Welcome to Barre None, my new video blog exclusively on Huffington Post. I'm Sara Mearns and I hope to be your tour guide into the world of classical ballet. You might ask yourself, "Why a video blog that goes behind the scenes of a classical ballet dancer's daily life?" Because what you see on the stage does not begin to capture what ballet or our lives are all about. You see the performance, but what you don't see -- the rehearsals, the costume designs, the frazzled nerves, the learning of a new ballet, the constant travels around the world, the injuries and the oftentimes long, painful road to recovery that lead us to wonder if this is the injury that can end a career -- it's all a part of what we do and who we are.
I'm only one dancer, but I hope that by giving you a window into my life as a principal ballerina at New York City Ballet, a door will be opened to more interest, curiosity, and enthusiasm for this artform that I, and so many others, love and work so hard for. So come on in, pull up a seat, and join me every Friday. You'll have a great time. I promise. Barre None.
RECOVERY
Ahhh... Recovery. You would think I wouldn't need to think about this nine months later after returning to the stage. Honestly, recovery is more about your mental state rather than physical. Your body is smarter than you will ever be -- you meaning your subconscious. Your body knows how to recover and it knows how to repair. Your mind, on the other hand, can take years to recover and repair from an injury or traumatic experience. The mind needs constant TLC and reassurance that it will be okay, that life will calm down and peace of mind will resume. This does not happen overnight or even within a year or a decade sometimes. But you have to have patience and confidence in your soul and heart that total recovery is possible. There are the obvious factors that pertain to your physical recovery that must be dealt with such as getting a new bed, my choice being Tempur-Pedic, or wearing the correct shoes, my choice being Cole Haan, or just keeping up with all your therapy and massage appointments. Those things are a no-brainer in my book. You have to have good sleep, you have to have good support when you walk and your body needs the best TLC possible, especially if you're an athlete.
The mind, spirit and soul recovery is entirely up to you. You have to be committed to feeling better and loving yourself as you are now, not who you were before your injury or who you wish you were. To my credit, I am a completely different human being than I was a year ago. I contribute that to my commitment of enriching myself as an artist and as a friend to others. Everyone is different in how they think they can improve or change and only you can take the steps to make that happen. Recovery is a chance to reinvent yourself and become who you always wanted to be. Don't just aspire to be others, be one of them! This doesn't mean making huge drastic life decisions because it can be as simple as agreeing to hang out with someone new or going to see an off off Broadway show or to begin writing. Become the person you want to be around and be the person you love and that can be loved back. We are always evolving and recovery is definitely a way to jump start that journey.
And if you aren't recovering from anything then do it anyway! Love, love, love...
See you next week.
Check out last week's video blog here.
You can find Sara Mearns on twitter here: @nycbstar2b.