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?