What have I learned from 2020? New year, new vision

“And suddenly… the world stopped, your world, my world, EVERYTHING. I'm going to tell you what I learned from 2020.

How I became myself again after what I learned from 2020

Immersed in daily life… with not much enthusiasm for anything, rather feeding on negative thoughts, every day I feel worse. Tired, overwhelmed, what am I doing with my life? I have nothing, I don't have what I want, I have no projects or dreams, just working, working, and more working to pay bills and make my salary last. People are impossible, everyone immersed in their own lives… just like me. Working with the public exhausts me, it drains my energy… everyone has everything I long for, those perfect and wonderful Instagram-type lives, or they all come to unload their mental garbage in the store, complaining about everything, without really appreciating how fortunate they are, HOW FORTUNATE WE ARE.

And suddenly, as if it were a fictional movie, a global pandemic. You can't leave the house. What? You're kidding, right? NO, IT'S SERIOUS.

I couldn't believe what was happening. All my stupid problems and anxieties at that moment faded into the background… to a third… to a thousandth plane. Locked in the house with my two cats, this can't be true, tomorrow I'll wake up and it will all have been a macabre nightmare.

I hadn't touched a dumbbell in 2 years. After more than twenty years of hard training, of fighting against my nature to achieve a competition body, of risking my health with extreme diets and workouts, I left that whole world very burnt out, I didn't want to hear about it. I lost a lot of muscle, what happened to those defined legs, now full of cellulite! I ate chaotically, bingeing to fill an emotional void that my treacherous mind had invented.

Curiously, something unexpected happened during quarantine. I felt LESS ALONE THAN EVER, BECAUSE I WAS ABLE TO FIND MYSELF.

It's curious how in the face of adversity, human beings are capable of reinventing themselves and rising again. Suddenly I felt that what we were experiencing was dramatic, historic, but I also felt that WE HAD A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO REALLY WORK ON OUR INNER SELVES, TO GET OUR FEET ON THE GROUND AND TO APPRECIATE HOW WONDERFUL LIFE IS. How many times have we squandered our time and energy drowning in trifles or suffering over what will happen or stuck in the past? WE ARE PRIVILEGED.

And how did I overcome my inner demons and fill all those voids created by my mind? WELL, BY BEING MYSELF AGAIN, BY TAKING CARE OF MYSELF AGAIN. With water bottles, boxes of milk bricks, my cats' sandbags… I started training. It wasn't much, but I was already moving. I started to eat healthy, feeding my body with good energy, good thoughts. I started to realize that I AM RICH! I turned off the TV, listened to music, danced around the living room… the most valuable thing we have IS OUR TIME, because it's the only thing that cannot be recovered, so I decided that from now on I was going to make the most of every second, leaving no room for anything toxic to get into my mind, there's no room for that.”

What is your story?

Each of you will have your own personal story to tell. This is mine. I also know of many people who, far from taking care of themselves, neglected themselves during quarantine. But they still had a learning experience, and I hope everyone realizes it. VALUE YOUR TIME, it is undoubtedly the most valuable thing I have learned this 2020.

I started taking care of myself again while we were confined, but also many of those who didn't, are doing so now. People who had never exercised in their lives, now, after this experience, realize how important it is to take care of our body, our health. Move, do the sport you like best, dance, run, long walks.

Stay away from time thieves, such as television, social networks, video games… enjoy them, yes, but in moderation. Nourish yourself with everything that truly makes you feel better and improves you day by day. We want to grow old happily, with health, positively… EXERCISE IS THE BEST MEDICINE.

Your body is where you live, it is YOUR TEMPLE, take care of it, love it, treat it well, above all else.

I hope that soon all this will be a memory, that it will only remain imprinted in the history books of our children or grandchildren. There is less and less time left until we can hug and kiss without fear, now that the year is ending, TAKE STOCK OF EVERYTHING YOU HAVE LIVED AND LET THAT SERVE YOU TO BE A BETTER PERSON, HAPPIER… THIS WORLD NEEDS HUMANITY.