Sweet Circus & The Health Benefits of Circus Skills
Circus skills especially juggling have been identified in a number of research papers over the years to boost your mental health as well as your physical health.
The act of learning to juggle engages the left side of the brain, the logical/analytical side. But once you have put those hours in and can juggle without thinking about each throw it is the right side of the brain, the intuitive side that then controls your throws and catches. It’s this act that has led to some referencing to juggling as “moving meditation”. Apart from anything else, your mind needs to be clear to juggle. If you are focused or other things, or even start to think about the juggling pattern itself you will drop.
While juggling has been the focus of such investigations all the circus arts have extensive benefits for mental and physical health. Practising and learning new skills, meeting new people and self-development without doubt improve self-confidence, drawing people out of their normal routine and can go a long way towards tackling both depression and anxiety.
All of the circus ground skills, require learning and practice to acquire. The by-product of this is movement, exercise and improved balance and coordination.
Aerial skills such as trapeze, silks and Aerial Hoop develop excellent balance, upper body and core strength and an increase in confidence as by product of practice. Nobody can argue that these are good by-products of learning new skills and having fun!
Circus Skills, be them ground based or aerial are accessible to all people of all ages. They are not just for the young and agile, due to the progressive nature of circus skills, everybody can work to a level that is appropriate for them.
It is however important to learn such skills with experienced instructors in a safe and nurturing environment.
Sweet Circus’s Partner Active Cherry offer a full range of aerial classes in a proven and highly regarded welcoming environment at their studio in Eastbourne. The team of instructors led by Andi Ariseanu leave those looking to have some fun swinging around full of praise for the work they do.
Spring is in the air, why not think about learning some new skills to take to the park with you, and meeting some new folks by expanding your interests and as a by-product improving your mental and physical health?