Hello lovlies!
Aries season is here and so many of us are already feeling the effects! Spring is one of my favorite seasons because it picks us all back up as a collective out of seasonal depression. And I don’t know about you, but I felt it this year! Especially with the added covid restrictions. The sun is out, the days are longer, and inspiration can be found all over! Which leads me to our topic today: create just to create!
If you’re a fellow artist who keeps up with social media, there can be some pressure to “stay active” online, especially if it’s a source of income for you. There’s this feeling of always having something “post-worthy” because you don’t want your analytics taking a hit. And now that business is in our heads as we post, it can take away the magic that dancing gave us in the first place. Because I went to school for marketing, it’s hard for me to not be in that mindset when posting sometimes, but it’s so important to create for the love of creating.
The Pendulum of Life
Life is a pendulum of ups and downs. The same goes for dancing. Some days are amazing! You get every move you want, your grip is spectacular, and your stamina can even surprise you. But some days you’re going to be weak, tired, and sweaty. Instead of being upset at the pendulum, be aware of it and find another solution! For example, maybe I really wanted to work on aerial tricks on a bad training day. Instead of stopping and getting frustrated, I accept what my body is going through that day and will switch to low flow or even train my “bad” side. I will make sure to still move and create because consistency is key! You never know what you can uncover when you begin dancing with the desire to just move.
Backtracking is Still Progress
One thing I love about pole is that you’re always improving, even if you don’t see it. Remember when you were first learning to invert and it seemed impossible every time you tried it, until one day it just happened? You were getting stronger and improving every time you tried but it didn’t feel like it because the end goal wasn’t achieved. Remind yourself of that when you have those bad days! Even if it feels like your regressing (and maybe you are, it happens! And that’s okay!) you’re still further than where you were when you first started. All progress is progress.
Creating just to create will also remove the expectation to have an end goal in the first place. You can’t get let down if you don’t set an expectation in the first place. Most of my pole sessions start off with me having no clue what I want to work on. After my stretching and conditioning, I just play a song and move. Through the freestyles, I’ll find something I want to focus on for the remainder of the pole session.
Related: Honoring the Pole Level You’re At
Movement is Meditation
It feels so nice when you dance just for the love of it. When I first began pole dancing, I didn’t record myself at all. Not because I was new and didn’t like the way I danced yet, but because I truly just did it to feel good in the present moment. It always felt so meditative and therapeutic. Having a pole Instagram account hadn’t even crossed my mind until a few months into my journey! I notice not all my sessions are as meditative as they used to be, but being aware of it has helped me find that peace again.
When I’m fully in the present moment, I usually end up having pretty good sessions anyway! It reminds me of the movie Soul, when people would get in the zone and end up in the ethers. No thoughts, no worries, just in your mental happy place. It’s as if I’m being swept up with a certain frequency and I’m just riding along with the wave. I’ll be effortlessly going along with the music, my transitions will be smoother, and my shapes are held for the perfect amount of time. When I don’t force anything, it ends up feeling and looking the best. It doesn’t happen every time (going back to that pendulum), but it’s not the end of the world or the end of your social media presence.
Related: How to Find Your Unique Pole Flow
Okay, But I Still Need My Algorithm Working in My Favor!
Even though it’s important to create just to create, we can’t act as if social media isn’t important if you’re using it to gain clients, sell products, etc. So what can we do? There has to be some sort of balance, right? Of course there is.
What I find that works for me is to remain active in other ways; I don’t always need to post something of myself! If I had a bad training day, I won’t post anything of myself, but I can take to my feed to see what inspires me and share it to my story. This is great because it not only keeps your page active by posting ~something~ (even if it’s just to your stories), but it’s also spreading the love in the pole/aerial community to share other people’s work! None of us would even have followers if it weren’t for sharing and networking on social media. Maybe you can’t post something of yourself that week, but you can remain inspired by other dancers and give them more recognition by sharing them with your followers.
