Ahh,, the Open!!!!! It’s like kids waiting for Christmas … if Christmas makes you want to pee your pants and have nervous butterflies all at once! And now, it’s over for another 11 months. So … what’s next?
Simple: We recover, reflect, and resolve.
Recovery implies a return to something that once was, but I think we’d all agree that continuous evolution means forward motion, not a retreat. However, there is a time and place to just be exactly where we are, and that time and place is post-Open. We have used the excitement, adrenaline and camaraderie for the last 5 weeks to propel us into new territories of fitness, ones that we’ve been approaching over the last month, years, or even decades of fitness and wellness journeys.
It’s time to decompress. Our workouts will reflect this, and our mental and emotional states also must. It’s time to look at where we were, give ourselves grace for where we’ve been (and why we were there), and decide where we’re going. Most importantly, though, we can’t lose process of what happens along the way. It’s the magic that we’ll skip right past.
In this “Recover” phase, we use that time spent in quieter classes “doing the damn thing” as we’re sometimes heard to say – the day-to-day, the “just showing up” that allows margin for growth, relationship, and, sometimes, even downright miracles to happen. Yes, I said miracles. Light out of darkness, growth out of things that once looked to be lifeless. We’re not going through the motions; we’re creating space for new motion and healing from what has come to pass.
Reflecting, looking at something that is looking right back at you — this is sometimes the part we want to glaze on past. Maybe we don’t look the way we’d hoped to look at this time this year. Maybe we’re tired of chugging uphill, or garnering enough ‘for the moment’ strength to just keep doing the same thing with the same results. This is where we rely on the team, the Tribe, we’ve chosen to surround ourselves with. We ask them what they see when they look at us. Sometimes there’s some downright GOLD in us that we just can’t see in ourselves. When the “you” looking back in the reflection isn’t what you thought it would be, take time to ask yourself: What systems did I have in place to initiate, and sustain, the change I wanted to see? How much vulnerability did I offer? How much was I willing to believe that for things to really change, I have to be willing to do something differently? This isn’t a time to crush yourself; rather, it’s a time to celebrate your willingness to look at that reflection, love it, and then ask it to be willing to do more, believe for more, and then plan for more.
You got this,
Coach Mindy 🙂