In the Olympics, competition and the fight for the gold medal is on every athlete's mind. They have been training, working, forfeiting their social life and doing everything they could to work toward this dream since they were young children. They hire the very best trainers and coaches in the world in order to achieve their dream of standing on that podium and hear their country's national anthem.

But when it's time for an athlete's performance on that Olympics stage, it's inevitable for nerves and pressure to step in and take over their mind and body. How can it not? We all can relate to moments in our lives where our skill was challenged or when we simply had to read something out loud at school or when teaching fitness classes. The heart starts to race, palms get sweaty and sometimes our body starts to shake. 

So can you imagine what that it would feel to have these feelings while skating on ice for the performance of your life!!??? That's what the figure skaters in the Olympics must feel like. All the tremendous pressure from everyone including themselves to fight for gold.

Enter Alyssa Liu who said “the medal wasn't even the point…It's not about winning or losing…it's just the output….what matters is the journey”… With those words, she shocked the world because when she stopped seeing skating as something she HAD to do and started seeing it as a creative outlet that brought together the things she cared about: dance, music, design, physical challenge, she won anyway. 

During her routine, she seemed calm, joyful, light and just plain golden. At 20 -years old, after retiring for 2 years from the sport, she became the first American woman since Sasha Cohen at the 2006 Turin Games to medal in singles figure skating.

When those first few notes of “MacArthur's Park” by the iconic Donna Summer started, to the very end of her routine, I was mesmerized. This 20 -year old young woman just floating about to a boomer mega-hit just showed us older adults how to approach a stressful situation in our every day lives. She was insistent that she wanted to come back and do this “her way”… the training schedule, the diet, the music and, yes, even her hair.

The world needed a reminder that all we have to do is change our thoughts and our lives could change too. Her beautiful approach toward the Olympics changed me! I will work toward approaching things more lightly and teaching my daughter to do the same. 

Thank you, Alyssa, for helping us become better humans and for making us all proud.

By Denise C. Imbesi

CEO/Founder

Soul Intention, LLC

d/b/a Muscle Mix Fitness Music