Do you remember when you were a little kid and one of your parents would pick you up and pretend you were an airplane? I personally remember feeling carefree, weightless and filled with complete joy. And now, I get to feel like that all the time. Thanks to acro yoga, I'm a grown-up airplane.
This past June, I went to my first acro yoga class, and I've been hooked ever since. Acro yoga is, put simply, the practice of the combination of partner acrobatics and yoga. All it requires is two or more people, a yoga mat and a heck of a lot of trust. When I first started doing acro yoga, I had all but the last of those three. I was in a place in my life where I trusted very few people, but now, I know for certain that I am a very different person than I was 10 months ago.
1. Trust
I started acro yoga in a time where I didn't trust many people. Because of my own hesitancy and resistance to trust, it took me a couple months to just get the basics down. However, everyone was very patient with me and always eager to teach me something new. One pose that I feared very much was flag, and that's the very pose I'm in in the above picture. I avoided it for a long time, simply for fear of falling backwards and there being no one to catch me. However, I was feeling brave one day, and I decided I was going to face my fears. Sure enough, I nailed the pose, and I even threw in a nice backbend for good measure. Scott, my base, was extremely encouraging and supportive, and it's because of my trust with him that I was able to eventually conquer this fear.
These days, I see that when I want to build a trusting relationship with someone, I'll want to practice acro yoga with them. I'll look forward to developing that level of communication that comes with being connected with someone's hands and feet, moving, turning and learning their body language. It's completely fair to say that those who base me regularly have so much of my trust, compared to those who have never helped me fly.
2. Body image
Most people look at acro yoga like it's something that only insanely fit people can do. Like there's a fitness requirement to practicing acro yoga. I certainly felt like that when I first started. Everyone around me was either skinny, muscular or had some sort of acrobatic history (circus arts, aerials, etc). To say I was intimidated was an understatement. I am by no means a circus acrobat, and I've housed insecurities about my weight for several years.
I quickly learned that it really doesn't matter. Literally anyone can do acro yoga. I've based a 240-pound man before with little difficulty, and I'm sure I can't even bench press half of that. Because of this, I've discovered a newfound confidence in my body and the way it looks. I've gotten to the point where I'll practice in just a sports bra and yoga pants, just because I know that no one around me particularly cares what my pant size is. Plus, if I'm upside down on someone's feet, no one is looking at my stomach. They're looking at my pose and the carefree smile on my face.
3. Mental peace
I have personally struggled with stress and anxiety for several years. These feelings of anxiety only increased when I started college and got into nursing school. For the longest time, I coped simply the only way I knew how: just toughing it out and waiting for the feelings to pass. In the last several months, however, acro yoga has become the "cure" to my anxiety. After nearly every time I practice acro yoga, whether it's for 30 minutes or three hours, I leave feeling lighter than when I started. My mind it as ease, my body has no weight and my heart is happy. In the picture above, I am in free star pose. This was taken just an hour after I finished taking a difficult nursing test. I knew that some of my friends would be doing acro yoga that day, so I joined them in order to get my mind off of that test. Within minutes, I remember feeling immensely better about the exam and about the rest of the day in general.
All in all, acro yoga has majorly contributed to my emotional, physical and mental health. I've created unforgettable relationships. I've discovered a new confidence within myself. I've found a healthy coping strategy for my stress and anxiety. I love this practice so much that I can't wait to share it with others, so that they can feel the same that I have!
