When quarantine started, I closed Namaslay® Studios’ doors and immediately pivoted our focus from in-person classes and one to one personal training to online classes. I went into overdrive trying to do it all and make it work in an attempt to avoid going out of business. The other revenue stream that was greatly reduced was sponsored content - companies simply didn’t have the budget they did before the COVID-19 pandemic. I had to figure out where to reduce costs, and how to push other things, like Mantra Boxes® to help supplement the reduced revenue.
It was a time dominated by uncertainty and I felt constant, varying degrees of stress from day one. Given the additional stress, most of my personal life was thrown off-track as well. All the improvements to my sleep had gone out the door. I found myself staying up until one or two in the morning, eating garbage, and not drinking enough water throughout the day, and just feeling like absolutely everything was off.
The longer quarantine went on, the more uncertain I felt.
Up until about two weeks ago. Finally, I felt like I developed a work routine. It wasn’t sustainable for me to be teaching daily classes in addition to my workload which includes filming and creating workout content for our YogaByCandace® App (on iOS and Android devices), yoga content for Namaslay® Studios Online, teaching the initial online module of a yoga teacher training, writing blog posts, promoting all of our offerings on social, recording our podcast, and recently, starting to do the books for the business.
My new work routine began to fall into place. I’d teach a few times per week, upload those recordings to our selling platform, and promote. I’d try to write a blog post or two per day to try to catch up on that front. I’d film every other day or so for YouTube or our online members platform. I’d do the books a few times per week. Suddenly, things seemed a bit more manageable, despite the constant unknown of what the future will bring.
Now that work seemed a bit more manageable, this past week I started focusing on my personal life. Like I said, I wasn’t eating well, wasn’t sleeping well, or being consistent with my workouts. My mindset was anchored in negativity, and it wasn’t a good place to operate from. In fact, I felt like I could barely operate. To make a change, I started with sleep. For me, it’s vital to have a morning routine and a nighttime routine, so I started implementing those. Getting more high quality sleep, and getting up at the same time each morning to stretch, meditate and ease into the day triggered a shift in my mental health. I felt more uplifted, more focused, more positive. That’s the place I want to operate from.
The next phase is food. I’ve started making a small shift towards making healthier, more nutrient dense decisions. I need to make sure that I’m eating consistently, and eating enough of the right stuff, and not as much of the bad stuff. To be clear, I’ll still be making my popcorn and cookies, but the other day I ate six cookies for breakfast and just felt like I needed to check myself, haha. Everything in moderation, and I definitely wasn’t doing that. I also have started to be really mindful about the amount of water I’m drinking. I find myself so stressed about focusing on my To Do list that I forget to drink any water until half the day’s gone by. It’s awful.
The reason why I’m sharing all this is because I know I’m not the only one who has found this time to be so difficult both personally and professionally. I also want to be honest with my struggles, and never want to paint the picture that I’ve got it all figured out - because I most definitely do not. What I do have, however, is a desire to constantly improve, and I focus on that. I’m not going to get down on myself and give up because I made a bad decision or ten (initially overworking myself, mismanaging my stress, choosing to watch a fifth episode of Peaky Blinders at 1am, not drinking any water until noon, etc). Instead, I approach change by acknowledging where I got off track, and take actionable steps to get back on the path I want to be on.
I acknowledge that making a change can be difficult. I don’t want to get up a 6:30am right now (the goal is eventually getting back to a 5:30am wake-up call). I would much rather roll over and go to sleep. But I know that the longterm goal is what I’m after. While I might want to go to sleep in that moment, I know that once I get up, meditate and stretch, I’m going to be well on my way to having a good day. And that’s what it’s all about for me. Having better days. Feeling better in my body. Operating from a place of surrender to however this is going to play out, while also trusting in my own abilities and knowing that I am doing the best I can with what I have to give in order to give myself and my company the best shot at meeting my goals.
If you need some structure in getting back on the horse, our health and fitness programs are designed to give you daily wellness goals to help you start making small changes. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need some direction in which might be right for you.