Aerial Obsession

Hello Internet!

It's been a minute since I've posted on this blog because this teacher is back to school! I missed my students, my co-workers and having a real routine, albeit an extremely busy one!

However, we will be backtracking to the middle of August to explain today's post. One of my last fun summer adventures was to visit our friends in Albany. My husband's annual Fantasy football league draft with our wonderful friends from college is always an incredibly fun weekend for both of us. A few months earlier, one of my Albany friends, Twizz, had posted a picture of her in Aerial yoga and said we could do a class together before the draft started. I was SO excited because I had been dying to go back to taking yoga classes this summer, but never got the opportunity. Aerial looked as frightening as it looked amazing, and I was thrilled to try it out.

How cool is this?!

Twizz and I decided to go to a beginner class, which was probably a good idea for me, on account that I had an awful sunburn from my day trip to Montauk two days earlier. (The summer was ending, you guys. I had to jam-pack it with fun.) The class started with some familiar yoga poses on the ground, until they taught us how to sit on the swing and do our first inversion, aka hang upside down like Spider-Man.

Figured out how to do an inversion, but I'm super tense!

I'm not going to lie, I would not have been able to do this without Twizz quietly whispering, "Trust the swing." It was a bit unnerving to go against your gut and let your body be held upside down by a wide silk rope, but it was honestly incredible. We were even able to pump our legs and swing like kids during class and do an amazing meditation INSIDE the swing, all wrapped up like you are laying in a hammock.

Need to learn from the master! Twizz jumped into this like nothing!

I left class with my mind blown. I couldn't stop raving about it. Twizz basically ruined yoga for me, FOR-ever. Now that I knew that I could meditate and stretch while suspended in the air, I couldn't bear to go back to regular yoga, at least not yet. I immediately researched locations near me, found a place that offered Aerial and signed up for a five pack of classes.

The yoga studio I found is beyond words. They have Aerial Yoga, Aerial Barre, Aerial Fitness, among around 20 other yoga/fitness/meditation classes. (I wouldn't even be surprised if they had more than that.) They even have a sensory deprivation tank, a massage studio, a sauna, a bio-thermal room, and tons of non-yoga related classes about anything and everything you can imagine.

This is me last week. I'm almost at the point where I can jump right into an inversion like Twizz.  Almost.

I would love to tell you that the downside is that it takes me an hour to drive to the studio from work, but honestly, it's Worth. The. Drive. Besides Aerial Yoga, I took an Anti-Gravity: Deep Release class which teaches you how to do deep stretches using the swing and half inversions closer to the ground with the best meditations. The instructors give out essential oils when you are "cocooned" in the swing and some even give you a word to focus on as you take the class.

I'm obsessed. I can't stop talking about it, going to classes, convincing people to join me in class, or posting about it. (Just from the sheer amount of pictures in this post, you probably figured that out.) I've become THAT girl and I'm honestly okay about it because I'm zen. Zen people don't care about what others think, the same the way "Happy people don't kill their husbands." (If you haven't seen Legally Blonde, leave this page immediately and remedy that. Shame on you for missing out on such a classic.)

#zen

One of my personal goals for the school year is to maintain my zen, aka my relaxed state. Even though I wrote an entire article about ways to alleviate anxiety, it's still something that I'm struggling with, especially when my schedule is topsy-turvy. Taking an hour a week (or more!) for self-care is downright necessary. Many of the instructors remind their classes before they leave that: "You are spending this one hour just for you." Even when I'm tired after work, I know the ride to the studio is worth it because I feel calmer when I leave. I'm even working bringing that frame of mind outside the studio by remembering that I can be that calm again. I have the ability to feel zen.

I wholeheartedly encourage everyone to find a form of mediation or exercise that brings you that peace of mind. If you tried a class before and didn't like it, keep looking! There are SO many amazing types of classes out there, and you are bound to find one that works for you. You won't regret a minute of the time you spend on your mental and physical health.

Talk soon!

-KB