Bad Dancing?

This week, in my elementary dance classes, we have been reading the story Giraffes Can't Dance.  This is a wonderful picture book about a Giraffe with buckling knees who wobbles and falls every time he tries to dance.  The annual jungle dance is a rather traumatic event for poor Gerald as the other animals laugh and tease him,  calling him a bad dancer.

I posed the question to my students- Is there a such thing as a BAD dancer?  Some said yes and explained that their siblings routinely accused them of being bad dancers.  But the vast majority of the children said that there was no such thing as a bad dancer.  They explained their thinking-

"Some people practice more."

"Some people can do more things but that doesn't mean that those who can't are bad dancers."

Here was my favorite-

"We all dance the way we are meant to dance."

Yes, a second grade child said that.  Smart kid.

In my book there is no such thing as a bad dancer, but this week it was nice to be reminded.  I haven't been feeling well, and missed my daily dance a few times.  The dances that I did do were of the tiny variety.  One day I danced with just my hands.  No leaps or dazzling turns.  No jazz hands, even.  But it wasn't a bad dance.  It felt great, in fact.

Dancing every day doesn't work if you judge yourself.  Each dance is what it is meant to be.

We all dance the way we are meant to dance. 


Wishing you balance,

Nancy

Let the Dancing Begin

In January I fantasized about aggressively promoting my March challenge of dancing every day for 5 minutes.  I envisioned it going viral, spreading like wild flowers.  All I need to do is get everyone I know to forward the info to everyone they know and so on and so on and...

And then February came and I totally forgot about Dance-A-Day March.  That is until March 1st, when it suddenly hit me.  Then came the dread. "Do I have to do this?  I don't feel like dancing." 

I don't have to do this.  I don't have to dance.  But then I would be a real fraud wouldn't I?  I set up this challenge for myself and I told people about it.  This means that I really ought to do it.

So, I did it.

And it was fun.

Really fun!

Just five minutes- not even five- it was probably more like three, but it put me in a great mood. 

It takes a bit of self guilt tripping to make me follow through on this missive, but when I do, my inner five year old gets released and I have a blast.

This Dance-A-Day March thing doesn't need to go viral.  It need not sweep across the internet.  But I am thrilled to have people join me.  The fact that there is a tiny community trying on this challenge for themselves makes me feel connected in a really lovely way.  I feel support for this project and supported personally.  Today again, I didn't feel like dancing, but did, and it was good, but not great.  In truth, I really didn't let loose.  I went through the motions.  Then, much later in the day, a friend posted a song to dance to, her five minutes of dancing song.  So I danced to it.

And this time I really danced!


And it was more than fun!  It was fabulous.  I felt as if I were part of a dancing community.  I can't describe how wonderful that feels.

Here is the song I danced to. Have fun with it!




Wishing you balance,

Nancy

February Gratitude

As many of you already know from prior posts, I have adopted a gratitude practice this year, which involves a daily exchange of lists of things for which I feel grateful.  This other person, with whom I exchange lists,  I affectionately refer to as my gratitude buddy.  Each month a new gratitude buddy joins me in this adventure.  This month, my gratitude buddy was someone I affectionately refer to as Mom.

This has been a very special month indeed.  I have already written about the gratitude practice being a express lane to happiness.  It continues to be so.  My glass feels half full.  This month brought with it the realization that the gratitude partnership also brings people closer.   I have enjoyed the daily connection with all my buddies immensely, and have deepened my relationship with each of them, but this past month I consider myself truly blessed to share something so life-affirming with my mother.   It has truly been a gift.

I feel better letting go and moving on to the next buddy knowing that my mom has a new buddy for March- my sister!  Each of my buddies has gone on to continue the practice with either a new buddy or a journal.  Just think....if everyone got a new buddy each month....this project would grow exponentially and become a crazy out of control gratitude fest.   This sounds just great to me.

Wishing You Balance,

Nancy

Opening The Heart

Many massage therapists offer couple's massage for Valentine's Day.  Although this is a lovely idea, it is something I have never offered.  I have a solo practice.  Without another therapist with whom to collaborate, a couple's massage would be challenging indeed!  Right now I am imagining myself trying to give two people a massage simultaneously!   Couple's massage fail!

Now that Valentine's Day has passed, I have thought up the perfect idea for a Valentine's session.  Of course! Now I get the idea!   Happily, I am not going to let the fact that Valentine's Day is behind us to go ahead and offer it.

Opening the Heart is a massage session that focuses on all those muscles of the thorax that get so short and tight from all the things we do like computering, driving, carrying things, even cooking and reading.  Those tight muscles round our shoulders forward and collapse our chests.  We literally sink into ourselves.  When we open the sternum, the shoulders and the ribs, we are able to breath more fully and experience more deeply.  Opening the heart opens us to life itself.

I received a note the other day from a client that recently received an Opening the Heart session-

"I think that the work has encouraged me to soften my heart....I feel different." 


Open to Possibiltiy.  Open to Joy.  Open the Heart.

Request an Opening the Heart session, now through the month of March, and pay just $50.00.

Please visit the Body In Balance website for more information on massage and somatics bodywork.


"The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart."  -The Buddha

Wishing you balance,

Nancy

P.S.  Some other resources for opening the heart-

The Heart Chakra

Loving Kindness Meditation  

Yoga and Breathwork

Gratitude: Month Two

I am well into my second month of my gratitude project and am now exchanging messages of gratitude with a dear friend that I went to college with who I haven't seen for several decades.   I can't even begin to describe the richness of the exchanges.  At this point, writing my daily gratitude list has become a habit, as natural as brushing my teeth.  When I started the project on Thanksgiving day, I was so excited about it that I couldn't wait to do my gratitude list and I would put a great deal of thought into choosing my three things; I wanted them to be the right things.  I wanted them to be profound.  Then, after a few weeks, the novelty of the project wore off, and it began to feel like a chore.  And for a few days in there, but only a few, my mood so dark, it was difficult to think of three things, and the whole project felt like a lame joke.

But nowadays the gratitude list flows easily.  Whatever resonates at the moment I decide to do my list, I write.  One day I am thankful for opportunities to begin anew.  Another day I am thankful for lemons.  The longer I do this project the more I love it.  I think it is true that what you give your attention to grows.  These thoughts, the positive thoughts that I have cultivated and cajoled, have now become second nature.  These thoughts have changed the way that I live.  These days I would describe myself as a happy person. I am grateful to be alive.  I happily greet the morning and climb into bed excited for sleep so that I can wake up and do this life thing some more.  In the words of Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, "Change your thoughts and you change your world."

I am grateful for the people who have signed on to do it with me.  I have three more gratitude buddies in the wings and I am excited about month long exchanges with each of them. And as I continue, I will keep you posted.

Wishing you balance,

Nancy

Setting Intentions

We will open the book.  Its pages are blank.  We are going to put words on them ourselves.  The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day."  ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce

This is a time of setting intentions.  How would you like your life to be in the New Year?  To what habits of mind and body would you like to say goodbye?  What would you like to invite into your life?

I have been having many conversations with people, clients and friends alike, about New Year's resolutions and intentions.  Health seems to be the number one priority when making those resolutions.

Recent research is hailing touch as the new medicine.  The research is welcome and affirming, but the body already knows how important nurturing touch is.  Bodywork feels wonderful and facilitates the body's own ability to  heal.  Touch is vital to our health.

What will you do to take care your body this year?  How will you invite in health and balance?

Some inspiring resolutions that I have heard-

• Drink more water
• Eat organic food
• Meditate more
• Get a massage a month
• Make a New Year's resolution

Here's wishing you a year of joy, good health and balance.  May you breathe deeply, sleep soundly, dance happily and laugh loudly.  I hope to see you soon.  I owe a great big thank you to all my supportive friends, clients and readers for making this year a great start to my dream to help others in their own healing journeys. 

Wishing you balance,

Nancy

Open Sky

The sky is different here.  It is open and vast.  Walking in the mild Kansas air, I too feel vast and expansive.  Life seems full of possibilities. 

A New Year.  Letting go of the old.  Welcoming in the new.

This is the perfect time to feel the possible.  A perfect time to gaze out at the open sky and dream a bit.

Granted, I am on vacation, but I always feel a great sense of possibility when I come here.

It is an interesting question then- what influence does the environment have on the way we live in our bodies?  The weather, the season, the sky, the landscape, the sounds around us- does our environment inspire or inhibit?  Does it push us down or lift us up?  Do we want to breath it in deeply? Do we want to brace ourselves against it?  Does it bombard?  Does it nourish?  Does it make us feel alive?

Just a little inquiry that I am thinking about.  Would love to hear your thoughts.

Wishing you a happy New Year full of vast possibility and of course, balance.

Nancy