The Wellness Reservoir, formerly the Well Space

Hey Muses!

A few months ago I started The Well Space on GroupMe because I wanted to create a community centered on uplifting and supporting one another on our various wellness goals. Ideally, folks in the group would find some overlap or similarities with their goals and would start checking in on another. A huge focus for museologie is creating community through the lens wellness. Well…that didn’t happen. I tried different approaches to engage everyone, but nothing worked. I was encouraged over & over to keep at it, so I did. I tried even more methods to engage, but still struggled.

I recently listened to Issa Rae’s MasterClass and she had a few take home messages:

1. Be consistent.

2. Create what you want to see.

3. Use your resources.

4. The story I want to tell is worth telling so work at it.

5. The most impactful thing she said (in episode 3) is as followed, “I would advise you to try, but know when to stop.”

I’d been feeling burdened by the group and the lack of engagement for well over a month, and after hearing Issa say that, it felt like affirming sign to end the group. I sent a message to the group explaining why I’m ending it and how I think there is a definite need for wellness accountability, but GroupMe wasn’t the right platform. I let them know I am open to feedback, then shut it down about 24 hours later. I felt good. It felt good.

I love the name The Well Space, but hesitated to use it because I know a business with the same name. Their focus wasn’t on health and wellness, but it is a Black owned, woman led business and it didn’t feel right. In true Jordan form, I grappled with the new name for the space that I’m cultivating to

1. uplift wellness practices.

2. support one another in our wellness goal

3. create events after covid around community and wellness.

Well, I got it.

The Wellness Reservoir. YES!! Yall like it?? Okay let me break it down. Wellness because that’s the focus and it must be in the name. Reservoir because it is defined as “a supply or source of something.” Museologie’s events are your weekly supply of wellness. yay!

Every Sunday I post the upcoming week’s wellness events and everyone is welcome to attend. This is to help with my consistency with the wellness practices AND it’s about building a supportive community around wellness practices and educational events.

Lastly, wellness isn’t just meditation and journaling. I’ve expressed these sentiments and am trying to figure out ways to incorporate the other dimensions: occupational, cultural, digital and etc. There’s more coming, I need to figure it out and that’s my focus for the next few weeks. Yes, I’ll still put out the weekly wellness calendar, but there’s more to museologie than that. I have to figure out what’s next, what’s sustainable and really, what i want to do and why.

xo - JM

2020 was a hard year...

Full stop. Periodt.

I don’t need to touch on anything else really because that is the truth. Not just for me, but for millions of people. Often I do reflections and intentions, and I will still do that, but I’ve been struggling to *want* to write stuff out like I’ve done for years. I will. Writing is another wellness practice and I know if I don’t do it I’ll regret it. Now, it may look different than previous year, but it’ll get done. Writing is therapy for me.

2020 was a hard year. It was a year I’d been looking forward to: I’d just turned 30 and was embarking life as an newly unemployed, recently married jawn.

So let me run through some good:

• Went to a dermatologist the first week of 2020, and soon after my face started clearing up. It’s much better, but I still have to work at it.

• Went to Seychelles to celebrate Valentine’s Day w/ the hubz. I want to go back there because wow..it was beautiful and I need to learn about their culture & history.

• Started working part time as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at a private school.

• Started another new job <another part time gig> in maternal and child health systems.

• musologie grew- WAY more than I expected and wow, that has been a blessing.

• Celebrated 1 year of marriage.

• I re-realized I LOVE the outdoors: hiking, kayaking, paddle boarding and any recreational activity outdoors

• We adopted a precious beagle mix- Darcy Ann aka DAP. This is my first dog ever and wow, what a transition. She’s pretty great tho.

• trump lost the election.

• I reconnected with old groups while also connecting with some new people (thanks Zoom!)

• Verzuz. What has been your fav? I loved Jilly & Erykah. But Teddy & Babyface is forever a classic.

• TikTok, well social media. Black people joke way too much. I love us.

• I’ve begun gardening again and it a forever practice. Once again a wellness practice.

• Mutual Aid.

• PUZZLES!! I’ve done so many since march. From 300 to 1000 pieces. I have a 2000 piece puzzle READY for me.

Now let’s talk about some challenges:

• So many deaths!!! From January until today- so. many. deaths! Currently there have been 19.8 MILLION coronavirus cases and 343,000 deaths in the United States. WTF?

  • trump has been such a horrendous president. We are worst off because of him. (I’ll repeat these sentiments.)

• I realized I’m an extrovert. (wait is this a challenge??)

• Blatant Racism. The deaths of countless Black and Brown women and men at the hands of police and white supremacists and our countries lack of acknowledgment that it happens AND lack of action to fix how we’re treated.

• Fallout from trump doing an absolute abysmal job containing the virus in addition people not doing their part to minimize the spread has done irrevocable damage to small businesses, off wall-street economy and many other aspects.

• Some relationships with my friends have been altered. I saw a tweet which said, “i have friends that really isolated themselves in ways that hurt me and worried me. i had to find new ways to communicate AND still understand shit is WEIRD, and not personal. i also have friends i grew strong with. i love all my friends” [x]

  • There have been people I haven’t heard from much. People I’ve held close. And I know we were/are all going through our own stuff…I wish I could explain this better. Let me try: I will always reach out to a friend because friendship relationships are vital and maintaining them takes work, but friendships mean everything to me. At the same time, there’s some reciprocity that I need. Just a little. Some people communicate with me only on IG. Some only on Facebook. Some only via text, so forth and so on. I lost some friends this year. We’ll hang out and grab drinks on a rooftop in 2021 at some point. But, as Drake once said, “Nothing was the same.“ I tried not to take things personally, but how can I not if I rarely hear from you in 10 months? No response back? Nothing. Sais Pas

• My pop-pop passed away in June leaving me with no more grandparents.

• Looking at a computer for 3+ hours straight IS NOT OKAY. I caught a mean headache after a 7 hours work event.

  • Digital Wellness…I ebbed & flowed. I spent more time scrolling than i have in all my life.. yuck.

I am looking forward to this year. I think this year will be pretty challenging, but I have big goals for myself (professionally and personally) and I am ready to work towards accomplishing them.

2020, What a year.

2021, hello.

Share whatever you’d like about 2020/2021…It was a hard year.

XO-JM

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