Every morning I walk into jiu jitsu and know in my bones I belong there. I joke with the people there, take up space, train hard or flow as needed. I’m loud or quiet, whoever I am that day. I don’t have to apologize because it’s expected.

I used to close the gym door and become someone else.

In my office, with my family, I noticed I retreated into a shape that fit the other pieces of my life. The context changed and I shrank into it.

I’ve been depressed about that.

But context can be shifted with the body. Before a Zoom call or a hard conversation, I close my eyes, take two minutes to feel what I feel walking onto the mat. Then I do a few jumping jacks or an inversion on my office floor.

I remind my body of who I am, and it remembers.

It sounds ridiculous. It works.

Where are you most you? How will you remind yourself in other contexts?