Panflection - It’s Been (quite) a year
Getting outdoors this past year was a necessity for me! Grass Mountain Trail in Santa Ynez. This pic says so much about this last year.
Here we are, a couple weeks, give and take, when the safer at home started for us in 2020. Our jaws dropped in disbelief that moment we realized the reality of the looming collective and growing global situation. This very contagious flu virus was unlike any other was the only information we got, and the scramble for toilet paper began. And lines. Our world was shutting down all around us and cornering us into our homes. Two weeks turned into three more, then months. Six feet apart and social distancing became the vernacular. Masks, the new fashion and political statement. We all became experts in Zoom and used Facetime more than ever, for business, exercise, happy hours, book clubs, and birthday parties. Weddings and funerals were streamed. Some had more time, some had even less. With schools closed, parents became teachers and still managed to work full time. Others found their commute times transformed into extra time for self and family. With more time at home, home improvement projects held in suspension were realized and set forth into motion. Businesses became creative, or had to let go of employees, or shut down completely. Vacations became what we could drive to, while receiving our refunds on our bucket list adventures. These little deaths; rebirths and reconfigurations. Patience and frustration in a daily, even hourly adaptation of our new lives. In our busy lives, the world stopped revolving so fast, and we had more time to look at our lives and ask what we truly wanted from them. We recently bench marked half a million Americans who died from Covid, and we either personally lost loved ones to the virus or know someone who did. These deaths left gaping holes, and very little community in which to grieve with. We have all changed so much in one year, our resolve and resilience blossomed as our world shifted in such an unexpected direction.
What I learned
I would love to hear your “Panflections”. When has there ever been time in our lifetime when the whole world was simultaneously dealing with the same issue? We all had similar situations, but such different experiences. Being a married woman with no kids, time poured in. I went from a 25-30 a week clientele, to around 10. I am forever grateful to and thank those clients who stuck it out with me and adapted to new ways of moving. I can only hope I helped contribute to their pandemic experience in a positive way. With this extra time and gyms closed down (and still are), I started The Curious Mover in April, after receiving so many unexpected compliments about my writing throughout the years. Once a week, I was accountable to come up with material I thought was interesting or helpful to pass on. So I thank you for reading this and supporting the development of this skill with you. Without any equipment, I was driven into creativity and online teaching with an empty canvas of people’s living rooms to find exercises without any Pilates apparatus or pulley systems. It turns out, I enjoyed the challenge and revamped the way I teach movement. More time meant more study hours online that led me into multi-planar movement fascination, and learning chain reactions of the body starting from the feet “dominoing” up to the skull with Gary Ward, Chuck Wolf, and Gray Institute. This April, I will be heading up to San Francisco for a level 1 certification in natural and adaptive movement, MovNat. I am still teaching Pilates but necessity is the mother of invention. Using gravity (down) and ground force (up) as inspiration, just like my first love, dance - exploring the way we authentically move in the world.
Talk about love, I got to spend more time with my husband, and we learned to work from home together (he had such a quiet home work space before!) We shared more meals together, and one car. I spent more time with my family, and was able to take my niece and nephew hiking into nature once a week, and they spent more time with their doting auntie and uncle. I started a daily morning walking practice, moved more, started learning meditation, and got more books under my reading glasses. For me, it’s been a blessing in disguise. Others, a nightmare. As I miss him on a daily basis, I was glad my beloved dad was not here to see this. Seniors and kids had it the worst.
We owe it to ourselves to take stock - to look back and see what has become of us, our families, our communities, our world. Take a moment to think about this, or write down what you take away from this. How have you changed, for better or for worse? With so much stripped away, how did you turn that into plenitude? How did you make the best of it? How did you get through the worst of it? If you are so inspired and want to share, I would love to hear your Panflections!