Follow the White Rabbit

I took this photo exactly one year ago today.

I was sitting on the beach with my trapeze partner in crime and best friend, Alex, watching the moon set as the sun rose. It was beautiful and oddly poetic, a symbol of all the changes that were on the horizon. We camped at the beach the night before to celebrate our final days together before he and a group of friends ventured off to California. My trapeze home had closed up to relocate for the summer and with it was going the people I had come to consider my close friends and my family. It was a sad time for me and I struggled for months, coping with the loss of the place that brought me so much joy. Thirty feet up in the air was my therapy and sharing our joint successes (and set backs) as a group gave me such a sense of comraderie and kinship, it was pretty tough losing it all at the same time.

So as we quietly watched the night transition to the day (and snacked on white fudge Flipz) my thoughts wandered around my life and career, feeling like I was trapped as an observer, unable to control where they were going. I had no idea how I was going to break free and make the changes I needed in order to be happy. I watched so many of my friends chase their dreams and crush their goals. And while it was so inspiring, it was also incredibly difficult not to compare my life to everyone else's. I decided at that point that I needed to stop being paralyzed by the comparison game and start acting on creating the life I wanted for myself.

I was halfway done with my yoga teacher training and I knew that I wanted to teach yoga to some capacity in the future. I was already teaching flying trapeze and needed it in my life even though my rig was closed. Yoga and trapeze changed me in the best way possible and it was time that I figured out how to continue sharing my passions with others. It was a scary thought, it can be notoriously difficult to make either a lucrative career and both come with the possibility of burn out and exhaustion, but if I never tried, I'd always wonder what if. 

So it's now one year later since that night on the beach and my life has significantly changed. Since then, I graduated teacher training and I've been leading a group of friends through their yoga practice every other Sunday. It turns out that teaching yoga energizes and inspires me in a way that I never even knew was possible. Also, since last summer, I've managed to continue flying and teaching trapeze as well. 

And now as the moon sets and the sun rises once again, I am in a much different place than I was that night on the beach. 

This time as the trapeze rig makes its way back out west, with it not only goes my trapeze family, but also myself.

I'm following the white rabbit straight to California, where I will spend a summer teaching flying trapeze. Leaving my full time job is a risky (and terrifying) move, but I have an amazingly supportive husband and together we'll make it work. It feels incredible to be going after my dreams and I'm very lucky to have Alex supporting me 100%. It's uncertain what will happen beyond the summer, but we're embracing it with open arms and an open heart. 

The moon is setting on my old life and the sun is rising on the new...I'm nervous, I'm excited and above all, I'm ready.

How Are Your Hands? Part 2

"When you give a message, it is also a back scratch." (Kyla's 10 Ways to Spot a Female Flying Trapeze Addict). That is an extremely accurate assessment of a trapeze flyer's hands. Any mate of a bar-based apparatus student/teacher/performer can vouch for the legitimacy of this statement.

In my previous post about trapeze hands, How Are Your Hands? Part 1, I mentioned how we proudly wear our craft on the surface of our palms. In this installment, Trapeze Hands, Numero Dos, let's talk about hand care.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional, so keep in mind I am just sharing what works for me. Please see your doctor if you have any questions about treatment and before caring for any open wounds.

Overgripping. Hot, humidity. Flying until my hands are screaming. I've ripped more times than I care to remember.

I am trying to be more conscious about my saving my hands, so I'm making hand care and hand mindfulness a priority going forward.

That being said, I've gotten my post-flying hand care routine down. I keep a pair of nail clippers in my grip bag. In the event that I rip, I try to trim off the excess skin as soon as possible. If I blister, I try to leave it alone and let it heal itself under its natural, protective layer. Which for me is a huge exercise in self control, because my instinct is to fidget with it until I can no longer take it and then clip it off.

Other supplies I also keep in my bag (pictured below) include unscented baby wipes and Joshua Tree Climbing Salve.

Baby wipes are awesome to remove the chalk from my hands, wrists (elbow, face...how the heck did I get chalk in the middle of my back?...) I prefer the unscented kind because they are more gentle on the skin.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I will fly until my hands are burning hot and yelling at me to stop. Regardless of whether I rip or not, I always try to soothe my hands after a good fly session. I had some cuticle cream lying around and decided to try it on my hands after flying one day. I noticed it helped calm my hands and moisturize my sensitive, roughed up skin post-fly. It was particularly useful when I would crack, softening up the skin and taking away the stinging pain.

A few months ago, Jen, my fellow lady flyer from across the pond, recommended Joshua Tree Gymnasts Salve. She said it saved her hands during a week-long trapeze vacation to the Dominican Republic. By the way, pop on over to her blog and read about her trip and her experience at Kaiceitos Circus, it sounds like a trapeze dream come true.

When she mentioned it, I remembered seeing some sort of Joshua Tree hand cream at the climbing store the week or two prior. I went there to check out the carabiners and ended up sampling the JT climbing salve labeled "try me." Coincidence? After checking out the JT website, I noticed that the ingredients in both the gymnastics and climbing salves appeared to be the same. So I decided I'd pick up some of their climbing balm next time I was out that way. (And by next time I was out that way, I mean, the next day I made a trip out to Travel Country specifically to grab some haha!)

Joshua Tree boasts that its organic, unscented products moisturize and promote healing of skin without softening the calluses. The balm does have a distinct scent to it, probably a result of all the natural herbs and essential oils. To me, it smells like tea tree, which is one of ingredients. I used the product after I ripped BAD and I noticed that it appeared to heal my hands faster than any of the other moisturizing treatments I've used.

Recently I have been practicing lyra quite a bit. This gorgeous gal was gifted to me by a good friend...she's 7/8" hollow steel tube...sighhhh...so dreamy...

As a result, my calluses have built back up nice and solid, but my roughed up hands wind up feeling pretty dry. I notice a huge different in how my hands feel after I apply a light layer of JT across my calluses. It is a bit oily at first, but then it soaks into the skin, leaving the hands soft to the touch. I wish I could place my palm on the computer screen for you to touch and feel how supple, yet strong my calluses feel haha. I have been applying JT after I fly as well and IT IS AWESOME. It's definitely worth checking out if you are looking for something designed for people who use their hands like we do. While I'm sure my husband loves the back-massage-slash-back-scratch combo, it's nice to be able to tone down the intensity of my "construction worker" hands (as they've often been referred to). I try to apply one coat in the morning and reapply as needed throughout the day. The full usage instructions are available on the JT website. I saw Joshua Tree products in climbing stores in Salt Lake City as well, so it appears to be widely available.

I know this sounds like a sales pitch, but I assure you, I have not been paid for this review, I just cannot say enough great things about this product. Thank you again, Jen, for the recommendation!!! Unwilling to commit to a product I was unsure about, I just grabbed a sample size. I will definitely pick up the large tub next time!

Side note, if you're looking to buy any steel props/apparatuses, I know a guy and would be happy to put you in touch with him...and yes, this one is a sales pitch. ;)

Leave me a comment and tell me about your post-flying hand care ritual. Happy Flying!