⚡️ Weird + Ugly: Issue 1

It's me, Nikbo. Shuffling into your inbox in my fuzzy house slippers to bring you Weird + Ugly: Issue #1.

The idea for Weird + Ugly was a gift from Sadia Bruce. I attended one of her workshops at Esalen to study the power of breath. At the beginning of our first class, Sadia put on a playlist and invited us to warm up with some movement.

It was 9AM, and I was feeling conspicuous amongst 25 strangers in this oceanside yurt. Sadia called us to our feet, and prompted us lift our heels up and down to the beat. Cool. Easy. I can do that.

Keeping us within the safe boundaries of our yoga mats, she cued us to move the rhythm up to our hips… our waists… our shoulders… then our arms. Cool cool, I can do those things, too.

As the next song started to build in intensity, she invited us to step off our mats to dance-meet another person. And to move bigger. Yipes. I side-eyed my neighbors, and my breath and heartbeat quickened. I was in my head, worrying about what I looked like to these strangers. I felt like a pigeon and overcompensated by making my over-excited theater face.

Then Sadia called into her Britney mic, “Make it weird! Make it ugly!” And that set me free.

Read the rest of Weird + Ugly: Issue 1 on Flodesk.