“Change is the only constant in life”.

When it comes to training, I feel my priorities have changed greatly from the past months and years. I always put training as my highest priority, not only because I consider it my driving force for my life and work, but also because of how grounded it makes me feel. I never minded how lonely the journey could get, how different from others you seem because of what you choose to consider important to you. Nothing could ever get between me and my training. Training is my constant, but because change is the only constant in life, training needs to be malleable too.

The changes I’m talking about are more mental than physical. Physically my training is still a 4-5 day weekly routine of pretty intense work (contortion and weight training), with each session going from a minimum of 90 min to a max of 4 hrs. That hasn’t changed, if anything it has gotten more intense, with tiny, sometimes invisible improvements.

I’d say I changed how I approach my training, how I think about it, I made it more “flexible mentally”, in order to allow some room for other things I also consider important.

I learned to shift my priorities when it comes to traveling and spending time with people that are meaningful to me, like my family which doesn’t live in Miami but in Italy (where I’m from). I learned to relax when I can’t train, and choose to be present and grateful for being with them. It sounds cliche but I’ve been really paying attention to this. When I travel there are times I can’t train for several days in a row, and that is hard for me. My body is addicted to movement, it hurts and rebels when it’s left stationary. It’s hard to sleep. This happen when I get sick as well, my mood plummets and days are extremely dreadful. But in both situations, when sick or traveling, I’m learning to soften up and accept this temporary shift of priorities. The priority becomes allowing my body to be less active and enjoy other things, or allow it to recover, instead of desperately trying to move. ‘Allowing’ has been a big word to me. Relaxing into what is, accepting, finding something to learn in that moment. Let things be, which isn’t “being passive” as I thought before. Holding more grace for myself, practicing patience, soothing my own tantrums. Lightening up my mood without taking it so seriously. Training time always come back, but time with family doesn’t necessarily, time with loved ones, friends, a lover, time to see the world, make new experiences, this time is needed and you need to let your training go a little, surprisingly this feeds your soul to then meet your training again, refreshed.

Another way I’m allowing more is in how I see my training and my why. At times my why has been a sort of “proving”, myself, others, the world, how good can I get? But now this has shifted. Training is my practice. It’s sacred, it needs more protection and privacy. It’s getting quieter.

I have felt often the “comparison fever” on social media, and that has been the #1 killer in enjoying my training (which is very important or else who would wanna do all that), very few times it has been inspiring, mostly depressing. As much as social media is very helpful for promoting what I do, I’m growing annoyed of how it affects my thinking and sucks away time. I started enjoying training away from my phone (filming a few clips instead of everything to then try to figure out how to make the best reel and lose 3 hrs of my time), doing it quietly, often at home.

And so I thought of this “new era” concept, that is less flashy, less hungry for attention and perfection, more in need of privacy, presence and peace of mind, away from distractions. Loving the slowness, even rediscovering the boredom and allow it to be there. Finding something to nerd about on the side (like my hair lol). I’m ready to enter the era in which I live and train for “me”. What does it look like?

These are some points I wrote the other day, that I feel strongly resonate with me now:

Being comfortable shifting priorities, altering routine to allow more in, in terms of experiences, time with loved ones, resting the body while traveling or recovering. Which to me means, in turn:

Training with long term health, peace and playfulness in mind.

Also,

Training not to compete online, as everyone is on their own journey, some on peaks some on valleys.

But rather:

Training to feel good and to recenter when feeling off.

Also,

Training quietly, with a love for consistency and discipline, a way to care for yourself, without needing to show it to the world always.

Training to fully immerse in your world, nobody else’s.

Training to strengthen a very effective tool, to save you from dark mental places.

Training to remember what lightness is, sobering up from fear and worry.

Ultimately, training hard because you love yourself, training soft because you love yourself.

In the end the main concept is seeking more peace of mind, that is a major priority, training or not. I have no desire to live another day without the ability to find something to enjoy, and the more I focus on what is here, what is good, the better it gets. This is key to me now.

What era are you in?