Fourth quarter of the pandemic.

I really don’t like pretending to be an expert in anything. In fact, one of my pet peeves is when someone calls themselves a “master” in something. That’s it? You have nothing else you could possibly learn? You’ve mastered it? Huh. Interesting. But we’ll talk about that next time. :) However, I am going to go ahead and give us all permission to call ourselves the latest experts on surviving a pandemic. I’m feeling confident enough in our qualifications thus far.

I also feel it is only right to continue the topic of - how to get through a pandemic, like our post last May, “Don’t worry. I made a manual.” Followed by our- how to get through a pandemic holiday style, titled “Santa Delivered”.

After all, I don't want to leave our future brothers and sisters hanging, when it comes to how to get through the second half of this experience. Talk about a real cliff hanger for future pandemics...

So let’s go over this. AND, to shine some light on this difficult subject, I’ve decided to use football as our metaphor this time - In honor of our Cleveland Browns taking us to the playoffs!

Oh! Maybe we even take it one step further and pretend we’re listening to Jim Donovan’s voice with our recap. After all, there is no better voice in the land, and it will cheer us all up. Now let’s continue our discussion.

Enter Jim’s voice here:

Ok so here we are. It’s the fourth quarter of this global pandemic. Let’s review what we’ve seen so far.

To start, I’d say we entered this pandemic with a combination of fear, hope, and a little bit of “what the heck is going on?”. It definitely got scary in the beginning, and there was literally nowhere to go, but we stayed in our zone, I mean homes.

As we headed into the second quarter, God had mercy on our souls and gave us warmth and sunshine. An opportunity to get a little more focused, and to reevaluate how we are going to take on the months ahead. We moved into halftime by stocking up on more hand sanitizer, and returned to the indoor pandemic with focus. Or so we thought….

Boy oh boy, did the second half start off with it’s challenges. With threats. Lots of threats. We got to hear a lot of buzz from the stands. Fans shouting - “If I find out you left your house, so help me....”

"Oh, you wanna see your family do you?? Go ahead, just kill us ALL while you're at it!”

A lot of “No, YOU’RE wrong(s)!”

Throw in a little bit more shaming, and some political warfare, and we barely made it through the third quarter!

Now, here we are. It’s the start of the final quarter and we’re a little shaken up. But we’re Clevelanders, which means our skin is thick, and we don’t back down.

Not to say we won't go into overtime, but let’s take this one play at a time, shall we? After all, here in Cleveland, we are realistic-optimists. We got this, maybe.

Baker is the vaccine and the playoffs are in sight! Maybe we even call next Christmas the super bowl?! (I’ll admit, at this point I don’t know if I’m talking about football or the pandemic.)

Deep breaths everyone. Yes, we’re here. We’re starting off with the consequences from the third quarter. But we expected this. I believe it was a combination of the elements, some poor plays, and bad attitudes. But I get it. We were tired. Our leaders lost sight, and our citizens were all fighting on the field. It got messy.

So now what? We take a deep breath. Review the play book, AKA Fauci, and put on our new masks, because the old ones are just gross now. We are under pressure. So. Much. Pressure. We certainly need a timeout, but there’s no room for that here in the world. Let’s take this home.

So universal team, we ask you this. If you have ever in your life believed in the power of positive energy, patience, and/or perseverance…. Grab that attitude, right now. We need it. We need you.

• End Jim’s voice here. Boy, his energy just makes life better, doesn’t it ?!

In all seriousness - I think it’s pretty clear I don’t understand every little thing that goes on during a football game. Ha! But I am a fan, and I understand it enough to high-five and swear. Come to think of it, that’s pretty much how I get through life.

But there is one thing I do admire about sports. What it takes to come out in the end. I am passionate about this. Yoga teachers teach athletes all of the time to breathe THROUGH the play. Continue the momentum using the power of your breath. If you hold your breath, you lock up and freeze. But when you move with your breath, you are able to achieve fluidity. And with fluid motion, comes focus and presence. When we are able to be in the present moment we are alive during the only moment that counts in the game - which is now. The moment is ALWAYS now.

We are here. The game isn’t over, and it’s important for us to move away from our head chatter, and come back to our heart. Breathe with your heart. Move with intention. Ground your feet.

Take a deep breath, be here now, and we will win. Yes, we will for sure walk away from this pandemic with cuts and scrapes, and we will ALL need a post season vacation. But we will come out in the end. It’s the fourth quarter, and I know we have it in us. We need to work together as a team and at the same time, believe in ourselves. One breath at a time. Breathe through the moment friends. I know it’s not easy, but keep going.

We will make it to the super bowl. AKA, a life better than we ever knew it before.

Be well and Go Browns!!

- Alysia

*** As a quick (re)introduction, I’m Alysia McKean. The founder of The Mat Project. We are a Cleveland non profit, providing free yoga programing to women and youth who are underserved and/or have experienced trauma.

Unfortunately, we are not able to be in person with many of our students during these times. But we are all going through some sort of challenges right now. Hopefully these writings find you well, and provide a bit of hope and peace. This is what we teach on the mat. And we believe this is what we all need right now. You can always find us here.