If you didn’t get the opportunity to watch Dr. Gina’s latest YouTube video about what she has gained during this pandemic, then you are missing out!
I want to follow up on her remarks, by asking the same question that she posed to you all:
“What are you grateful for, that COVID-19 has given you the opportunity to explore?”
I will jump into my individual takeaways in a second, but before I do so, I’d like to touch a little bit on the importance of reflection. When someone says, “reflect,” what do you do? Do you toss a fleeting thought towards that direction before turning back to your phone? Do you externally utter, “Hmm. That’s a great question…”? Or do you take that planted seed of thought to the next level?
Personally, I think that reflection is one of the most defining traits between the successful and struggling; between the happy and sad; between the victorious and defeated.
“Am I on the right track? What are my 6 month, year, decade goals again? Have I deviated from the man that I want to be, even slightly? How can I love my wife better?” This is also a practice that I’ve adapted for a little bit longer than 30 minutes on Sundays. If I fail to reflect, and get lax on my prayer and journaling, I notice that words, thoughts, actions come out of me, that do not align with the man that I want to be. All of this to say that when, Dr. Gina asks us to reflect: go after it with tenacious intentionality. Get to the space and quietness where true digging can occur.
After “reflecting,” I was reminded just how long this pandemic has endured, and then I thought, “That’s only 7 months! What kind of goals have I neglected/overlooked because of a seemingly fleeting 6-7 months??” I mean, I don’t know about you, but it seems like it’s been 2020 for 3 years. But, I think that’s because it’s slowed…down…our…world.
At the beginning of this pandemic, I was an engaged young buck, whom had just moved up to the Twin Cities area, seeking to transfer to the chiropractic college in Bloomington so that my fiancé could maintain her position with her company and we could begin our married life together. However, communication was largely ineffective and I’ll spare you the sentiments and suffice it to say, that’s not quite what happened…
During that time, however, I got to know Becca at a whole new level. We had been dating distance for the duration of our relationship, and seeing and interacting with her from the moment my car pulled into the driveway in the mornings until it left 15 hours later, may be something that I will never get to experience again. I got to fall harder and harder for someone, I didn’t think that I could love more.
I also learned something about my introverted self: I need people to compete against to be my best self. Don’t get me wrong, Bec and I competed in her garage through grueling CrossFit workouts for 2-2.5 hours daily…but in our respective lanes. CrossFit calls for slightly modified workouts based on gender, so we rarely ever had the same parameters. COVID reinforced the mantra of being the average of your five closest peers. My appreciation for my “brothers,” friends that I would fight back to back with in any dark alley, grew exponentially.
COVID also took my concept of planning and scheduling and maliciously decimated it lol. From a culture that went from planning for years down the road, to teachers not knowing if their students would be online or in person 1 week before classes started is quite the reversal! With this realization, grew my appreciation for the present. We are after all, a “mist” (James 4:14) that is here and then gone. Kobe was supposed to be here for another 50 years, at least, right? (This is why I hate the t-shirts, that say, “Not today. Do it tomorrow.” No. Freaking do it, right now).
My final takeaway is that we are capable of so much more than we think. I hear story after story about people who’s businesses have thrived in this pandemic, students who accomplish their daily homework by 10 am, and simply adapting to ever changing logistics and being…ok. Control the controllables and get after it with the best attitude that you can muster.
Until next time,
Brock Baumgarn, CA
Nutrition Consultant
Health 1st Chiropractic & Wellness Center