A New Year Mindset

By all metrics, this year was anything but predictable and by no means normal. Let’s examine that word – normal. Webster defines normal as “the usual, average, expected, or typical state or condition.”

Well, the world today is anything but the usual, typical, or expected.

We were all familiar with “normal” pre-2020, but now we are reminded daily that there is a new normal coming to each of us. Most of us view this as a lesser reality – less movement, less freedom of choice, less excitement, less joy.

I would like you to view this new normal from a different lens, arguably the entirely opposite lens. Most of us have heard the saying “be the change you wish to see in the world”. Maybe this new normal gives us the opportunity to do just that. Maybe our new normal is actually our opportunity to create a reality that is full of excitement, joy, and freedom.

Excitement because you can do things physically that last year you could not. Joy because your chronic pain is gone. Freedom from the fear of pain or limitation returning to your life.

Perhaps our new normal is really just an opportunity for change.

Ok, Pete – so how do I achieve this new normal? Well, all change requires energy. In fact, we rely on energy for virtually all the activities involved in being alive. Our bodies are movement organisms, and our cells are no different. At the cell level, the quicker the cell exchanges – or moves – things (be it nutrients, waste, oxygen, or water), the healthier the cell will be, and the more energy that cell will have available to it.

Cell health requires a balance of stimuli – physical, nutritional, environmental, psychological. For this letter, I will not dive into the details of this cellular balance, but I do want you readers to ponder a belief I have observed over the decades of my work. Balance is the key to a healthy, happy, energetic life experience.

When we balance the stimulus in our daily routines, we live “on purpose”. We don’t drift through our days from one external event to the next, allowing our external world to dictate what we do and how we feel.

When we live in balance, our “normal” becomes self-directed. Our self-awareness instinctively focuses our actions. No longer pushed or pulled exclusively by outside forces, our actions and emotions become self-controlled.

Our excitement for life comes with a sense of calm and peace. Gone is the frantic excitement of the outside world. Gone are the fears, doubts, hesitations, and anxieties that come from drifting though our days without purpose. Only in that state of excited peace can we truly experience the joy of living.

Welcome to the new year. May you reflect back on your new normal at the end of this year and see your life, your way, in a constant state of balance.

Pete Egoscue

Founder of The Egoscue Method