00:00:00: Music.

00:00:14: Hey everybody welcome back to another episode of bitch breathe my name is ricardia.

00:00:20: So today I want to talk about a subject that is probably know

00:00:26: absolutely in avoidable at this point and I've thought about it several times.

00:00:32: You know while I'm thinking about things to talk about during the podcast and was wondering okay so what what am I going to say about it everyone is so so

00:00:44: tired of this subject I know I am and yet here I am talking about it so.

00:00:51: Coming at this from hopefully a very different angle I wanted to talk about the pandemic yes but I wanted to talk about

00:00:59: pandemic magic so first and foremost I want to mention that I am.

00:01:08: Conscious of my privilege I am

00:01:11: clearly able to sit here and record this episode with you for you and I'm still okay I'm not directly affected health-wise by the pandemic and luckily there hasn't been anyone in my.

00:01:26: Close circle of friends who have been directly affected and I still have work so there are all these things in place that make me aware of the privilege that I'm speaking about and maybe I'm not aware of all of it and there's a very long list of things that are okay

00:01:44: but that said that doesn't mean that I that we are still affected

00:01:50: by what is going on in my country I live in Berlin in Germany which you probably know if you've listened to some of my previous episodes we are still able to go out the schools are closed

00:02:02: a lot of people can't work because they have either lost their jobs or because they're too busy homeschooling their children our stores are not open nevermind food Gastronomy and museums and such all of it is closed

00:02:16: down.

00:02:17: So what has happened is life has become rather one-dimensional what you are able to do is work basically if you have

00:02:26: a job then you can just work work work you know and you can do anything that you can do inside your house or maybe with a very few select circle of

00:02:38: people at their houses and that pretty much is the radius of activity that is possible here so.

00:02:46: Like in most other places that I've been hearing about people are really really starting to suffer

00:02:55: you know suffer from this on a mental health level for sure it's also winter where I am right now so there's all these extra factors that I'm making the pandemic a real real challenge now that we're going into the

00:03:09: 11th month almost of this situation and

00:03:13: it's very very hard to see the way forward it's difficult to be you know optimistic about a lot of things certainly my son a younger generation of course in this case showed me a tweet the other day where he said

00:03:27: this other kid

00:03:28: his age was saying basically just trying to explain to my parents very gently that I don't think anything is ever going to be good again

00:03:37: and it was meant funny my son meant to show to me as something funny and you know the different perspectives the generations have but I thought to myself

00:03:46: the mental health situation for all of us especially for the younger Generations right now is.

00:03:57: While it's in question I don't think any of us really knows what's going to happen with that yet and so the seems to be all this Limited.

00:04:06: Thinking and certainly a limited life and everything feels very very tight and.

00:04:16: Threatening maybe in some ways threatening to our freedom to our health certainly and all these other aspects that I don't even want to go into too much so in a time when we feel very limited.

00:04:30: And threatened possibly I'm not going to serve up you know ten things that I think are great about the pandemic or you know here's what you can do during the pandemic because I think there's plenty of blogs and plenty of inspiration out there and I do appreciate that it's out there because I have taken some

00:04:48: tips from there but what I do want to talk about today is still something positive and that's why the title of this episode is called.

00:04:57: Pandemic Magic.

00:05:01: There have been a lot of changes because of the pandemic but not all of these have been entirely devastating or

00:05:10: bad whatever bad is Since the situation can never quite explained to us whether something's bad or good right we need a little more hindsight for that

00:05:18: but I have been noticing some things that I didn't quite wasn't quite able to get a grasp of at first but as I began to.

00:05:29: Get a little hindsight I mean again it's been nine or 10 months now I started to notice a lot of changes in myself that I didn't quite.

00:05:38: Acknowledge even just a few months ago I think that's why I wasn't ready to talk about this whole thing it because I thought

00:05:45: what am I going to say everything sucks and I'm really frustrated and really sad and missing people and I can't just talk to my poor listeners for 20 minutes about just how much I miss physical and emotional proximity

00:06:02: so that said I have noticed these things that I wanted to talk about and one of the first things I wanted to say.

00:06:12: Was that people have begun to really think outside the box now being an American and having lived there for several years

00:06:21: I am used to a certain idea of pioneer Spirit certainly innovation

00:06:28: before recent years I think people really looked up to America and I do hope it's going to happen again now that we have a new president and

00:06:36: maybe some new are of change but you know it used to be that people looked up to this country as a place that dared to do

00:06:45: things differently there dare to do things first so to a certain degree I'm used to people around me who tend to do that now in the old continent as it's sometimes called in Europe and specifically in Germany that

00:06:59: could not always be taken for granted that people would think outside the box.

00:07:04: People are more traditional in some ways and here which is nice because Traditions are preserved and there's a

00:07:11: huge acknowledgement of history and the value of that and of old things but what is maybe sometimes missing a little bit here are was

00:07:21: was this idea of being able to think outside the box it used to be that what you studied in college the major you had pretty much determined what kind of job you should be looking for

00:07:32: or you know you you had to observe absolve a certain amount of years to be able to then practice this or teach this or have this job and that's changing.

00:07:47: Not only are we of course having to learn you know or take classes in college in a remote way which is a whole nother thing that happened but there's this

00:07:58: this whole idea that you don't have to necessarily have studied what you then end up working in or the kind of Arena that you will be active and doesn't necessarily reflect your educational background

00:08:11: and so what's beginning to happen.

00:08:14: Is that you can open up job possibilities for yourself and people are thinking about

00:08:22: placing you in areas that they might not have put you before because while that's not what you learned or that's not what your experience is but I'm really noticing this very magical transition.

00:08:34: Call it a transformation maybe even hopefully sustainable one but people are starting to look for different.

00:08:43: Qualities in their employees in the people they want to work with

00:08:48: and they're looking for problem solvers they're looking for Innovative can do if you will kind of people and

00:08:57: I've found that really inspiring I've noticed it in my own jobs that I work in that people are just starting to be like you know what let's do this differently we've always done it this way shit's going down we don't need to be doing this the same way we did

00:09:12: before so I've really really come to enjoy this whole Collective change.

00:09:19: Thinking and thinking outside the box another thing I noticed again in myself but I think because I'm picking up on.

00:09:29: Impulses that are taking place in the collective and that is to seize the moment keep in mind this did begin when I entered my 40s because I was like

00:09:39: I don't know how many years I got left here I better make them count but it was sort of like dormant sometimes and I thought now I can do the some other day I don't do it anymore and I'm seeing it in other people too that we're seizing

00:09:53: the moment actually the podcast is one of those things I had been wanting to do one for years I mean

00:10:00: for years I kept having the secret dream I didn't tell anybody about it that's how dormant and how quiet it even existed in myself but not anymore I'm like you know what

00:10:11: I'm going to do this and it wasn't even necessarily my idea to do it now

00:10:19: this brings me to my third point but it's sort of ties into the seizing the moment idea and that is that I met someone I last year at the beginning of our first lock down here

00:10:32: and he happens to be a really really.

00:10:36: Different kind of guy he became my boyfriend he still is my boyfriend now and he's the one who really really pushed me and was like what are you waiting for and he too

00:10:46: is a reflection of this whole seizing the moment because when I first met the guy

00:10:52: this is a couple of years ago actually you know we I think we thought of each other as yep nice person but I never thought of it as anything else and.

00:11:03: Every once in a while he would write to me but in a very friendship he sort of way so I didn't really think anything of it

00:11:11: I'm not sure I think he did but he's always fighting me on this one so you'll have to interview the bow but what I'm trying to say is I developed.

00:11:21: Ascends during the pandemic that I wanted to do this podcast and I developed a sense during the pandemic of doing things differently and

00:11:30: really seizing the moment was also meeting this person and seeing him recognizing who was actually in front of me for the first time.

00:11:39: And I know or I'm pretty sure that I would have not had that moment if I hadn't begun to change to State say to myself.

00:11:50: Just seize the moment our in Shonda Rhimes I think.

00:11:55: The book is called a year of yes you know to actually do that to make it a year of yes now I know this is such a cliche but.

00:12:04: It wasn't a decision I made it something that I saw in other people who also didn't make this conscious decision to just change things up a little

00:12:13: to seize the moment to just say whatever what the fuck I'm just going to do this and it's been really great it's

00:12:20: turned into this podcast and into a relationship that I'm currently at least still very happy and so that was another thing I noticed the.

00:12:32: Or another sort of phenomenon that I've

00:12:36: looking at is the whole idea of really getting shit done so not just checking things off your bucket list like this podcast or I'm seeing other people who are putting whole businesses into place that they've wanted to do people retraining as coaches now they used to do something completely different they might have worked for a bank whatever it was

00:12:55: so it's not just the sort of Reinventing ourselves it's also just getting stuff done is like

00:13:02: whatever it is whether it's sorting through your closet or getting rid of all that junk you have in your basement I don't even mean all the fitness and weight loss plans all those I find a little tiring sometimes when people are doing the hundreds

00:13:16: squat challenge unlike good luck with that I'm still working on my sit-ups over here but to really get things done

00:13:24: this is a time when maybe you have more time hopefully not because you lost the job but maybe it is that or for me I was working for a while

00:13:33: 50% less now I feel I'm working a hundred and fifty percent more about whatever extreme it is in to just get things done because time is skewing US towards that

00:13:45: things are different now and I think we've all come to recognize that they may stay different or altered.

00:13:53: Modified reinvented whatever the word is all semantics in my opinion but this is an season of change and.

00:14:02: To get shit done just means this is completed and you can.

00:14:08: Be ready for whatever it is that is coming next which doesn't have to be something bad that's coming next but whatever it is you're ready because you're clearing out you're sending a signal I'm getting stuff done I'm

00:14:21: moving on with my life and whatever ways I can and.

00:14:26: Yeah really completing tasks if you will one of the more obvious phenomena that have been.

00:14:35: Showing up right now is the whole idea of trying to stay in contact with friends and.

00:14:41: I don't know about you but how many ways of sick am I of Zoom calls and you know being connected remotely but.

00:14:51: What it has done is that it's changed entire fields of work and production.

00:14:59: And communication where we realize we don't have to just you know work off our eight hours at the office and

00:15:08: do work in a conventional way we've also noticed that it has been a way to step back into contact with people that we might have lost sight of for a moment there and to actually pick up

00:15:21: the phone again and this has been something.

00:15:25: Even though I miss my friends so so much call-outs all you girls in Sweden and New Zealand and Australia and wherever America where oh my what a lot of my family is you know I really I do I miss people

00:15:39: I think like we all do but I have been forced.

00:15:44: And this in a positive way to pick up the phone and really talk to my friends and have longer deeper

00:15:51: conversations where you're crying on the phone because things are difficult probably not just due to the pandemic I've noticed a lot of problems of bubbling up.

00:16:01: Alongside of this thing and to just really have honest conversations about how we're feeling and to what has happened also sometimes is I've called friends that I've been friends with for.

00:16:14: Decades I hate to admit by now and talk about our history together.

00:16:21: How our friendship has evolved over time and I've really enjoyed some of those conversations again they've been schizophrenic where it's like I miss you I miss you I miss you oh but at least we're on the phone and we can talk or even have a quick WhatsApp

00:16:35: FaceTime and those have been good conversations they've been very real they've been very raw.

00:16:42: They might not have always been accompanied by a sense of Grace but they have been authentic and to me that has been.

00:16:50: A direct result of the pandemic and the kind of isolation that my friends and I experiencing with and and from each other.

00:17:01: So these real conversations have been Little Gems in between a lot of grief and.

00:17:10: While suffering I guess it really it really can be said and one of the last things that I wanted to say is that.

00:17:20: There have been.

00:17:21: Windows openings to get back to certain things that have been wanting to do our return to for the longest time whether it was my yoga practice my sewing machine which.

00:17:34: Quite frankly trying to encourage myself I had placed it directly on my desk for a long long time many many months and I ended up not

00:17:43: properly touching my sewing machine for about 4 years or so now and.

00:17:50: Touched it work with it I did now I got back to it I started to create things again and this is the.

00:18:00: Last thing I do want to say about the pandemic and the kind of magic that it has produced is the creativity in myself

00:18:09: but even much more so and everyone I talked to or most people should I say especially those who haven't been again directly affected is the kind of creativity that we've pursued and craved and now

00:18:24: we have made room for and I think of course creativity is Magic.

00:18:30: Right just sort of channeling what comes through you can call it the Muse call it God the universe but when those creative juices get going when you have the privilege

00:18:41: and it shouldn't be a privilege but the freedom and the space to just create

00:18:46: I don't care what it is but that has been a godsend for me to return to my crafting.

00:18:54: To watch my friends do so build their own things I have another acquaintance actually a friend

00:19:00: of a friend's he just build a little bar at home I mean.

00:19:04: Realize the idea of pandemic drinking and I'm not going to go into that but I do want to sort of emphasize

00:19:11: the opportunities that I and many people that I've seen in my environment who have been able to create and to really.

00:19:22: Discover old talents and skills that they had and also new ones in fact I repaired my sewing machine with the help of a YouTube video and how proud was I that I was able to make it work again with my own two hands

00:19:38: just something that's very very small but that makes us feel empowered in a time that doesn't seem to offer up a whole lot of empowerment and where we don't see the way forward

00:19:49: but where we are able to maybe see today and to see what is it that I can do today because well quite frankly planning.

00:20:00: Is really really hard I do it because it makes me feel like I'm moving forward and in some ways it does but in other ways it's like wow

00:20:08: well I guess I'm can safely check off vacation planning for now because I just don't know when I can fly back home for example to the states and then see my families

00:20:20: but I can.

00:20:22: Pop out a bunch of fabric and start sewing in some sort of away or writing or whatever it is that I've been able to do during this time

00:20:31: so that's the pandemic magic I hope this was inspiring to you I would really love to hear from you how.

00:20:41: You're finding ways through this whole Madness I mean.

00:20:48: It takes a moment right it takes a moment to think of these things and not all of them are graceful I'm just thinking of a situation yesterday with someone totally cut me off in traffic and I was on my bicycle it was super dangerous and I think my zen yoga teacher reaction was

00:21:05: what the fuck are you doing asshole so just to keep it real there will be those many many moments when it doesn't feel magical when it feels like dark magic if anything else but those are allowed

00:21:20: and I did have to laugh about myself afterwards because hey

00:21:24: he was acting dangerously it's okay I didn't hurt anybody's feelings his windows are closed all right closing with that graceful moment I hope you're doing well

00:21:34: I hope you stay well and I'm really happy that you are listening to the podcast and giving me all this wonderful feedback keep it coming.

00:21:44: Music.