What to do if you burned out.

If you fall out of love with pole, you burned out or just don’t want to train anymore - that’s ok. There is nothing wrong with you. I understand your pain. I’ve been there myself. 

In this blog I’m sharing my story and what helped me to come back to pole and to fall in Love with it all over again. I hope it will help you too.

My story:

About 7 years ago i was completely and fully burned out. I was so mentally and physically tired.

I didn’t enjoy pole and traveling anymore. I remember i was in Manila , i spent all 5 days staying in my room. I didn’t want to see anything in the city. I wanted to cry and i wanted to go home.

I desperately needed a break but because of not knowing what was it and having many excuses i kept pushing and training even when I really didn’t want to. I would cry before my pole practice or after. And i still would train. Now that I’m thinking about it - crazy - I’ve been torturing myself for many years and i simply was afraid to acknowledge it, to have a break, to do some steps to other direction and to listen to myself. What did I really want? What my soul wanted?

I could not hear it all because i was so much in my head, i was pushing on gas non stop.

When the pandemic came i took a much needed break. I stayed home for the first time in 10 years. I refused to teach online and stoped training and teaching for a year. Which never happened before. It was a scary decision but pain of keeping training was too much. I needed to do something different. I was tired of being miserable. And it felt right to finally take a pause.

I was still practicing sometimes here and there but it was only for me. Not for workshops or classes or performances. Not for posts on my IG.

In the free time i was dancing for my soul. Learning and exploring TikTok and all the crazy choreographies, video transitions, lip synching and so much more. I started doing it because i finally heard the voice inside. Voice that said - go dancing, do something outside your comfort zone, try something new.

At that time - TikTok was it.

Dancing was hard and weird, i felt vulnerable, out of my comfort zone and it made me so happy.

You also have this voice inside of you. Hear it. Listen to it carefully. What it says to you? What it wants? Maybe you always wanted to learn how to paint, or you want to become an actor, or learning to play guitar…Take some time to figure it out.

After spending one year doing more things i like i came back to teaching again.

Martin helped finding amazing mindset coach and we started figuring out what I like doing and what brings me joy. I found that teaching small private groups is what i wanted. Cause i can help so much better and make sure that everyone is achieving their goals. And it made me happy.

I think what i was also missing with workshops is having deep long relationships. When you have the same group that trains with you, you get to know each other and in a way you become a small family. Realizing that helped me to change the way i was teaching and understanding what i need to do to enjoy it.

Try to ask yourself this question too. What can i do to make my work more enjoyable? Or my pole training more enjoyable? For example out of 10 points , teaching or training on the pole is 7, so what can you do to make it 10? Think about it and write your answer.

Another thing that helped me to come back to pole is exercising outside of pole world. And at that moment it was yoga.

I started watching yoga classes online and following the videos at home. And I started small. 10 minutes a day. Then slowly it became 15 or 20. Then 30 or 45. And even an hour.

It really brought me back to life. I fell in love with yoga and all the beautiful shapes and lines and how great it is for the body and the soul. What helped also is that I didn’t have any expectations. I wanted to slowly start training. 10 min, thats it. That’s not scary. 10 min is easy to find in your day for practice. Everyone can do it.

Then after some time 10 minutes will become 30 and you wont be able to live without it. You will feel better. You will feel confident. Stronger, healthier. You will see what it does to you and you will want to keep going.

Trying different styles and teachers will help you to find your own style. Then it will become so much easier and nicer to go to the pole.

All the flows and asanas - they are in a way very similar to what we do on the pole. So i see a lot of shapes on the pole now as yoga shapes.

Sooo if you can - try different sports or dancing styles, yoga and Pilates. You can start slowly from home with small short training sessions just like I did and after some time classes will get longer and you will fall in love with it all over again.

You will build strength, mobility, flexibility and pole training will become so much more enjoyable and fun.

Sending you lots of love 

Ana