Do you wish to help
focus your attention
or
regulate your emotions?
Join us for a
15 minute guided
MEDITATION/MINDFULNESS
session every Tuesday
commencing at 12:00 pm.
RSVP: program-manager@lawyersassist.ca
to join on Tuesday, June 30
(Spoiler alert: Loraine says
it decreased her
blood pressure.)
Would you like to safely spend time
outside, build relationships
and help your clothes fit better?
Join Eileen and our peer support volunteer Wilma,
on the Eau Claire Y steps
at 12:00 noon,
Thursday, July 2, 2020.
E-mail program-manager@lawyersassist.ca
if you wish to come along!
(masks were brought along
to wear if required)
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Wednesday, July 1
HAPPY CANADA DAY
FROM ASSIST!
No yoga today
but we'll be back
next Wednesday
ready to centre your week!
RED MUG COFFEE CIRCLE
Assist’s Red Mug Coffee Circles are a place where everyone is welcome for fellowship, career advice and mentoring—law students, internationally trained lawyers, articling students, lawyers and judges. All picture permissions were granted.
12:00-1:00 pm
Monday, June 29
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FINDING JOY
Assist partnered with Edmonton-based lawyer-coach Karmen Masson to produce a webinar called Gloom versus Hope several weeks ago, focusing on finding positives amid challenging situations. Karmen led us through an exercise that involved thinking about the last time we did something and felt joy.
I struggled with it. I am content to be ensconced at home with my family and my dog, and I am enjoying working from home and the extra hour that commuting downtown takes out of my day, but at first I couldn’t think of a single thing that brought me joy.
Eventually, I remembered being out in the car to run an errand and hearing a favourite old song on the radio. I turned up the volume and sang my little heart out, and that brought me joy. I could call it “sing like no one is listening.” I now regularly extend my errands to drive and sing along. Singing at home isn’t the same—I think it hearkens back to being 16 and the freedom that came with getting to drive a car, play the radio (because that was all that my mom’s 1973 Oldsmobile had—and I’m pretty sure that it was just AM) and singing along with the Top 40.
It was really eye-opening for me to see that while I was content, I wasn’t experiencing joy. To be honest, one of the ways that I experienced joy in the pre-COVID-19 world was shopping. This means that I have a closet filled with clothes and shoes that are irrelevant to the current world. Instead of seeing a world of joy when I open my stuffed closet, I feel a sense of emptiness, that those things brought me a measure of pleasure in the time that I thought was normal were shreds of fabric and leather utterly without meaning.
My favourite activity, apart from shopping, in my pre-COVID-19 world was barre class. Barre is a fitness program that uses some elements of ballet training (although you don’t need any experience) with elements from Pilates, yoga and other exercise disciplines. About a third of a class uses the barre while the rest is floor-based. While I have tried and fallen away from other exercise programs through my entire adult life, standing at the barre reconnected me with my inner child who loved ballet class (especially the pink slippers and the possibility of wearing a pink tutu that was never actually realized.)
I experienced real loss when my barre studio closed in March. My studio is inclusive and warm, and the instructors are upbeat and encouraging. It is a place where everybody knows your name—instructors and front desk staff memorize names and call out to you by name when you arrive!
I missed the camaraderie of being in class immediately, but I embraced online classes because it was the best option available. You may wonder how you can do a barre class in your house unless you have a dance studio set up somewhere, but the answer is that necessity is the mother of invention. It was amazing to discover that a kitchen counter was about the right height, and the incredible instructors made all kinds of suggestions for things in your house you could use. One suggestion if you didn’t have hand weights was to use wine bottles! One participant in our private Facebook group said that the large plastic salsa containers with handles were perfect.
To be honest, my motivation has tailed off the last few weeks. I found that I was saving my energy for some work tasks. I was having trouble finding that loving feeling for my favourite activities. Even walking the dog trailed off.
But a couple of weeks ago, I received an energetic email from the barre studio leader announcing that she was holding an outdoor barre class which would comply with physical distancing and health guidelines. It was very popular and by the time I registered, I was on the waitlist, hoping that people would cancel, and sure enough, last Tuesday afternoon, a spot had opened up for me and I headed down to the park where the class was being held.
The location was great—stone tile surface that was really even and a partial roof—somewhere between a pergola and a roof. I grabbed the last spot—carefully measured and outlined in chalk—that had some roof over it because grey skies were gathering.
As the class started, the grey darkened more. By the time we were finishing our warm-up, rain started to fall. I moved in a few steps for protection from the partial roof. By the time we finished the second song, the rain was pelting down and I discovered that the wind was just enough to direct the rain onto me even under the partial roof.
The instructor called out that she felt like she should call the class, like a baseball game, due to rain, but that she was willing to keep going if we didn’t mind a bit of a rain. She said that everyone should feel free to leave if they wanted to but she was going to keep on going. I looked around, feeling cold and wet and a bit dejected because of course a reasonable group of adults would know that we needed to wind down and leave, but I saw that everyone—about 45 women and men—were resolutely standing in their chalked out boxes waiting for the next song.
Not wanting to be the only wimp, I decided that I would try for a bit but would leave if I got cold because it was really silly to be outside dancing in the rain. When I moved underneath the edge of the partial roof above me, an outpouring of rain off the eave showered me. I surrendered to the fact that I was going to get soaked from head to toe and gave in to the experience.
I didn’t think about leaving after that. We step-touched and lunged and jumping jacked for cardio—and for me there was a lot of passing under the spot where the rain from the roof spilled over. Because our mats were soon soaked, mat work was off the agenda—that meant that planks were standing based and I said a silent prayer of gratitude. I think I was probably the oldest participant and I used a pillar for a bit of extra support for some of the leg lifts, but the pillar was, you guessed it, under the edge of the roof that deluged me in rain. I did it anyway.
By the end of the hour-long class, most of us were soaking wet. My non-waterproof mascara was running down my face—note to self: waterproof mascara is a must for outdoor class—yet I felt wonderful, exhilarated and in control of my own destiny. I could have left, gone home and huddled under a blanket on my sofa, feeling that 2020 was just a bad year and this was just another example. But by choosing to stay and to expose myself to the elements knowing that being cold and wet wasn’t going to kill me, I felt strong. I was back in my tribe after three months of isolation under the kind and enthusiastic of our barre-tender in chief, and it was good. I found joy.
I urge everyone to think about what has brought them joy during the last three months and to pursue it. I hope that many of you were able to find joy more easily than I did. But now that I have found it, I am going for it, chasing it with energy and embracing it with my full heart.
May you find your joy and embrace it, too.
*****
Giving to others is a great way to experience positivity. Consider supporting Lawyers vs. Talent, an online fundraiser organized by Alberta lawyers in support of access to justice. Check out the performers at: https://www.lawyersvstalent.com/line-up?fbclid=IwAR0BvDljKOccOrLO3nMjBVoiw1h_v2-xQI0NZs-J7rucGOwySJ5HvGOKjM4! It isn’t too late to sign up, and if you don’t feel that you have a talent you wish to share with the legal community, you can still watch the show by making a donation at www.lawyersvstalent.com.
*****
I joined Assist’s first mindfulness session on Tuesday, June 22nd and it was excellent. I was dealing with some challenging work situations and because I was feeling stressed, I decided to take my blood pressure before the class and then after to see if mindfulness and breathing would have any impact. I won’t bore you with details except to say that my systolic pressure came down 28 points after 15 minutes of breathing exercise led by Amanda Huxley, our lawyer volunteer. I know that these results may not be replicated but I am sure going to try to do this every Tuesday!
Loraine
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