Allison Minardi
Fitness Coordinator
We live in a world that values “busy.” It is almost a status symbol or an honorable achievement to schedule yourself to have no hours left “un-used” by the end of the day. When you talk to your friends or family and ask how their day was, how many times is the response, “it was busy”, or a rambling list of everything they accomplished? It very well may describe their day, but there is something about claiming busy-ness that earns our immediate respect. Why are we so obsessed with busy?? Maybe it’s because busy sounds productive, maybe it’s some strange competition we all have with each other, or, maybe when we’re busy we don’t have time to sit and consider how we actually feel; but that is probably a discussion for an entirely other blog.
I for one, am super guilty of this addiction to busy. Pre-pandemic, to look at my calendar would have been a visual assault with all the events, gatherings, appointments, meetings, workouts, clients, and family commitments that were planned. Before Covid19 my weekly routine involved 4:45am wakeup calls, arriving to work by 6am, working a full day with, you guessed it, A PACKED SCHEDULE, followed with private clients, driving my son to his activities, walking my dogs, cleaning my house, and still squeezing in time to meet up with friends. Anything to avoid sitting and doing nothing. It was my life, my routine, and I was used to it. Then on March 18, 2020, my busy schedule came to a crashing halt. The Fitness Center closed, along with all big box gyms, my son’s Karate and Tennis were stopped, my appointments were cancelled, my private training clients chose to discontinue, and there was no social interaction outside my immediate household. I was forced to pause.
At first, pausing is terrifying. You go from having no time, to too much time. How do you keep your status of “productive” when you are unable to just keep moving? But that forced pause has taught me a few things. These are the learnings I would like to share with you.
- Pausing allows for reflection. When we are so busy with our daily lives we are almost on autopilot. We don't have the luxury of asking, “does this make me happy?” because we are obsessed with crossing things off our to-do list. Well, since I was forced to take a break from my overbooked life, I realize it is something I am NOT rushing back to it once things resume. I am fortunate enough to still have a full-time job, have taken on the responsibility of remote learning with my 8-year-old son, and have allotted time to exercise. Everything else has gone away. The racing from one commitment to the next. The late dinners because all of us are not home until 7pm. The just barely squeezing in alone time or friend time and the sense of urgency to get useless errands off my list. Instead, I take my time, and I have completed some home projects that we never could find time for. Projects we actually wanted to do but always put on the back burner chasing things we didn’t actually want to do. Lesson here: I have learned to think about what I NEED to do, things I WANT to do, and what is honestly just plain filler.
- My pause has also introduced me to new things. Ok, I still like to have things to do, just maybe not so schedule driven. Hey, I am Type A and a complete busy body after-all. Every weekend for the last 7 weeks I have walked or hiked with my family or alone in a new location around this county. It took a complete shutdown for me to take the time to see the magnificence that surrounds us every day! I have walked the trails through Desoto National Park, Ken Thompson Park in Sarasota, Robinson Preserve, Rye Preserve, Adventure Park in LWR, Celery Fields in Sarasota, Benderson Park, and the Ringling Bridge just to name a few. This is a new normal I plan to hold on to. I have truly enjoyed every second of my family or alone time connecting with the natural beauty of this area! My explorations have made this quarantine not feel like a punishment. Yes, I have had my struggles here and there, but there is something about being outdoors with our beautiful weather that helps me feel differently about this “isolation.”
- Pausing is NOT a sign of laziness. This is huge. Because we live in world that tells us busy is good, we make the assumption that doing nothing is not. Pausing can be not only healthy, but it is absolutely essential to growth. It can give you that time to recharge, come back stronger and more prepared. It can also start you off in a new direction, a better direction.
While we are living in these challenging times, take this opportunity, this forced pause to re-evaluate what you were doing before. Make a list! List the things you have to do, then list the things you want to do. Most importantly, make a list of things you were doing that don’t meet a need or a want. It is that last list of things to pause and reflect on. Ask yourself, “does this make me happy?” If the answer is no, it may be the perfect time to reframe your life. There is no rule saying you have to rush back to everything once life resumes. You don’t have to rush back to busy.
