Before we moved to Barbados five+ years ago, I genuinely believed New York was the center of the universe. If you weren’t living there… where were you living?
Because New York has everything. Art. Culture. Museums. Theater. (and OMG, the food.) And for Adina? The playgrounds. Every few blocks there’s another one, plus free concerts, dance performances, outdoor fitness classes… honestly, if you’re bored in New York during the summer, that’s kind of on you.
And then there’s my favorite New York phenomenon.
Anything you could possibly need eventually ends up on somebody’s front stoop.
Case in point.
We’re back in Brooklyn for the month to clean out our storage unit. We moved into our old apartment this week… except it’s basically empty. A friend had been living there while we were away and, thankfully, left us a bed and two air conditioners. During this heat wave, those two AC units deserve some sort of humanitarian award. (It was 100 degrees yesterday!)
When we left my mom’s house on Monday, I randomly threw a handful of paper plates and two sporks into my suitcase. That little impulse turned out to be genius because for the first few days, those were our dishes.
We’ve slowly been making trips to storage for sheets, pillows, pots, and the boring grown-up things you actually need to function.
Everything else?
The street.
I realize if you’ve never lived in New York, this sounds absolutely unhinged.
But in the last four days we’ve found Adina a scooter, a bike, a picnic set with plates and silverware… and yes, a Dyson vacuum.
All on the sidewalk.
The funny thing is, I don’t actually think this is because New Yorkers are exceptionally generous. I think New York is just American consumer culture on steroids.
There’s always a newer model. A better gadget. A better SOMETHING to replace the item that you've had for say...2 years?
Clothes go out of style before they’ve even been worn enough to get comfortable. That perfectly good Dyson? Well, apparently there’s one now AI-driven dirt detection, and hygienic dust compression, so out the old one goes.
Meanwhile, in Barbados…
I have a mop and a bucket. And sometimes a water main breaks on cleaning day so we scrub the house with pool water.
I'm not exaggerating.
It’s just such a fascinating contrast. In one place, there’s this constant cycle of replacing perfectly good things because something newer came along. In the other, people make things last because replacing them isn’t easy—or affordable.
Neither is inherently right or wrong. They’re just… different.
And that’s what struck me this week.
When I’m in New York, I start thinking, “How could I ever leave this place?” And a few weeks ago, packing to leave Barbados, I was asking myself the exact same question.
Apparently my “NYC or nowhere” mentality has nothing to do with New York. It’s wherever I happen to be. Which is kind of comforting, actually.
And of course, all this makes me think about our bodies. (Are you beginning to catch on that being a Corrective Exercise Specialist is all consuming for me?!)
Our bodies have a funny way of carrying every place they’ve ever been.
Maybe you hurt your shoulder playing softball in ninth grade. Or you rolled your ankle twenty years ago. Have you had a baby? Perhaps you spent a decade sitting at a desk, carrying toddlers on one hip, clenching your jaw through stressful meetings, or learning to move around an old injury without even realizing it.
The body remembers all of it.
Not because it’s holding a grudge.
Because it’s adaptive.
Your nervous system remembers what felt safe. Your muscles remember the jobs they’ve been asked to do. They get really, really good at those jobs… even if they’re no longer the jobs they should be doing. That’s honestly a lot of what corrective exercise is.
People think I’m strengthening muscles. And yes, sometimes I am. But more often, I’m introducing the body to another possibility.
“Hey… what if we let this muscle help instead?”
“What if we stopped asking your neck to breathe for you?”
“What if your hip didn’t have to solve every problem by itself?”
We’re not erasing the past. We’re just giving the body more options for the future. And that work is wonderfully unglamorous.
Just like my mop and bucket in Barbados can't compete with AI integrated vacuums, my work can’t compete with shiny boutique fitness studios, flashing lights, and Instagram-worthy workouts.
But I can help you get back to those fun, flashy classes without worrying every time you bend over, pick up a weight, or wonder if today’s the day your back decides it’s had enough.
That’s always been my goal. Not to give you a different body. But to help you feel at home in the one you’ve already got.
Because wherever you go…
There you are.
And your body comes with you.
Speaking of there, you are....if you’re in New York this month, I’d love to see you.
I’m hosting a free workshop at Freya Movement Studio on July 14 at 6:30 PM called Why Your Body Isn’t Responding the Way It Used To. We’ll talk about why movement changes through pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, menopause, and life in general—and more importantly, what you can actually do about it.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I'm in the processes of manifesting the finding of a coffee mug on someone's stoop because the paper cup I've been using for 3 days is beginning to leak.
Big love,
Coach Joanie
Didi, riding her new, stoop found scooter, and I riding home after a free, sunset yoga class in Brooklyn Bridge Park. We love this city.
—Corrective Exercise Specialist, women’s wellness coach, and your go-to guide through every phase of womanhood. Because fitness, hormones, and real life aren’t always neat and tidy. Sign up for my weekly checks ins of expert tips, laugh-out-loud truths, and the kind of coaching that reminds you you’re not alone in this stage of life.
