Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Why I'm at the Circus.

The Gym Sucks.
It sucks sucks sucks.
It smells. It's boring. No one at the gym is smiling.
Just sweating. Picking up heavy things. Putting them down. Picking them back up.
Do you get any superhero skills out of this?
What about zombie survival skills?
Assassin's Creed Skills?
No. You just get better at doing the Gym.
It's no fun and you know it. 

So I dropped my Gym membership- Hit the bar, and got High.


Wow, this is fun. Everyone is smiling. Now I know how to climb ropes and flip upside down. Now my arms can take me up trees and over walls.

I am F'in lucky to live withing driving distance to Cirque School LA. This is where I go twice a week to get muscles and learn superhero skills.

This place made me see my body differently. Not as just some fleshy parts that my brain lives in, but as an evolving, trainable tool I can use to access joy, thrills, and the good kind of challenge. 

As an artist, I know my mind pretty well. I spend a lot of time in the mental world. It's my space to create, my escape. But pulling, climbing, pushing, and sweating has re-connected me to my place in the physical world- and made me realize how fun it can be. Now I get to depend on my body- not just my brains- to make me feel good. 

 

 Not everyone will have a circus school near them- But you can check. Search Google locally for words like "aerial silk" and "Circus class/School." Most big cities also have a private trainer or two.

But the point isn't that you have to go to circus school. The point is, you have to find something fun to do with your body. If you're missing out on the rush that doing something physically challenging and thrilling regularly can give you, you're missing out on half of the goodness of being a human.



And if you're like me, you need something to do that's not repetitive, boring, smelly, or sad. Seems obvious, right? Start your search now for something amazing to do. Then go do it. Don't even tell anyone. Don't talk about it for a month. Just start doing.

I've been taking class at Cirque School for about a year now. The process isn't quick. But I'm working with my own tool, my own machine- not anyone else's. Week by week, I search and refine the secret combinations that unlock a new skills. The teachers are patient and respect your process. I respect my process too. It's like learning another language- the physical language. Right now I have a few vocabulary words, but it will take a long time to get fluent. And even then, I'll probably always move with the accent of a gawky, gangly animator.


It's fun. It feels good. That's all I ask for in a pursuit. The superhero moves and brand new arm muscles are just frosting.

Mmmm. Frosting.

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