Written by Brady Walker, Performance, Wellness and Breath Coach
If 2020 was a year spellbound, most, I think, hoped that midnight Dec 31st granted permission to start again. Indeed, there were many people excitedly wishing 2020 away. So here we are, Jan 2021, where traditionally, the early stages of a new year revolve around health kicks, refocused finances, and more connection, we have woken to a new world that is now the new normal.
2021 has opened cautiously, much like where 2020 left off. Statistics (trending like a well-followed insta post) command daily attention and the latest updates on borders closures put people’s holidays and new year plans into a scramble.
However, there are many knowns in this new world, things that we are now familiar with, perhaps now prefer. ZOOM and skype logins will continue to replace flights, hotels, and face to face meetings, our social meetups with the girls for coffee will, unfortunately, be hit and miss, and date night at the movies is more likely to be a feature on the couch via NETFLIX or STAN.
This life seems to be all about staying in touch with the latest recommendations, being innovative in our own lives, and keeping up with the latest trends to remain fully functioning.
Last year the buzzword in business was ‘pivot.’ What could you or your company be doing or ‘pivoting’ towards to survive, stay in trend, or even better, how could you reinvent enough for this wild ride to be the greatest thing to happen yet?
On a personal level, I think we will continue to experience our own ‘pivot’ in 2021. Our lives, out of necessity, look to and focus on new trends and innovation where our traditional routines remain broken or are experiencing continued disruption. In some ways, the already small web-based global community has gotten smaller as it gets bigger and becomes more of our life.
As all this change remains and the new normal solidifies, I think the real on-point trend for 2021 will be identified as something more natural and intuitive to everyone.
Something as natural as the breath. We all have an inner voice and maybe yours has been calling you to make long-overdue shift back toward your most authentic self - a pure space that offers stability where you have felt a lack of control and confidence where you have felt unable to create your own feedback and frequency. This calling for many is a space that has long been denied or lost. The turn inward will be as challenging as anything you have experienced so far, and with no road map for success, the road inward is often paved in fear and apprehension. It will expose you, bring about triggers and vulnerabilities. It is a space that many have been happy to hide away from under the smokescreen of a busy life for a long time.
And for a long time, we have appeased this voice, guide, or calling with distractions and surface-level self-care that offer us ‘time outs’, but this space is much more profound, and you can feel it. It is almost as if it sits in your chest, the pit of your gut, and intuitively you want to breathe in deep, clearing space for yourself to fall deeper. A connection within that you feel now is the right time to rediscover. Something that cannot be altered, only grown. You are called to inflate again, pulling in new intentions as even more of you show up to be present. Exhaling the belly sinks, the mind clears and refocuses in on the importance you hold in your own life, a responsibility but not of obligation as you know it. This is different. A commitment you must follow your voice and truth, align where you have been misaligned, and revert to a trust that you now understand can’t be influenced or gained from any other source.
In 2021 I encourage you to follow yourself and understand that everything else is real, but you are the most authentic. When you feel lost, know the map is with you. When you feel dark, look to the light within, and when you feel heavy, your breath remains for you to move through and lighten your load.
