Over the last couple of years, I’ve noticed less and less people coming to the gym. During the height of the pandemic, so many people canceled their membership due to health concerns. It’s completely understandable, but we are missing out on the many benefits of exercising with other people. When I go to the gym that used to be packed, especially around the New Year, I feel the loss.

I became personally convinced of what I was missing when I started noticing that my yoga practice started to dwindle during the pandemic. I lost motivation to even follow a regular class online and found myself barely managing a 10 minute YouTube video. I thought that I was being lazy, but after taking a deeper look, I learned that not exercising with others was sapping my motivation.

Since I was staying mostly indoors, I was taking a daily walk just to get out of my house, but gyms were temporarily closed. I just missed going to the gym and seeing like-minded people exercising next to me. I was very sad when one of my favorite yoga studios closed permanently. For a while, I chose an online yoga membership, but totally missed the hands-on adjustments and camaraderie of a live class, something that I will never take for granted again. Having a teacher cheer you on is something that is so comforting to me.

Not having certain routines in place affected me very deeply, but it was hard to put into words because there was so much tragedy and bigger issues in the news. This wasn’t something I was able to share with other people. I woke up one day and realized that I hadn’t set foot in a yoga studio for more than a year, and felt less grounded.

While riding the bus one early morning, I saw a group of older women practicing tai chi on a school playground. A part of me felt hopeful and inspired to see that this group had continued to practice safely outside together.