… and how I found myself again
Maybe you know this too: sometimes I feel like I’m living in a whirlpool of everyday obligations, responsibilities and stressful times. The world seems to be getting faster and faster, a constant hamster wheel that I then try to escape. And in all the turmoil, I sometimes forget everything I’ve learned; self-care, pause and most importantly DANCE.
Maybe you can relate to my experience or parts of it. Days disappeared into nothingness, months and years flew by, and I rushed from one task to the next. This hectic pace has had a firm grip on me over the past few years: self-employment, advertising, single parenting, pandemic, homeschooling, continuing education – the list seemed endless. But recently, I realized that I had fallen by the wayside. The desire to be creative had faded, the energy had left me, and somewhere inside I knew I desperately needed time to myself.
What free time I had, however, I spent doing nothing and hanging around. Exhaustion had me in its grip, and the thought of personal training or dancing seemed out of reach. Until the moment my body rebelled. It forced me to rest, forced me to pause. And in that forced rest, I realized that I needed exactly what I was advising others to do: time for myself, space for rest and self-care.
I gathered the last of my strength and signed up for an online Movement Conference. And what can I say: It was like coming home – home to my own body. All the worries and duties disappeared, and I could just be. I didn’t have to do anything, take on any responsibility, I could just feel myself, arrive in my body. It was a feeling of pure presence and detachment.
And then I realized: If even I, who works with embodiment, who teaches these ideas, could forget to listen to myself, to pause, how do you think it is for others? People who may have inhibitions about getting out on the dance floor, who don’t know how to exercise the “mindfulness muscle.” And I know (and occasionally forget again) that it is necessary to practice this mindfulness, this self-awareness, over and over again, and to make it a permanent feature of everyday life.
In Open Floor there is the principle of “move and include” – to move and integrate what is. What I experience on the dance floor, I can also take into my everyday life. There is no distinction. And the more we practice, the more we remember our resources and the power we have within us.
Next Monday marks the start of a new round of Dance Move Connect, an opportunity to dive into the world of conscious dance. The first two Mondays are for a taster – a chance to explore whether Conscious Dance or Open Floor is right for you. An evening theme is exactly what this article is about: Pause. I would be happy to welcome you on the dance floor. You can find the registration here.
Of course there is not only Conscious Dance, but many methods that can help us to find ourselves. Body, mind, emotions and the big picture – all of these can be explored through different ways. Let’s not forget to integrate these practices into our daily lives. Maybe you already have, or maybe this reminder is as meaningful to you as it was to me.
On that note, let’s master the art of PAUSE and self-care together.
