Sink or swim

I know it’s the third time in a row I am writing my Blog in English, but it’s simply because I need ALL my members and fitness friends across the world to hear what I have to say.  Especially today.

What a week of anticlimaxes this has been!  At first there was the Sunday evening relief that the President said nothing about the closing of gyms in his “family meeting”, just to be hit Monday morning by the written statement in the Gazette that fitness centres should close.  Only the week before we had recorded an energetic Rebounding class as well as a fantastic Step class with almost 40 members in the studio, and the next moment I found myself all alone in the studio once again, just like a year ago.

When Edrei came on Wednesday morning to teach her Zoom class she also mentioned how strange it felt…

One of the biggest contrasts, however, was when Schalk and I were switching channels between the broadcasting of Wimbledon and SuperSport, waiting for the start of the rugby Test match between South Africa and Georgia.   On the one hand, there was this quiet and abandoned Loftus Versfeld Stadium – and as the players were jogging onto the field, surrounded by a sea of empty seats, it surely must have been a very strange feeling for them.  They had not competed since that legendary Rugby World Cup victory in November 2019! 

On the other hand,  I gasped when I saw that life at Wimbledon had practically return to “normal”.  I even asked Schalk if England has now been declared Covid-free, because it certainly looked that way!  It has now been 715 days since Djokovic won his fifth title, since the last time a certain fruity alcoholic drink was poured, since the last punnet of strawberries was taken out of the fridge!

Suddenly there they were again, the delighted fans, without masks, the hustle and bustle and the delighted shrieks and excitement of the crowd on ‘Henman Hill’, the grassy mound outside Court One where large numbers of fans typically congregate to watch games on the big screen…

Indeed, a week of extreme contrasts this has been.

…On Friday afternoon I was dead tired.  “Ah, too many classes”, I can almost hear you say.  No, want to know why I was really bummed out and emotionally drained?  Because it was a week during which I had to cheer up, motivate and encourage my members to stay positive… 

Of course, I UNDERSTAND their pain.  Their pain is my pain.  I have not really understood everyone`s desire to come to the studio until Friday morning.  My regular appointment with my hairdresser in Pretoria had to be postponed because of travel restrictions, so I made an appointment with Amanda, whom I hadn’t seen in months… It was a pleasant visit, but to my surprise, Amanda seemed a bit down-hearted, explaining to me that all the constant Covid conversations of her clients have really taken their toll on her, mentally and emotionally.

She said that Covid has become the main topic on everyone`s lips – who`s getting the vaccine and who not, who has lost a family member to Covid, who has been infected too, etc, etc etc.  I can imagine how tough these months must have been for her, and others, in the same line of work.  A hairdresser or beauty therapist is someone we like to confide in, and I guess it`s not so easy to change the subject when Covid is all they can talk about.

That`s when it dawned on me why all my members who have been coming to the studio since September are feeling that their world has been turned upside down.  The studio has offered a little bit of normality in a very crazy world.  It`s not that we have been insensitive, ignorant or careless about the virus.  We have practised social distancing where we could, and we have sanitized.  Boy, oh boy, have we sanitized.  Everything.  In fact, sometimes I could just sit on my stage after class looking in awe at everyone scrubbing away before they put back their equipment…

But we never talked about the pandemic.  When the music started to play, we simply got lost in the moves and the music and the workout.  And you know what? Sticking to that routine has kept us strong and healthy.  Physically, mentally and emotionally.  I recently read a post by Sam Dylan Finch, an American psychologist, who says:

“Taking a step back is not complacency.  That’s self-compassion…and the majority of us could use a whole lot more of that in our lives.”

So yes, I know it`s a huge anticlimax to suddenly switch to Zoom sessions.  I know, we all feed off the energy of others in a live class.  But you know what’s really ironic?  Here I am, encouraging my members, while I am actually the one being shut down.  I don’t know of ONE of my members who weren’t allowed to go to work last week.  I don’t know of one of my readers who suddenly, overnight, became unsure of their paycheck.  But have you heard me complain once this past week…?

You know what’s ironic too?  We think that England is free from Covid, but apparently coronavirus cases are dramatically rising there, too, driven by the Delta variant.  In fact, they had a jump of 58 percent over the last week!  So why is everyone flocking to Wimbledon?  Why has everyone come to the studio until we were forced to close?  Because the world is a different place, but at Wimbledon, and between the four walls of our beautiful studio, life feels largely the same…

Tomorrow we start week 9 of our 12-week Winter Challenge, and we don`t know what our President is going to announce next Sunday.  That’s why I am presenting this week`s Mini-Challenge not only to my members, but to everyone out there.  To conquer this Mini-Challenge there are no rules, but I will easily detect your mindset simply by how you pitch, what you say, and what you do.  Proof that you are capable to live a “new now”, for seven days, not a “new normal”.  It won’t be hard for me to see if you are compliant. 

Are you putting your life on hold, pausing your exercise routine, waiting for next Sunday, hoping that it will all be over?  Or are you living full blast, grasping the opportunities available to you at the moment, in these uncomfortable circumstances, practising a positive mindset, doing what you can with what you have?

As Richelle E Goodrich writes in her book “Smile anyway”: “Life isn’t a lazy cruise on some endless, calm, and temperate sea. Life is a raging ocean with swells and tidal waves that wreck and sink your boat. Life is a series of storms – overcast skies, fierce winds, and pelting rain. You were meant to be immersed in it all.  First to float, then to swim, and eventually to walk on water.”

Change always forces us to step off the path, to venture from the nest, to close our eyes and to dive right in. 

The question is – will we sink, or swim.  The choice is ours.

Yours in fitness

Mirna

082 779 0507