The act of moving house, getting married, getting a new partner or opening a new business are all signs of really big changes underway.

These mark significant turning points in our lives. When change happens, it can herald the awesome start of new beginnings or a lot of discomfort from the teething issues or growing pains of stepping into the shoes of that new life.

As an owner of a healing space myself, I’ve recently gone through some massive and uncomfortable changes but I felt they were all necessary.

Change always makes you grow, even if you are forced to learn about what you don’t want. I realised I did not want to be sucked into a world of new SOPs, tech challenges and operational systems that were straining my limited IT knowledge to the maximum yet I had no choice. I had to grow skillsets overnight to keep up, the moment MCO hit.

I became a producer, editor, online teacher and zoom researcher in a blink and my entire team started to learn things about social media and technology they never knew.

My yoga teachers started to research microphones and adaptors for better online connections so we could still clearly see and hear our students in our sessions.

We had always known the world was going digital and the only way to stay relevant was to move with the times but there was no urgency until the pandemic changed that.

For one, we could not go out. And I felt responsible to still show up, along with my teachers to serve content, and every single day.

The initial MCO lockdown forced me to be reminded of why I started my business in the first place. I really wanted to provide people with shelter from the many storms in their lives.

In fact, we had to do everything to stay afloat so we could still be there for people. I came here to do this work yet I felt like this unwilling entrepreneur tossed out into the big wide ocean. It was all new and quite scary and it was a rough sea out there.

I was tested. I found myself asking, “Is this what I signed up for?” I was looking at my OhanaJo bank balance being cleared out with three months of a shut down of my business and feeling as though the world was resting on my shoulders yet we received so much gratitude from our students.

So many words of thanks, it was unreal. Even handwritten letters, to flowers and homemade cakes to heartfelt testimonials that brought tears to my eyes to even gifts being delivered to my home to basically say different versions of the same thing “thank you for doing what you do. We really appreciate it.”

I also kept hearing from students, both new and old, who would come to OhanaJo for our new online sessions, “I can’t breathe. I can’t cope. I’m just so overwhelmed. I need help”

And it was exactly the words I needed to hear to remind me of why I started this business. I really wanted to be that support but it was impossible to do this without systems in place. Without hiring the right people. Without investing in whatever it took to keep doing this work and making it meaningful and relevant.

I decided to do the opposite of what the market was doing. In an environment where people were scaling back and cutting costs, I actually started to invest forward and I just hired three more people this month.

I realised if I was filling a need gap, then I needed to know how to make technology your best friend rather than enemy and to really understand how to serve customers in an ever-changing environment.

We spent the last few months pivoting and in deep research and we haven’t got all the answers yet on how best to serve everyone.

We are studying best practices and feel we are getting there as we are constantly finding ways to improve the user experience. Yet, this is not enough.

The offering in itself needs to come from the right place. If every teacher has the integrity to want to help, heal, shift or transform someone’s life, then we are on the right track. Systems will only take you so far. I needed to be clear on this point too since it’s my own humble business.

Whilst all this was happening, I also re-opened my doors on-ground too, and moved houses in the process. It’s been an insane period in my life to say the least, but I feel profoundly grateful that it’s made me realise so many things that I would not have known if the circumstances surrounding all of us weren’t as extreme.

If I did not have a strong enough reason to hold on, I would have let go of my business because it has been honestly exhausting to keep up with so many changes yet they forced so much growth and clarity to emerge.

No one said change was comfortable but if you embraced it, it can be viewed as a learning adventure.

If I looked at the glass half empty, I would say it nearly wiped us out, like many businesses out there. But, if I looked at the glass half full, it has forced me to grow in ways I could never measure from knowledge to skill sets to experience.

It made me even realise how grateful I was to have a business partner who was already my best friend and husband on this journey with me, though he was an entire continent away for the bulk of the lockdown.

So, these recent months have made me realise I will definitely carry on because I would be doing this work anyway, even if it all got taken away. Even if I had no logo on my wall, or staff members or even a physical space to operate out of, would I still be teaching? Healing? Sharing?

I asked myself this and it was clear, “Yes I would!”

So, I’m actually thankful I still have a physical space with beautiful staff members and amazing teachers so for these reasons and more, I’m happy to say that change is welcome when you really embrace all the positives it comes with, including the ‘pain of it’.

Just know ‘what’ you are doing and ‘why’ you are doing it, and clarity will come to you. Good luck!

Jojo Struys is a TEDx speaker, author, TV host, and founder of OhanaJo, voted Malaysia’s No 1 Yoga & Sound Healing Space offering daily mindfulness sessions, meditation, yoga and sound. For enquiries or to register for a free trial online, please visit www.ohanajo.com.