Our skin. When we really think about it, how much credit do we give our skin? Especially for us aerialists, when sometimes a small piece of skin means the difference in our safety.
Our skin literally holds us together. It protects us. It stretches to hold the ever changing amounts of muscle, fat, other human(s), milk and all other bodily fluids and things; and then it sometimes un-stretches. It grips. It loses grip. And I’m sure it does a whole slew of other things.
And sadly, at least for me, I do not give it credit or praise or thanks. If I think of it, I typically do not like it or feel comfortable in it most days. I also, likely, do not take care of it nearly as well as I should. And it does not end there. I admittedly, often think very negatively of my skin. (The irony of not feeling comfortable in my own skin, the thing I was born in and literally has held me together my entire life hits hard and is a heavy topic the studio has actively helped me challenge.)
There are days I look in the mirror and only see the sag. Days I feel the pulling while I’m getting into a position or transitioning on the pole. There are days my legs have no grip. And the sad reality is during all of those moments, I think of what it is not. I think of how it is not tight enough. Or moist/grippy enough. Or how it didn’t unstreach and is now in excess all over my body.
While all of that is true, there are also days when I am at the studio and I can look at myself and see strength (back to the actively challenging the negativity). I can look in the mirror and see beauty. In fact, the other day, while I was stretching with shorts on, I looked at the sag of my thighs and I didn’t feel instant negativity. I looked at it and I felt a sense of wonder. Wonder of what my skin is all capable of. Wonder of what my skin will continue to protect me from and support me through. Wonder of what my skin needs to be taken care of and supported the way it supports me. Wonder of what would happen if I acknowledged what my skin does for me and the beautiful way it shows up, every day.
For today, I’m trying to choose to see the amazingness of my skin and offer it grace and gratefulness for the ways in which it simply is AND I invite you all to join me. Also, I’m choose in my first ever, to moisturize after a shower and its a grip game changer that I highly recommend.