. Tell us what you’re looking for or what you want to learn. Tell us if it is a group event or a private event, then we’ll figure out the rest and help you make it an awesome experience!

If there is a question, dancing or school-related, you want me to answer, please leave it in the comments below. And if you want to take classes with us, click REGISTER NOW.

Welcome to the family.

The post Are your instructors allowed to go to another place to have a private lesson? appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.

We don’t do trial classes because we want to make sure that the school numbers, the ratio in each class is balanced.

One of the worst things is to be left out standing while everyone has a partner and you don’t. We work hard to make sure that the numbers for followers and leaders is balanced. So if we have ten leaders, we want to have ten followers so everyone has a chance to dance together and not be left out.

Now there is a legitimate worry that you might have, “what if I don’t fit in?”.  I’m trying to think of reasons why at our school you won’t fit in. Maybe you’re worried that you have two left feet. Our school is designed that every adult who doesn’t feel like they can coordinate themselves can learn to dance.

We realize that not everybody grows up dancing, that some people learn when they’re 20 when they’re 30, 50, or 60. It doesn’t matter what their age is. Our structure is designed that you learn week by week and build slowly on the knowledge you learned the previous week. We level you up by building your confidence and skills every week.  We give you enough knowledge that you feel like you’re stretching yourself but not overwhelmed.

Another reason why you might think you might not fit in is you’re worried that maybe people will judge you or laugh at you because you’re having a hard time. Well, not at our school! We make sure that the instructors, the helpers and the volunteers that walk around and dance with the students give you a supportive and enriching environment.

One of the things I talk a lot about on the first day of the class is, all you need to do is to come in every class with a smile.  Be supportive, high five everyone around you and I will get you where you want as a dancer. But if you’re not laughing, you’re not having fun, it’s kind of hard. So don’t obsess about the steps cause we got a system that would take care of the steps. You just got to come in and have fun!

I think too many people are too hard on themselves. Maybe you’re worried because you’re a perfectionist and you just want to nail it the first time. Nobody nails anything in the first time. So focus on every class does, gaining a few more inches and improving. Do the process of making friends, having fun, building confidence, connecting, being part of the culture and so much more.

Part of our whole culture is belonging. You #belong! That means you just got to accept yourself for the unique and awesome person that you are. Bring that personality to our studio and you will fit in just right!

If there is a question, dancing or school-related, you want me to answer, please leave it in the comments below. And if you want to take classes with us, click REGISTER NOW.

Welcome to the family.

The post Why can’t I try one of your class before I join? I just want to make sure I fit in appeared first on Toronto Dance Salsa.