When Life Has Other Plans

That could be the title of this year. We all had lots of things on our lists for this year. Places we wanted to go. Concerts. People we wanted to see. Training's we were a part of that got cancelled. Now, 4 months into that pandemic, it's old news.

Or is it?

It seems we're in a second wave... possibilities of shutdown again sounding real, drawbacks of phases, requiring masks even while practicing yoga in some states, more cancelled plans. More dashed dreams. The heaviness and the weigh at times, hit hard. In the rush to get back to restaurants and bars and gyms and seeing our friends, in getting a taste for that... this rapidly changing world made it seem like the rug got pulled out from under us.

I see the memes. the funny jokes. About wanting a do-over. About 2020 being a waste of a year. I get that we're all trying to get through this. And.

What if we didn't just have to get through it?

What if there was still a wonderful and beautiful life happening right now, as I type these words? I know, I know... you all know this... and yet... how quickly we forget. How easily we fall back into our old patterns and routines and defaults... it's our nature as humans. We can't help it. We like routine and familiarity and none of that is bad or wrong. And. We unfortunately don't get a lot of our routine and familiarity right now. we are instead being served a big bowl of chaos and not knowing with a side of loss and sadness. The way I see it, we have two ways to look at that bowl.

1.) Ugh. no way. that's disgusting. It'll make me feel gross. I don't want it.

2). Ok. not the best option, but I can work with it.

The great news is, we have a choice. And I'll be honest. I've had plenty of days where I've chosen option 1, yesterday afternoon being one of them. I let my head go and I thought about the state of the world and I got really sad and really depressed. And then my husband came in to the bedroom and started talking in a silly voice like a hobbit and before I knew it I was laughing hysterically at his antics. And then Bethany this morning reminded me to look for the good. To imagine the best case scenario.

This time, you guys. It's not for the faint of heart. Its going to stretch us and challenge us in ways I'm not even sure we fully understand yet. We are going to come out of this differently.And we're going to have minutes, hours, days, maybe weeks... that are just plain hard. And. life is still happening. and there is still so much good.

So many of us are still alive. haven't lost our jobs. have been able to play outside more in our own states, have spent more times with our families. So many of us are getting the opportunity to practice yoga all over the world, to make new funny memories over zoom, to spend time with ourselves like we haven't in a long, long while. Some of those things are easy and fun and exciting. some of those, like sitting with ourselves... are more challenging.

If I've learned anything over this pandemic season, it's the idea of going with the flow. Life is flowing in a certain direction right now. We can love it, hate it, and try to fight it, which is a hell of a lot more work. Or. We can choose to stop swimming upstream. We can choose to stop fighting with reality.

This DOES NOT mean (let me be clear) that we allow ourselves to be walked all over or get resigned or give up on our convictions or throw our hands up and say, "Fuck it, who cares?" It does not mean lethargy. or giving up. At all. It does mean, to use a very old and very over-used phrase... we make lemonade out of lemons. We intentionally look for, with all our might, the good... the joy. We intentionally try our best to get out of our crazy heads and into our bodies. We intentionally keep showing up even when showing up feels like the hardest thing in the world. It's a practice. Most of life is, really. And I think this is why yoga resonates with me so much. Because it's a practice. there's no ceiling. There's always something new to be learned or discovered, or uncovered, if we only practice paying attention.

If you feel like you are struggling right now with any of this... if you feel like you need support... consider the following: I'm leading a course of how to handle life transitions (which, by the way, we are all in in one sort of form or another), and I'm re-learning so much about how I handle things, you guys. This work is life changing and it's work that goes on for your whole life.

The course is pretty straightforward. It's one video teaching a week from me with some questions to answer and a guided meditation, and then a chance to meet with other over a zoom call each week so we can talk about what we are learning. together. It's a chance to change the way you are seeing this pandemic and this time and turn it around and find all the joy, all the love, all the supported. I'm committed to creating that for you.

Look for the joy people. I'll be looking too.

xoxo

Amy