A Look in the Rear View Mirror to May 2020
These past few months have been stacked with stress, uncertainty, anxiety, fear, binge-watching paired with too much Chardonnay and cheese, and not to mention the vital need for adaptability, creative expression and emotional release.
As a lifelong writer (ever since I could hold a pencil at least), I’ve spent years dreaming about the day that I would get to self-publish my work, to have the ability to connect through written word and to candidly share my personal experiences with the goal of inspiring others. Even if my posts incite the slightest degree of change (hopefully positive) in someone, I’ll feel successful in my endeavor of vulnerability.
Ironically, this pandemic has forced us all to step out of our comfort zones in the most comfortable of ways, by staying home and looking inwards and to our immediate surroundings (and/or relationships). Fact is we’re living in textbook times, through a historical period of collective stillness, where the universe is allowing us to slow down and really smell the roses (even if they’re only in our backyard).
Some of us have the luxury of using this additional time to focus on the things that may have fallen to the wayside. Be it an emphasis on self-care, fitness, mental health, education, or career – now is really the time to flex those muscles, when a lot of those reactive factors that used to get in the way are non-existent (i.e. work commute/traffic, nightly events, a social life). Life laughs as we make plans, doesn’t it?
With a high-stress career in a fast-paced industry, bringing my blog to life became a piecemeal effort, spending nights after work and weekends learning the ins and outs of creating a platform. A few years and unfruitful tries later, it was reaching out to one of my oldest and dearest friends that gave me the proverbial swift kick in the ass that I needed to bring my digital concoction into existence, (shout out to the incomparable Yasmina Luria for designing my dream platform).
As the great Amy Poehler put it in her first book, Yes Please, “You do it because the doing of it is the thing. The doing is the thing. The talking and worrying and thinking is not the thing.”
Yes, these past eight weeks have been rough and it’s okay to feel like you want to curl up in a messy sweat-pant ball and stay in bed for an entire week straight, but eventually you have to do the thing. Whether it’s taking an online class, losing weight, putting on make-up, learning a new language, finally mastering crow pose, whatever YOUR thing is, take this time to lose yourself in it.
Point is, you can have the best ideas and intentions, but nothing will come to fruition until you put yourself out there. I urge you to listen to that voice, without fear or shame.
With that, I introduce you to the GALA Life blog, an open space for creativity, empowerment, cultural exploration and inspiration. This is what I bring you here—the doing of the thing I’ve always wanted to do. I hope my thing pushes you to shapeshift out of the norm and to explore the thing that calls to you most.
Remember to Always Keep Galavanting! xx Alexia