New blog, website, and a brief look at 2017

Hi and welcome to my new website and new blog! I am very excited to share this with you all! This project has been a long time coming, but due to some unfortunate life circumstances, it has been seriously delayed.

With that, I wanted to express my gratitude toward my students and coaches who have been so patient with me over this past year. Some of you are already aware, but for those who aren’t, I’d like to share a bit about what’s been going on.

The start of this year was not fun. I had laser eye surgery and was completely unprepared for the recovery. I lived in darkness for a week and had to sleep in rigid glasses so that I wouldn’t accidentally rub my eyes in the night. As you can imagine, sleep was not a restful experience. I couldn’t even distract myself by being on my phone since the light emitted was too much for my sensitive eyes. The type of surgery I had, PRK, makes vision worse before it gets better, so everything was blurry for a few weeks. I had to refrain from driving for two full weeks and was at the mercy of friends to support me through my recovery.

And that was just the start of the year…what happens next changes me profoundly.

My best friend and life-partner died unexpectedly. The months succeeding his death were the most emotionally tumultuous months I have lived through. I loved him more than anyone and wanted to be with him for the duration of my life. I felt slighted by his death and a huge part of me died when he passed away.

I withdrew from everything and had no mental or emotional energy for anything, let alone energy to run my business. On top of the natural stress that comes with grieving, I was worried that my business would fail yet felt completely helpless to do anything about it.

As the news of his death went viral, I was overwhelmed by the response of my community. Lucky for me, I have an amazing community who offered their love, support, and services. Some people stepped in to teach my classes and help with the administrative work. Others cooked me meals or brought flowers or made art for me. One friend even cleaned my entire bathroom just to help out. This outpouring of support carried me and my business through this incredibly tough time, and I am eternally grateful. I cannot express it enough – Thank you to every one of you who has been there for me. <3

After months of isolation and apathy, I forced myself to start becoming more involved in the world. I needed a new project to focus on, so I decided to enroll in a 200 hour power yoga teacher training offered through Core Power Yoga. Movement (yoga, aerial, dance) has always been a therapeutic activity, so I figured this intensive program was exactly what my body and soul needed. I became immersed in the study of yoga, which is, in large part, a study of one’s self.

When reading about the philosophies of yoga, there is an underlying concept dealing with the impermanence of life. Nothing is forever, we know that, yet we become attached to people, things, life. Yoga teaches us that having attachments or aversions to things will ultimately led to feelings of discontentment. As I try to apply letting go of attachments in my own life, I see a real struggle with the concept of letting go of someone so dear to me.

When letting go of attachments, I’m also reminded of the experience of renewal. When my path leads me back to where I started, I begin to see with fresh eyes and hard earned wisdom. After all this past year has had in store, I’ve been able to fall back to the core of the reason I do the work I do: the love of teaching. Engaging in physical activities like aerial acrobatics has been a huge source of healing in my own life. I want to equip my students with this powerful tool which I have greatly benefited from for the past decade.

One way I can demonstrate my renewed commitment to my business is by unveiling a brand new Stomping Ground Studio website! I hope you find that it makes your experience with my studio easier. Please check the site frequently as all class updates/cancelations will be posted here.

Lastly, I wanted to mention the new class additions on the schedule. Starting on Monday Jan 8th , you will be able to train handstands and/or flexibility with our newest coach, Tobi Daniel. Welcome, Tobi!