My love for movement

Throughout my life I’ve been active.

My mom placed me in dance at the age of 3 years old. I hated it. I thought it was boring and didn’t understand why I had to do it, or why others liked it.

As a kid, I goofed off in class, not paying any attention to the teacher’s instruction. Pretending I was a princess in distress, trying to get away from the bad guys, I mumbled to myself the character’s dialog, making gestures, occasionally getting a quick, sturdy “Pay attention!” from the dance teacher. I meticulously hid behind my classmates, trying not to be noticed so I could continue my imaginary story. After all, that princess needed a happily ever after ending! 🙂

Me in Junior High, Pinball Wizard dance

Once  a year we had a dance recital, a showing of our hard work over the past year, where as a group, we’d perform three dance routines, each move memorized. Of coarse, there was little me, clueless on stage, looking around at everyone else, trying to copy the moves, and again, hide myself as to not be noticed. There was no imaginary playing around come show time. It was more of a “oh shit” moment where I learned a valuable lesson.

 

Success comes from concentration in your craft, attention to your actions and a unmistakable knowing that hard work is meant to make you better.

I participated in dance up until my high school year and my outlook changed completely. The way I felt about dance (and still do to this day) is with a grateful heart, for it was there for me to grow, learn, strengthen me, and lift me up when I needed it. I fell in love with the art of dance. So much so that the last four years I put myself through anxious tryouts to be accepted into the competitive groups. The level of talent was so inspiring to me, and with my confidence low, I was always a nervous wreck on stage. But I continued to show up, to learn the moves, attending multiple classes per week, practicing at home, the grocery store, at school… I’d tap dance anywhere, shouting number (5,6,7,8!!!) with a big grin on my face.

We competed all over the US, my parents making sacrifices for me (and my brother who eventually joined dance and competed too!). It was part of who I was at the core.

To this day I am immensely thankful to my parents for pushing me to dance, to bring me to class, to pay for it all, to super glue my sparkly rhinestones on my costumes… All of it was a blessing for me, and looking back I know it’s set me up to be appreciative of the power of moving my body.

Now I enjoy weight lifting and running as my form of movement. But trust me, I dance like a crazy person while making my morning pancakes with my daughter;)

As I’ve gone from a child to an adult I’ve learned the mental game, so to speak.
How our mind gets exposed to certain thoughts, learns a certain pattern of thought, that create a story we start to believe as truth. For example, I learned from an early age I wasn’t good enough, I couldn’t accomplish the things I wanted.. The thought “something is wrong with me” replayed in my mind, and if I let it, I still hear it on my bad days.

The difference is I now know this is a false story, one that I had the power to change. A beautiful path for me was through dance, through movement of my body. As a kid, it’s often hard to express how you feel because you don’t know you even feel it. But through movement, I would dance my HEART out, hard, fast, angrily sometimes, to get that emotion out. After class I’d always feel a thousand times lighter.

I remember coming to ballet class one day, a dark depressing day for me… I was in tears walking into class, trying my best to hide, as I was so good at doing. The ballet teacher took notice and walked over to me… He lifted my chin up and told me to ‘just breathe and dance.” It was such a special moment for me.

Moments like that remind me that answers to our stresses don’t just come – we need to MOVE through them to get clarity, peace and healing.

Just like we train our bodies to strengthen them, transform them…we too need to acknowledge our minds need that same attention. We live in a culture were our minds desperately need strengthening and transformation. You’ve seen the destruction people’s minds can create, killings, bombings, suicide… That is the power of thought. As awful as the negative things are, I’m encouraging you to recognize that POWER. What if we harnessed that power to create more love, kindness and compassion?

I think we all are nodding in agreement, this is what our world needs. But hear this… YOU are the light. If you wish to see, feel and live in more peace, more love and more compassion – YOU MUST GIVE IT TO YOURSELF FIRST.

It starts with you.

Your light will contribute to the glow of the collective if you SHINE.

Your thoughts propel your life, so choose the thoughts that serve you, not the ones that keep you stuck. Throw out blame, circumstance, excuses… TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for your thoughts. It is one of the only things you DO have complete control over. Who else can think a thought for you, but you?

Movement is my tool to get clear on my mental state. I feel shitty? I walk, run, dance, MOVE. I no longer feel shitty.

Movement aids me to get clear and focused so that I can show up to a problem with solutions, NOT excuses. So I can solve internal conflict, so I can make hard decisions with more ease, so I can live my life with more FLOW and less resistance.

As I run, I release tension. I need to keep my attention on the next step in front of me. My mind has no room to play the “something is wrong with you” story because taking my focus off that next step will make me fall. Running forces me to pay attention to the now. I cannot pretend I’m a princess. I cannot hide. And every time I run I am reminded how beautiful life is to gift me with the ability to move my body – this free tool that not only helps me stay healthy, but gives me a chance to tell my false thoughts to get lost, so that I hold more space for thoughts that bring feelings I WANT to feel.

The biggest benefit from exercise is harnessing the power to feel what you want by changing not only your environment (getting your body into a different state) but switching yourself into a space that makes it easier to gain control of what you’re thinking. That’s where the magic happens.

ps. I still have dreams where I’m dancing on stage and don’t know the routine, waking me up in horror! This always reminds me to pay attention in life, stay aware and keep going, doing the hard work that will continue to mold me into a better version of myself.

All my love…

~Janet