Reflecting on 2021
/Ok so 2021 was a whirlwind. I think I’m starting to catch my breath… and in looking back I am struck by how much happened just in my personal and professional life. In 2021 I
Slept on the ground for a total of over five weeks,
facilitated four different forms of adventure wellness experiences for women
and one family adventure therapy expedition,
with six different inspiring co-facilitators (guides and instructors).
Traveled to several new and familiar locations for work including Utah, Yosemite, Colorado, Western North Carolina, and Baja.
Completed personal adventures with dear friends in the Maroon-Bell/Snowmass Wilderness, Glacier National Park, the shores of Lake Michigan, and the Mountains-to-Sea trail.
Marked endings, beginnings, and BIG mid-life birthdays with family and friends,
and capped it all off with a move back to Asheville just before the New Year.
Whoa… doesn’t sound like a global pandemic is happening, does it? Except, that has been the backdrop the whole time. We seem normalized to the underlying stressors of the pandemic these days, forgetting that it continues to take a real toll. As I reflect on a year filled with highs and lows, I acknowledge the following principles as ways I have been able to tend my health; health of my body, mind, relationships, and spirit:
Owning my privilege. I can’t make a list like this without immediately acknowledging that I am a white cis woman who has been afforded many privileges in life, including education, financial resources, comfort in travel, and access to lands that were stolen from the Niitsítpiis-stahkoii ᖹᐟᒧᐧᐨᑯᐧ ᓴᐦᖾᐟ (Blackfoot / Niitsítapi ᖹᐟᒧᐧᒣᑯ) , Ktunaxa, Ute, Odawa, Anishinabewaki ᐊᓂᔑᓈᐯᐗᑭ, Me-Wuk (Southern Sierra Miwok), Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Cherokee, Yuchi, Shawandasse Tula, Shawnee, Muscogee/Creek, and the Guaycura people (and many more I am sure!). I am imperfect in my honoring of the people who originally tended these lands. My heart is filled with both sadness and gratitude and I practice holding both. Participating in a decolonizing mental health class for white-bodied practitioners at the beginning of 2021 helped me to learn more about the pace of this lifelong journey.
Getting outside. It helps my physical health, mental health, and my spiritual health as well, plus it makes me more pleasant to be around for others… for real.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. It’s too risky to make assumptions, it hurts to add fuel to the negative stories we have about ourselves and others. Start fresh, be confident and clear, and know that acting in integrity with what you truly value will invite others to do the same. Let your yes’s be full yes’s, and your no’s be clear and kind. This applies to decisions around COVID risk as well as work place dynamics, family systems, and intimate relationships.
Prioritizing multiple forms of wellness and practicing flexibility. The health of my relationships and the health of my body are both valuable; when they seem at odds, it’s time to get creative.
Living in the here and now. My decision making process keeps evolving with the virus. I try to avoid the false security of rigid shaming and shoulding, while also not escaping into the collapse of no longer caring and just satisfying immediate cravings. This is a balance I dance around, never fully landing but doing what I can to keep the pendulum from swinging too wildly.
When we look back on this time, what will we see? Hopefully we won’t judge ourselves but will be amazed that we just got through, and still managed to laugh, and cry, and feel, and learn.
Peace,
Sommerville