Beyond the Pole
keex started this discussion ·
How do you think pole dancing has made you flourish, grow or succeed in other areas of your life?
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keex started this discussion ·
How do you think pole dancing has made you flourish, grow or succeed in other areas of your life?
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Pole has really changed things for me. Right around the time I'd gotten my pole, I became sick and lost alot of weight. I was weak at the end, that I could not even go to the grocery store. It was the motivation to be able to pole, that pulled me out of it. Then when I had gained enough weight to be able to pole, I got so into it, that I started caring about my weight. I needed more kilos to buildt up strenght. Before I knew it, I had hit my goal. Sometimes I'd even say it was a big part in saving my own life for a while.
I too have been battling health issues and was put off pole for many months. Now that I am getting back into it, I am feeling strong, and starting to love my body again. Feeling great about your body can only lead to feeling better about yourself...which just makes life easier. Pole also enforces the idea that if you put your mind to something, practice, stick with it, you WILL improve and reach your goals. Plus, pole goals are very tangible. Pole was maybe the first thing I've done that has made me truly believe that. I'm not pole super star, but I hope to be some day! This mind set is also great to apply to other life goals.
After achieving my life goals 'so far' Uni degree, job I wanted, nice boyfriend, own place etc etc I was a bit bored..(not being ungrateful) now I'm not bored or fidgity-I have something to do for myself whenever I want and I love that, I feel content :-) I can power the pole to achieve a new goal or I can just chill out and enjoy what I can do :-)
Pole actually helped me recover from my ED! I knew that if I wasn't healthy there was no way I'd be cleared to go upside down. Also, being severely malnourished obviously affects muscles... I love pole so much and that helped me to realise that strong is better than skinny! Of course there were other issues that I had to work through in therapy, but it really helped me to get over my BDD. I'm still "in recovery" though, and have relapsed recently, but was able to pull back out of it and I totally credit pole to helping me actually feel good about myself and my body and what it can achieve!
it has given me so much more confidence, not only with my body but in my day to day life as well. I have also met some fantastic friends thanks to pole and it has improved my social life! I've always had a tendencey towards very dark moods, and work stress and lack of confidence have always added to these - pole has helped to give me a focus outside of work which helps to lift my moods and make me feel a lot better about myself; so much so that my BF insists that regularly pole even though he never sees me perform!
Pole has helped me keep my sanity and work off my stress, during the past 2 years my eldest daughter has had many problems with addiction to both prescription medication and non prescription medication, never knowing What state I will find her along with my 3 beautiful grandchildren , there have been incidents of child neglect , leaving 2 month old baby in car not knowing where she was( I found her) almost unconscious , to getting the typical verbal abuse along with pathological lying that an addict does, being abused publicly on FB and accysed if being the parent from hell that has caused all this !!finding my daughter unconscious with her 3 children fending for themselves having to report her to the appropriate agencies to make sure my grandchildren were going to be looked after, dealing with the guild that somehow I must be a really bad mother and trying to figure out what it was that I must have done wrong along the way! And yes She is still battling this problem !! pole has been my SAVIOUR!
I discovered pole at a very difficult time in my life. I went through three surgeries for a tumor about the size of a golf ball on my right vocal cord (not cancerous thank god)! I lost my voice for a year. I sounded like i had really bad laryngitis everyday. There was about 2 months out of that year that I literally had NO voice. My first dr never encountered my issue before so he performed a biopsy and referred me to a specialist. Went to that specialist and he performed surgery of basically using C02 to freeze off the tumor. Which did not solve the problem- all it did was scar the area. My third doctor who is the only larynologist in my state. He is in the top 5 in his field of the entire US. He performed my surgery and actually shelled out the tumor and gave me my voice back. Enough of the rant- but pole does not require voice. We donot realize how precious and useful our voice is until its gone! Voice is a gift. Simple speech is a GIFT! When i took my first pole class I did not have my last operation yet. Expression without using your voice is what i needed at that time from being severly depressed from lack of socialization.
I agree with memphiskitten! Can't wait to hear more and I will be thinking about what to write...
Many tread with that subject have been start but i never get tired to read the stories of all those incredibly stong woman. In my case, i've been living with depression for most of my life, going from ok to suicidal thoughts every 3-4 months for over 15 years. My bf notice the change less than 3 weeks after i got my pole and i have to say that i had only 1 small episode in 2 years. And at that moment i had so much support from the veeners here that it give me a huge boost.😀 In another area, i will finally go back to school after years of waiting to do it...pole got me into business and i need my accounting class to work it
Wow. There are some really touching stories here. Pole has been a major part of my life for a little over a year now. For the sake of this thread im going to bare all. Ive have battled addiction since I was 17. Before pole, when times got tough I would use to escape or run from whatever it was I couldn't deal with. When I was 15 I was devastated from the loss of 4 very close family members in 2 months. I didn't cope properly which then lead to heavy use. Things were looking grim until my best friend (my now bf of 4 years) came to my rescue one rough night. He told me he was in love with me but couldnt be with a user. I have been in love with him since the 9th grade. I made the best decision of my life that night. I got help and was told to find a healthy way to cope with emotions. I tried meetings, biking, yoga(which i now love both!), shooting range, you name it. But nothing kept my attention for long. One day I was on youtube and saw Jenyne Butterfly's demo at Awakenings. I probably watched it 5 times in a row. I became enthralled and spent what must have been hours doing youtube searches for pole. Then I found Veena's channel and clicked on a link to this site. Bought my pole shortly after and now here I am. A health/fitness freak in the prime of my life. Healthy and on track. I'd be lying if I said I don't have tough days where I feel weak willed. But when that happens I turn down the lights, put on my 7 inch heels and dance it out. I know it sounds silly, but in a way, pole has saved my life :)
Pole dancing has played the most important role in my fight against rheumatoid arthrirtis. I became ill in January 2009 and was only diagnosed in September that year. I was literally bed ridden for 2 years as the ra started in my feet and getting out of bed was so incredibly painful. Once my doctor found the right medication mix and I started to feel better I had put on almost 20 kgs and was so depressed. I started looking for a form of exercise I could do that was not high impact and would not aggrevate my joints. I saw an advert for pole dancing and decided to give it a go. I have never looked back! The workouts although require a lot of strength do not aggrevate my joints so it is perfect. I feel strong and confident and my ra is actually improving. I have lost 14 kgs to date and although I am not loosing weight anymore, I am still loosing inches every month. I love what pole dancing has given me - the strength to get out of bed every day. The energy to be a better mom and the confidence to know that whatever obtacles you face - there is always a solution!
Well, my encounter with the Pole is due to the S.Factor DVDs of Sheila Kelley. Actually I've bought only for the 2 DVDs witht he floorwork & her book and was surprised to get the DVD with the Pole for beginners. Her story is quite interesting about how she got to the Pole. In her book, she says that every woman has to try Pole dancing at least once in her life. At first, I just put this behind me and thought this is not for me, only for the strippers. After few months, I was intruigued by the DVD and decided to search for a Pole Instructor in Brussels and I found the Belgian Pole Chance Champion, Sarah Cavenaile who is giving courses. Since January I have 2x week courses and I should say that Pole has changed my life. In the meantime, I bought a pole and get really addicted to it. It helps me to build by confidence, stretch myself physically, emotionally and mentally; it's challenging and also helps me to maintain my weight steady (which was a big struggle in the past). Since 1 year and a half I have a hiatale hernia which affects my digestion system a lot, and as per the doctors there is no solution but taking anti acids on a regular basis and eventually having a surgery. I am totally against the pils and the surgery is not really indispensible at this stage. I've tried also ostheopathy but not much improvement. However, what I noticed is that thanks to the work out on my abs since 6 months, there is a slight improvement in my digestion system. I suffer less from the acidity and I will not be surprised if by the end of the year the hernia is gone. In this sense and quite surprisingly the Pole helps me indirectly with my health problems....I feel also better in my body, in peace with who I am. Since April, I've studied a choreography with other Pole mates to present in a dance show which was last Saterday. It was my first performance on stage and also one of the best that were appreciated by the public. I liked it so much that I am ready to do it again...
Through practicing the art of pole dancing I grew a pair - if you know what I mean. I learned that this was something that meant so much to me that I wouldn't allow others to take it from me, I refuse to be pushed down and silenced. That resiliance only came through hours of soul searching, dancing and struggling to continue to do something that made ME happy.
The main thing that pole has done for me in another area of my life is that it has helped me stay quit from drinking. When I quit, it was hard to figure out how to deal with what I was going through. I had just broken up with my boyfriend, who also had a drinking problem, so I had no support at home. I thought about going to AA, but I'm a real atheist, and the AA material I read I found very alien to my thinking and worldview. (I'm sure it helps others, it just wasn't for me) This left me in the position of trying to figure out how to stay quit on my own. Fortunately, around the same time I quit, I took up pole, and it has helped many times to have something I love to do that I quite literally could not do if I were still drinking. Poling has served as a reminder that there are things in my life that are way more important than alcohol, and that I would not want to lose because of alcohol. The story has a happy ending, too: the boyfriend I had broken up with when I quit drinking also quit all by himself, and sometime later we got back together again. Now we are happily living together, both quit more than a year, and loving it.
It's so inspiring to read so many stories in which pole dancing has improved everyone. I feel it has saved my life too. It helps me fight depression. Three years ago I was very depressed but couldn't tell, I thought it was just the way I was and it was never going to change. I couldn't keep a job for more than a year (when I get very depressed I just don't want to leave my home so I would blame my jobs for the way I felt and quit). I was always down and didn't want to talk to anyone or go out. I started pole dancing because I wanted a fun way to keep fit, I wasn't stable or constant with anything so I dropped going to the gym and yoga every 2 or 3 months. When I started pole dancing everything changed. Now I don't stop excercising, it gave me a job I love and I don't think I'd ever quit and it has helped me realise a lot of things about myself I need to change to feel better. It has motivated me with my life in all aspects because when I'm feeling bad and I want lo let everything go I just start thinking I don't want to stop poling and I don't want to lose all the work I've done so far gaining flexibility, strength and resistance. It keeps me from smoking and eating incorrectly, it even keeps me from smoking too much pot when I'm depressed. It has improved the way my body looks (yesterday I made my first "proffesional" photosession and I can't believe somehting good came out, I always thought I could never do something like that). Just today I was feeling very angry and hopeless because I had a rough week and I felt better when I found a great angry song I hadn't heard in a long time that I could dance to. It helps me express myself and release stress. Also, I found thanks to it a form of art I enjoy, keeps me fit, I can get paid to do and people care for. I used to write and ilustrate and I was quite talented but I always stopped when I was depressed and never could really focus on those things as a proffesion because I felt nobody was interested in paying for something like that. I also studied linguistics for 4 years and I dropped university because I felt it was too stressing (one day I was given a 7 instead of 8 or 9 and I could never present myself to an exam again! I couldn't control the way I felt about it!) and job opportunities here related to that are not enough in my opinion for all that work. With pole dancing is different and I feel now when I meet people they are instantly interested in me because of what I can do. This doesn't happen to writers or ilustrators as much Lol. It has given me so much I think pole dancing is something every girl should do and since I've started I feel I've found a place for me in the world that I don't ever want to leave no matter how frustrated I feel about anything in life.
