All In 365: A Reflection
We sat in the windows of our quaint cabin in the woods over warm beverages in front of the wood stove and reminisced on all that we'd experienced in the year 2021. Overall there was no shortage of change and learning. We traded city life on Vancouver Island in our 350 square foot suite (we learned we are not cut out for tiny home life!) to 5 acres in the mountains and valleys of the Kootenays. When we decided to move onto a dirt road in the forest 30 minutes away from the nearest town, we knew we would be adapting to a new way of living. City mice becoming country mice if you will. And this is precisely what we were looking for. We yearned to slow down the pace of life and get more connected to nature. These are some of the things we changed/learned this past year:
Since we no longer had a grocery store down the street, we began buying food in bulk and meal prepping fresh food to freeze and preserve.
We began to wake up consistently at sun-up everyday to let the chickens out of their coup and feed/play with the dog (we’d previously not owned any animals and our work schedules in the city were very different than they are now).
And with regards to raising chickens, we learned first-hand what it was to take a life to provide us with food, as well as to lose a life to predators in the wild.
We became more strategic with our appointments or plans occurring in town since we are very climate-conscious and fortunately we now work from home so we wanted to limit our time driving and burning fossil fuels (every little bit we can all do counts towards preserving our environment!)
We eagerly started learning about the land we now live on, studying the seasonal changes throughout the year. With yards comes yard-work…luckily we never shy away from rolling up our sleeves and getting dirt under our nails. We look forward to growing more of our own produce and provisions this year.
Keeping the fire going in the winter to warm the house was a cozy little new practice. A soul-warming addition to our lives.
And it felt like we were going back in time since we needed to get a landline phone again due to no cell service where we live.
We not only changed landscapes physically, but also professionally. Previously working in clinics and gyms to working with clients virtually. This shift allows us to work with people all across the country so we are no longer limited by proximity; it also saves us cost in rent and commute time. Above all we have gained time, the one commodity we desperately wanted more of, to live, to create and to play. We were working pretty much opposite schedules in the city and would exhaust all our energy to patients and clients, leaving little left for each other and nurturing our relationship. Since moving and reframing our work life, we get to actually spend time together with renewed energy doing fun activities outside of our career. Virtue Healthcare was initially going to be a storefront healthcare clinic/gym but since moving to a rural location, we adjusted our vision and decided to build the studio on our property in the woods. Here are a few things we’ve learned/accomplished along the way:
To not be afraid of changing your ideas/visions and staying open to all possibilities.
We continue to learn how to effectively work together as a team to best serve our clients and make Virtue Healthcare the best it can be.
We converted our living room into a virtual training studio until our build is complete.
How to build a building literally from the ground up!
How to problem-solve and remain patient when roadblocks occur.
How to setup an online business and not settle for operating software that doesn’t quite meet all our needs.
To encourage and consider all client feedback. It’s invaluable.
We wrote 15 blogposts and sent out 8 newsletters!
Generally we are quite forward-thinking, but it’s always important to acknowledge how far we’ve come in pursuing our dreams. Dreams don’t become reality without manifesting, visualizing and taking some risks. Some people think we were all put on this Earth to carry out a specific purpose, and while we think it’s important to contribute positively to our global society, we also believe it’s also ok to simply BE and live in harmony with this amazing planet we live on. A balance of both is probably a good way to go. We look forward to turning more dreams into reality in 2022 and we wish that for you too.