Two years ago, I drove my daughter to kindergarten. Nervous mother that I was, I hesitantly drove around the school circle for drop-off and saw a bunch of encouraging signs along the driveway. “You are awesome”, said one of them. I relaxed a little, took a few deep breaths, parked, and walked my tiny human into this great big school (where I was expected to just leave her?!!). She did great on that first day, and so did I (after a few tears).

The start of this school year looked a little different. Her walk to class was as far as the couch, where her iPad was propped up on the coffee table. She Zoomed into her first day of school to meet her second grade teacher and new class virtually. The first assignment was to take a video telling the class a little bit about yourself, and posting so they could see them. If you don’t know anything about my daughter – she is VERY introverted; hardly anyone has heard her say a word. She never speaks in front of anyone outside of a very small circle of people. A VIDEO? This wasn’t boding well for the start of the year. We talked about it, and decided that she would draw a picture of things she liked, and things she was nervous about for the year. Then we took a video of it in a certain order in silence, and posted it for the class. The teacher loved it! It was truly a thoughtful expression of HER, and I thought “wow, this is really going to serve her well in the future”: learning the “rules”, then finding a way to make them fit for HER.

What does this have to do with Somatics, you ask? Adaptation!

I believe more than ever, we are being challenged to uncover new ways of being in the world. The status quo and the way things “used to be” just don’t work for many of us. We’ve tried fitting into boxes for a long, long time, and I hear people say “when will we get back to ‘normal’?” Do we really want to? Was that “normal” really serving us? We have this amazing opportunity to shift, and create something truly beautiful, collaborate, and make life look more like we want it to. Many Somatics clients & students ask the same thing: “how long will it take to ‘get back to the way I was before (X) happened’?” I don’t believe we ever go back to exactly the way things were, but that could be a good thing! I mean, you can look at it either way I suppose, but it’s easier to look for the things that help us to grow and learn – and become better. One of humans’ best traits is our ability to adapt. We’ve known “the rules” for a long time now. It’s time to make new ones.

Click here for this week’s Thursday class.