It was early summer, 2019. I had just started to be able to do handstand pushups, a huge milestone in my training. I was making progress on more advanced movements, becoming much more confident and competent as an athlete. I was finally seeing the payoff of all the work I had been putting in over the past few years, and I was starting to really love the body I was living in.

And then I got pregnant.

My first impulse was to mourn all of the progress I had made physically over the past three years. I had finally reached so many of the goals that I had been dreaming of, and at first, I succumbed to the belief that being pregnant would send me sliding back down the hill.

I’ll insert the spoiler now: becoming pregnant led me to discover a deeper love for my body than I ever thought possible. And it did NOT involve losing progress in my training goals. In fact, I have progressed MORE as an athlete as a result of becoming pregnant. All gains, baby! And I gained a perfect baby, too. Score!

That’s not to say that becoming pregnant didn’t require an adjustment in how I looked at my short term training goals. While I hesitate to compare the beautiful and natural process of being pregnant, to an injury of any kind, it’s true that they are both a type of interruption that requires a different approach and a different mindset.

There are going to be interruptions in life--situations that take us by surprise, that we didn’t prepare for, that throw our plans into uncertainty. We’re collectively facing a massive interruption right now. When faced with these moments, there are some important and universal lessons to be learned.

1. Be committed to the larger vision. Pregnancy, injury, quarantines--though they may feel at times like they will never end, they are temporary states. If your training goals don’t extend beyond the next few weeks or months, you should take a little time to think about what you’re really trying to get out of all this sweating and fitnessing. Interruptions are a lot easier to manage if you know where you’re headed in the long term.

2. Get your mindset right. One of the most valuable attitudes you can adopt is to view every challenge or setback as an opportunity. How can you take advantage of your current limitations to work toward your larger goals? For me, pregnancy represented an opportunity to slow down and fill in many gaps in my training that I had otherwise been ignoring or putting off. Moving with a new intention led me to improve movement patterns that I had been sacrificing in the quest to put up the biggest numbers. As a result, I am reentering training with a much stronger foundation, and areas that might have been holding me back previously have been addressed. Is it possible I could have done this without getting pregnant? Absolutely. But would I have slowed down enough to really accomplish the task? Probably not. Sometimes limitations bring out your best work.

3. Learn to let go of your timetable. In past injuries, I have fallen into the trap of thinking, “It should be better by now!” I find myself thinking the same thing as a postpartum athlete, and again as I watch the events and fallout of the global pandemic unfold. The truth is that you’ve created that timetable, and you’re working with imperfect data. Things take as long as they take, whether you like it or not. This means that ultimately, you need to...

4. Trust the process. When it comes to making changes to our bodies, whether it’s losing weight, getting stronger, recovering from an injury, or adapting to the needs of growing a child, things take time. Sometimes that fools us into thinking that the process isn’t working. Trust me. We know what works, and we know that if you stay committed, the results will come.

Pregnant, injured, quarantined, whatever: interruptions don’t have to derail you. In these moments, it’s helpful to remember the words of Viktor Frankl: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” You get to choose how you deal with interruptions. Choose wisely.