Life in the Midst of COVID 19 Part 1.
| How are you doing these days? Now that summer is sorta unofficially ending with school starting back, I thought it would be a pretty good idea to take a minute and just reflect what 2020 has meant to me personally, as the Studio Owner and for Thrive Yoga and Wellness. I’m doing this for a couple of reasons: 1) to process exactly what we, as a community have been through together this year, and what I, personally, have dealt with as the “community leader. 2) to document the strategic and definitive steps we took as a community to navigate these new waters–both in preparation for and reaction to events completely out of our control 3) to convey just how much we have gone through together, and how much it means to me that I still have the love, prayers, and support of so many of you, even after almost an entire year of so much uncertainty. It is because of you, the Thrive Loyal Family, that Thrive Yoga and Wellness still exists. I hope that the next few posts help to show you everything that’s been happening both behind the scenes and in front of the curtain. I hope this information helps you see that you aren’t alone and I hope it brings us closer together. I also hope it reaffirms how, now, more than ever, we have to stick together, be healthy, stay safe, and stay as grounded and centered as possible. |
Do you remember life before COVID – 19?
It’s fairly safe to say that this year has felt a bit like watching a horror movie (or visiting a haunted house) combined with a visit to the world’s oldest roller coaster.
At the beginning of 2020, I started hearing news reports about a terrible sickness out of China. On my birthday (which is in January), my parents were telling me to stock up on cleaning supplies, lysol, etc. (talk about super fun birthday dinner.). Of course, the talk also included conspiracies and other such typical “Dixon family gathering conversations” (not sure if you can identify with that) but I can tell you, I had already been preparing for “germ season” prior to that, but with those thoughts in my mind, January and early February were all about preparation. Each time I’d go to Sams or Costco, I’d grab a few extra cleaning supplies, maybe a bit more toilet paper. Nothing suspicious, but I figured it was better to be safe than sorry. (boy am I glad I did that, we only just ran out in June.)
Then, in early February, Several studio ladies joined me for a trip to California before “all hell broke loose” on a training trip to see my teacher, Manju Jois. On this trip, we packed masks (yes, this was back in FEB–before we knew the extent the virus would hit us. We took hand sanitizer, washed our hands, and basically stayed to ourselves throughout the trip, making visits to open air spaces more than anything. At that point, things weren’t closed, but we were cautious.
It’s pretty safe to say, when we got back in the middle of Feb, the studio was on high alert and…shall we say,
Damage Control protocol development
Prior to the trip in February, I had already increased the cleaning supply inventory. I was buying lysol spray, toilet paper, and paper towels each time I went to Sams or Costco. However, once I got back, I started noticing fewer and fewer of these items. Instead of picking up 1 or 2 extra Lysol sprays, I would pick up as many as I could find. (which often was zero.)
I started noticing attendance in classes was going down in what was typically our “busy season” so I had to think fast on ways to keep THRIVING even when fears were off the charts and getting worse. That’s when, in early March, we started (as a studio) training on how to use Zoom, microphones, etc. Every teacher was taking extra steps to clean before and after class, the desk managers were non-stop using lysol spray and wipes on every surface, and this was all in addition to trying to incorporate the new technology in our live studio sessions.
On March 19th, when Mayor Andy Berke closed us down, we were prepared. All the teachers at Thrive had been introduced to the new technology. We went from live in studio classes at 10 am to live stream classes at 11:30 am.
We never missed a single class because of COVID 19.
That was, until April 12th 2020.
The Easter Tornado.
You’ll have to check back in next week to see the next installment of the Thrive Yoga and Wellness 2020 Journey.
If you’d like to support the ongoing mission of Thrive Yoga and Wellness, come and practice with us! we are open for live classes, we clean and sanitize the studio twice a day with state of the art UV and Ozone Generators (as well as, you guessed it, cleaning wipes and sprays). You can also join us virtually via Zoom or live at our Park Yoga Events! If you aren’t quite ready to join us live, you can still contribute to the Thrive Cause by making love offers to Paypal.me/thriveyoga