Anna Ferguson

And I used to catch the tram along the same street and there was a gym that I would go past every day.

And one day I looked at it and I go, you know what?

Punching people actually seems like a very fun thing to do.

But I was extremely...

it was a very masculine, male-dominated sport.

And so for a long time, I was like, no, no, don't go in there.

But for whatever reason, one day I was like, you know what, I'm going in there and I'm going to book in a trial class.

So I went in.

What was it like when you walked in the door?

You know, again, I had the same mentality.

No, you've made this decision.

You have to follow through.

And in some sense, this has served me in life because I do continue to push through discomfort.

But

I showed up to my first class and I barely made it through the warmup, which was like three minutes of skipping and then some shadow boxing and stuff.

And I'd never thrown a punch before.

So I was just doing my thing, just trying to like get through it.

But by the end of the session, after doing some pad work and my coach had showed me how to throw a punch properly and

I just, for the first time, I felt this sense of stillness.

It was very brief, but I just felt this sense of stillness in my body for the first time in almost a decade where I was just like, whoa, that feels really good not to be in this state of constant tension and combativeness and looking at what's next.