People all over the world are experiencing the power of poi, from physical to mental to emotional benefits and everything in between! Check out the amazing stories below for some intimate truths about the positive influence of poi, or click the button to share your own story.
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I have a highly complex congenital heart defect called transposition of the great arteries (d-TGA). As a kid I was very clumsy, had a speech impediment and very poor fine motor skills. My hand eye coordination was pretty much nonexistent. Now after 16 years of flow arts I'm far less clumsy and my hand eye coordination is better than ever. If you get discouraged just remember it's all about taking baby steps, all those little victories will get you where you want to be.
I have epilepsy. I have been dealing with grand mal seizures since I was 18 years old, I'm 25 now. With my meds comes crazy side effects and my mind is not clear unless I'm doing stuff I love like poi or skateboarding. I went to the best neurologist around Knoxville TN area. We talked about things I like to do, like skateboarding, and I mentioned spinning fire. He said he was totally in support of fire spinning because of the benefits from exercise and the concentration, because it works the brain.
Poi helped me achieve and maintain sobriety, and helps me remain stable and forward facing. I suffer from bipolar disorder and unfortunately, chose to self-medicate with illegal substances when I first got diagnosed. I was afraid. However, I got introduced to poi by a friend (who is now my significant other!) and after some practice, achieving the flow state just felt so right. Five years later I'm successful and spin daily.
Poi helped me a lot with social anxiety. It helped me to feel more comfortable in my skin while people are looking at me, mainly because of practicing poi in public places and showing off my poi skills to friends. Now I don't get as clumsy as I used to when I feel I'm being watched. It also helped me gain confidence in speaking and explaining things, as people ask me to teach them some poi tricks.
When I started to play poi, it created a new space within mommy space that I could claim while still having mainly my attention for the kids. But this space with poi gave me joy and enabled me to reconnect to myself and my body in a way that was not restricted by time nor space. And in the practise of poi I learned about my sensuality, about learning to learn, attachments, limitations of the mind and the list can go on. I strongly feel that learning the skill of poi flow changes people and therefor has a power to change the world.
I used poi to cope whenever I had a bad day. It freed my mind and allowed me to just exist with these two bits of fabric and bean bags. I had my own space and the more I moved the more the depression lifted. It makes me feel special that I can flow on the 'cosmic tides' that is life now. It allows me to discard my mood, worries, hunger, sadness, everything.