Aerial dancers and non aerial friends

Rachaelinthesky started this discussion · 2/14/2018

Has anyone else picked up aerial arts- pole, Lyra, silks, trapeze, etc... fallen in love with it, made it your passion, had it take over your instagram and find that some of your non aerial friends became distant? Not so supportive? As someone who used to smoke and party a lot, always searching for a passion and to find myself, I expected when I found aerial arts, the health and happiness that it's provided me, that my best friends would be so happy for me along my journey, proud of me..it's quite the opposite. Anyone else?

3 replies

Veena · 2/14/2018
I think this is pretty common when you become passionate about anything your friends aren't. I'd say most of the people I call friends all have similar interests. It can be frustrating at first but as you do begin to make new friends with the same interests it get's easier and the people who are important to your life stay around even if you are obsessed with a aerial!
TreesySpins · 2/15/2018
Same here. I fell in love with poling and then fell in love with Aerial. There is an aerial studio near me so I interact with others who love it during class but there are no poling studios near me so I'm very alone. It's fun and I love it but I found myself trying to convert my friends so I'd have someone to do it with and talk to about it. I learned quickly though that people will get tired of it because they don't love it the way I do. so now, I only post on Instagram and I only open my account to other Polers. So right now, I only share my passion with a handful of strangers. :-/
TreesySpins · 2/17/2018
Hello again, I was thinking more on your situation beciause as I said, I'm in a similar place. Heres's what I did. Maybe this will help you too. I created a separate Instagram account just for poling and I let my friends on facebook and my other Instagram account know about it so those who are interested can choose to follow me but those who aren't, can still stay in touch with me without being overwhelmed by my new passion. I was surprised to see who actually showed interest in seeing my poling progress. As for your real life friends, if they are truly distancing themselves from you, you may want to try finding new friends. You want to surround yourself by people who support you and want to see you happy, ESPECIALLY if you've taken on a healthier lifestyle (exercising instead of drinking/partying). In the meantime, start chatting with the polers on instagram. They're super supportive and wonderful. If you let me know your IG name, I'll gladly follow and support your obsession. ;) Good Luck. @treesyspins