Why I am not teaching at aerial festivals this year

Things are changing

So as you might know my work is no longer solely aerial, I have been a self-worth, somatic coach too for some time straddling the two and pulling them towards each other.

When I qualified as a coach I thought ‘I can just stay in the aerial world and coach aerialists’. I get to stay in my comfy, cozy industry with my new skills and all my friends and it will all be cozy and lovely. 

And it has been so cozy and lovely and I adore the fact that I have helped bring aerialists closer to their worth and watch them flourish.

But essentially aerialists wanna aerial and I feel like I have been setting up a tea stand at a coffee convention. It's not what they came here for.

And I haven't wanted to admit it out loud, or to myself, but it hasn’t been working lately. Lately I feel like I have been trying to force something on an industry that didn’t ask for it. 

Me and aerial have had a rocky relationship through the years. I was love bombed by aerial. It gave me loads of skills to start off with and I fell in love. I then became obsessed and landed in a toxic relationship with it. Losing myself along the way. You couldn’t separate us for a good few years and then I slowly built a healthy relationship with it. Now we are just friends (with benefits once or twice a week).

My whole adult life has been aerial. My whole career has involved aerial. Aerial is the world I know more than anything else. My friends span the world. I have taught 100s of people aerial. I know if I enter an aerial space I’m gonna feel pretty safe. I love that. I think that is so special. I don’t think there are many scenes like this. It is such a small but beautiful world.

So although I KNOW I am meant to shift in a different direction, it is not an easy move. 

In January I turned down teaching at an aerial festival I have been going to for a decade. I was shaking when I pressed send on the email. Reasons I did that:

1-I train aerial once a week, if that. I don’t get excited by aerial like I used to and teaching at a festival full of people fully committed to their aerial practice felt off.

2- There are so many aerial teachers who would jump at the opportunity to teach at this festival. They would get excited about what they would teach, advance skills, plan extensively. It was not fair for me to half arse it. 

3- I tend to get migraines and sore hips after doing aerial now. My body’s, not so gentle, tug away. 

4- My heart had been stolen by somatic coaching and I knew if I was going to properly go for it, I had to start saying no to aerial things. 

Am I going to get intense FOMO? Yes, of course. I mean this festival is the BEST. But I didn’t want to play pretend for 2 weeks in front of people who would know I had checked out. 

This Somatic Coaching must be good to sacrifice all of this right? IT IS! I have never felt more aligned with anything in my life. The transformations I have already encountered are mind blowing. This work is magic!

Now.. This does not mean you will never see me in the air again. In terms of my aerial practice it will probably stay the same, once a week and mainly floorial. I am just going to stop pursuing it in terms of work. 

Also.. It does not mean I am going to stop working with aerialists on self-worth and body image stuff. I will always be up for that! You know where to find me!

But is time for me to step into the big wide world and make my work even more inclusive.

When I was umming and ahhing about this career move I got an enquiry from someone who had stumbled across my details on the somatic coaching directory. She had no idea about anything aerial but we have been working together since and it has been wonderful. My first client in the big wide world. Eeeek! This was the message to tell me I was going to do fine out there. 

I decided if I am going to fully commit to this new adventure some things have to change. I need a coaching business name, new images that are not in the air and a fresh look at content.

I was throwing names around with my friend Rhonda and nothing was really hitting the spot. Everything sounded too clinical, too generic. Until Rhonda said.. “You know I just love Body Of Worth”. I sighed, tears filled my eyes and I said “Maybe this is what Body Of Worth was meant to evolve into”.

(If you don’t know Body Of Worth is a program I created for aerialists to feel worthy again, and after 3 failed launches I put it to bed).  

So Body Of Worth Coaching is currently under construction. Look out for new photos, content, offerings and please follow my new page. This page will be where I will share my little helpful nuggets, my voiceovers about life, my personal stories that break me open along the way. All the things you are used to on my page but now more inclusive to everyone. Connecting human to human and not aerialist to aerialist. 

The Tangled In Air page isn't going anywhere. I will probably not be very active on it but I am proud of all the helpful things I have built on that page that will always be there to scroll through. 

The Body Of Worth program is also not going anywhere. It is going to get a fresh lick of paint and will be open to anyone it connects with. Not just aerialists. It's just too good to let go. I will however be offering a scholarship to an artist each cycle. 

I want to say a huge thank you for your support this far. The aerial world will always feel like family.

Here's to the exciting things ahead!

Go follow @bodyofworthcoaching

And let’s goooooo

Thank you so much for being here!

Lots of love,

Em x x x x

Photo by Lauren Cress Photography