The New Normal

An essential question for all of us to ask ourselves is: How do we embrace the new normal? We will get back to a life without social distancing, that is for sure. But, when we get to that point many people will return to an altered version of that life. Many of us have had to temporarily close down small businesses for the public good. Many people have been laid off and furloughed. Incomes have been affected and the way we all live our lives have been altered. This goes beyond ordering from Amazon Prime, it goes into accepting and embracing change. If my beloved yoga studio doesn't recover from this, I continue to live. I will be sad and suffer a setback, but I will be here to feel those emotions and process them. What about the hundreds of people already losing their lives to this virus? I can start again or teach online yoga, because I will still be here to do it. An acting teacher I loved and revered has perished from this virus, Marc Blum from HB Studio. It can never be said enough times how many lives he enhanced, enlightened, informed, and saved in his time as an acting teacher. He may be gone, but I am still here to make a difference in other peoples lives. I cannot stave off the stress that rises every once in a while at all the changes that are happening around me without my permission, but I know I have to accept and learn to embrace them. When I see my students from school on Google Meet I am reminded how much I miss them and how I much I love what I do for a living. Reading comments on my Google Classroom from my yoga students about how much the videos I have made are helping them through this tough time reminds me of my purpose. My
essential: Why? This may be my new normal. My life may never go back to exactly the way it was before COVID19. The question for me remains: Can I be patient enough with myself to embrace my new normal? I pose that question to all of us.