50 Shades of Strong

This past week I participated in a Strong Summit, a day geared towards celebrating strong

women in Fitness. The day included lecture sessions from some of the strongest women in the fitness circuit as well as work out sessions led by amazing female instructors. It was a day to celebrate women’s strength not only physical strength but mental and emotional strength too.

The day really got me to thinking about the various definitions of strength and the many

interpretations that this word has to offer. It truly is such a subjective word, what I consider to

be strong may not be what you consider to be strong and vice versa. For fun, I thought I would hit up good old google and see what the web had to say about the word strength. On

Vocabulary.com, I found a great list of the many definitions of Strength:

1. the property of being physically or mentally strong

2. capability in terms of personnel and materiel that affect the

capacity to fight a war

3. permanence by virtue of the power to resist stress or force

4. the power to induce the taking of a course of action or the

embracing of a point of view by means of argument or entreaty

5. an asset of special worth or utility

6. physical energy or intensity

7. the amount of energy transmitted (as by acoustic or

electromagnetic radiation)

8. capacity to produce strong physiological or chemical effects

9. the condition of financial success

The funny thing about the list above is that I can associate myself to many of the definitions. I

would definitely say that I fit the definitions of 1,3,4,5,6,(ok 7 too if you think of positive

energy/attitude) and I’m working on number 9. So by definition(s) I am strong :).

If I had been asked 15 years ago (prior to my cancer, prior to my new outlook on life, prior to my path to fitness) if I could associate myself to any of the above, sadly, I would have said no to all. I’m always so humbled to look back at my transformation in life, to see how far I’ve come and be proud of who I am today – a strong woman; mentally, emotionally and physically.

So where do you see yourself? How do you measure your strength? Are you happy with where you are or are there changes that you would like to make? If there are changes to be had, have you thought about how you can make them? Are you celebrating your successes and your strengths? Take some time over the next week and reflect on the word strength and its meaning, reflect upon your current state, where you have come from and where you would like to be; choose your shade of Strong.

Lina