This is an image of a wall inside of Forest City Mindfulness in London, Ontario. This photo came from the Forest City Mindfulness Facebook Page.
Like many businesses, Forest City Mindfulness had its fair share of struggles due to the pandemic.
Angela Scott, the owner and teacher at Forest City Mindfulness, explained that when the pandemic hit, she had to reduce class sizes which was tough since her studio is already small, as well as convert classes to virtual teachings. And during lockdowns, she could only do virtual. However, people were not really coming. She found that she would get a lot of interest in the courses but with them being virtual people decided not to try mindfulness meditation.
“When the classes weren’t flying, when they weren’t running, there was an uptick in people coming and reaching out one-on-one. However, not an abundance,” she said when discussing how COVID has impacted the demand for her services.
But she has also spoken with other mental health professionals and “they have all reported that there has been a market decrease in the use of their services… there is a very high rate of cancellation counselling appointments.”
Which is shocking to Scott as well as other mental health professionals since the pandemic has increased mental health issues. But Scott has a theory on why this is happening.
So, what can be done moving forward? How can we move forward from the pandemic and deal with the aftermath of the pandemic?
“We have to learn how to accept our lives the way they are instead of constantly wishing that it was different and instead of constantly wishing that we were different in some way. Because that in a nutshell is the definition of suffering.”
Scott understands and acknowledges that the pandemic has caused a lot of suffering for people and has touched everyone in some way. But she also points out that it has not all been bad.
“There has been great beauty and laughter and humor and joy and ease throughout all of this. Looked at another way, those folks who aren’t working as much as they were, this is an opportunity for you to do all those things that have been in the back of your mind or on that list that you said you were going to do when you had time,” she said.
For her, the pandemic is like a pause button has been pushed for the whole world and is giving us time to reflect, admire the beauty in things, and do things that we originally did not have time for.
“I’m being with the quiet for now because it’s not going to stay quiet for long. And literally when the bell ring and it’s like ‘ok everybody you can all go back to normal’, the noise and the world is just going to crazy with activity again. So, I’m seeing this as a temporary thing.”
As for her business, Forest City Mindfulness is still in operation and she is grateful as she thought that she was going to have to close her business in January 2021.
“Nothing stays the same and everything changes. So, when we worry about something excessively, we are trying to solve a problem that doesn’t yet have all the information to solve it.”
For her situation, the solution was some government assistance.
“The government began offering some rent support for small businesses… that support made the difference between me being able to keep Forest City Mindfulness studio versus letting it go. So, you never know what comes around the next corner right, so that’s why worry can be really unproductive.”
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