In April 2022, a woman named Clare began taking aerial arts classes. She has an eating disorder called AFRID, which involves the avoidance of food and the restriction of one’s diet to just a few specific foods, causing nutritional deficiencies, weight changes, and anxiety. 

Aerial became a safe space for her. She realized what real self-love is, and Aerial just continued to heal the wounds in her mental health. 

She says that throughout her life she didn’t have a good relationship between food and exercise. She suffered from exercise-induced asthma and iron deficiency anemia, and sometimes fainting from mild exertion, while she was growing up.

With aerial arts being a great form of exercise, it also can heal mental wounds. Aerial is said to reduce stress along with better quality of sleep. Aerial became something that Clare could rely on, something that she could do to reduce stress and anxiety.

She started on something as simple as the apparatus pole, and now she can do so much more than just pole. It was something so small and yet it changed her entire life.

After she did aerial she could do things that she couldn’t have done beforehand. Such as hanging out with friends and not feeling exhausted or putting her suitcase in the overhead bin by herself. She says, “ My body actually feels like something I own, not a burden that I must carry.”

Aerial allowed her to be okay with how she is. She knows that her eating disorder isn’t just going to go away, and she knows that if she just wants to eat only one thing, then that’s fine! Aerial made her realize that even with her eating disorder, she still deserves to feel like her body is something that she should be proud of, not ashamed of.

After she took aerial classes she said, “ These days, hunger is accompanied by a feeling of accomplishment. Feeling hungry is a reminder that my body is healing, and it’s something I’ve been able to feel grateful for. “ She realizes that eating isn’t a bad thing and that it’s okay to feel satisfied after you eat a meal.

Aerial helped her discover a new kind of self-love. “Loving not just what my body looks like, but what my body can do.“ Aerial is difficult and pushing through it can be a lot. Yet the result is most definitely worth it.

People say that they would love to try Aerial, but they’re not strong enough. You don’t have to go into aerial being strong, or flexible. You can start from the ground and go up, and up. Nobody says they’re not strong enough to start going to the gym. It takes time to build up strength and flexibility, it doesn’t just appear.

She said that after over two decades of feeling weak that sometimes she struggled opening doors. She says that, “Having total strangers tell me that I’m strong has been one of the most surreal things to hear, and the best feelings I’ve ever experienced.“

Aerial allowed her to get stronger, to break free from her eating disorder. It may not be gone but it can be managed. With Aerial she can manage her eating disorder so much better than she could’ve before. 

She says that she never thought she would be able to eat three meals a day and exercise a few times a week. To others, it doesn’t really mean anything but to her, she can take care of herself and her mental and physical health. And it is her greatest accomplishment. 

Thanks to aerial, she isn’t held back by her body. She doesn’t worry about fainting from mild exertion anymore. She loves what her body looks like, along with what it can do. Not having to worry about it being painful to lie on her stomach, or to feel the pain of being malnourished.

Aerial was the thing that she needed. She found aerial and her burdens just got lighter and lighter, until they weren’t there. 

Of course, nothing heals every single wound, but she says she has never been healthier and she says that she “Truly owes it all to dance.“ Aerial didn’t heal every wound, but it sure did help heal a lot.

She said that, “I believed that exercise was something that could only ever hurt and feel joyless, because for years, that had been my only experience. It was only when I exercised on my own terms that I began to heal from that idea. It turns out that I’m actually a really athletic person, I just hated gym class.“ Aerial made her realize that she was athletic, and exercise isn’t just pain and joyless. Aerial allowed her to find herself, to find her real body, and to love it in any and every single way she could.

Clare struggled through really hard times and yet she managed to do it. With her eating disorder and exercise-induced asthma, it’s hard. It isn’t easy yet she still got through it all. Inspiring isn’t it?

You don’t have to go through hard times just sitting down and doing nothing at all. You can find a calming activity like how she did. It wasn’t something huge or super special, it was just a simple class. 

Because of that simple class that she took, it changed her entire life completely. Despite it being difficult to overcome her hard trials, she did, because of one Aerial class. You can always continue even when the path looks pretty gloomy.

You never can’t do something. It can seem like it, but you can always continue trying. The only one stopping you is yourself. If anything the biggest bully or obstacle is your thoughts. As previously mentioned, you never have to go through these difficult times alone. You can always have someone or a calming activity to help you, to get you through those hard days.

It’s never too late to sign up for dance, or for something you enjoy doing. You don’t need to be strong to start at anything. You go to the gym when you want to be stronger. Everyone can go to the gym, you don’t need to be strong, you can be as weak as a twig and still go. You go to the gym to get stronger, to feel better, to make yourself happy. You do it to meet your goals and expectations, not to fit into society’s expectations.

Now, what’s something that saved you? Could be an activity, a book you read, or maybe something as simple as a friend you made. What saved you? Put your answer down below!