No Buts. Only Ands.

Sometimes when I am teaching or taking a dance class, my mind starts to focus on upsetting things. If there was something I could have done about these unsettling mirages my mind makes up, I would have already remedied them. Mostly it’s fretting about situations I can’t control. What then upsets me is that I have only gone through the motions of the song without enjoying it – without fully experiencing it. And then it’s gone. I have missed that particular oasis-moment of happiness. That moment won’t come again.

This reminds me that when I have an opportunity to be joyful, I have to be in it.

Sometimes I feel joy, but then the dark thought of “what comes next” interferes, dampening my happiness.

From now on, my mantra is “I am happy” – full stop. NOT “I am happy but.”

Better yet, “I am happy AND…” because further goodness awaits me. The more I feel joy, the more I will experience every day. The more I am optimistic that love always prevails, the more I will see that happening. I believe this.

Be in your joy, Right now.

As always, sending much joy and love to all of you.

 

Dance, Vibration, and Rumi

When I try to force myself to choreograph a song, it never works. If I push myself to come up with something, that particular song seems to never make it into my class because somehow it’s just not right. In every moment, an infinite number of possible movement choices exist, which encompass every possibility. But if I don’t feel good while choosing the movement patterns, the result is not satisfying. If I love the song, later, when I am in a better emotional place, the music will show me where to go and I can end up with a dance I really like.

We live in a world of vibration. Like vibrations attract one another. We create our future in this moment. If our emotions are fearful, our vibration is dragged down into anxiety. We are then attracting a reality we don’t much want.

Sometimes, for me, it is impossible to feel positive, especially lately. Logic would tell us that the chaos we see all around us right now is truth – and, horribly might remain the truth whether we like it or not. What comes next is anybody’s guess. If we stay stuck in fear, more fear is what we will see barreling toward us.

The more I pretend to feel positive when I really don’t, the more anxious I become. The monster under the bed gets bigger and meaner when I try to ignore it. So when I am calm, I think about the future. I allow myself to feel the joy that comes when love has prevailed over fear, when unity has overcome division, when kindness conquers cruelty.

If I just can’t get to that point, I read my favorite Rumi quote:

When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of distress and anxiety; If  I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me and without any pain. From this I know that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me. There is a great secret in this for anyone who can grasp it.

So we don’t have to force ourselves to do creative work when it’s not “right.” We do not have to be in a positive mood when we don't really feel that way. We need only remind ourselves that love is who we are, and get a little help from Rumi or others of a similar vibration to give us a leg up.

Every positive vibration emanating from us affects the All. The more we love ourselves, the more we will see love all around us. If we can wait in our own place of patience, knowing that love always prevails, the dance will then take care of itself. 

 

Re-imagine

        

I always liked the Led Zeppelin song, “Kashmir.” Years ago I found an instrumental cover of it by a band called Bond that I thought I could choreograph. The chorus of the song has a weird count – and by weird I mean that the count is 1-6. I am completely flummoxed by any music that does not have an 8-count. I liked this version, though, and thought it might be a stretch to use the Led Zeppelin version in class, so I had to re-imagine the chorus. I decided to try and fit it into an 8-count. What I got was: 1-2-3 and 4 and -- which strictly speaking is actually 6 counts. Somehow, I cannot wrap my brain around a six count. My body will not respond to that pattern. However, in the re-imagined count (that I made up), I could do it. And even though I made it up, it fit. The song is now danceable (at least for me).

I am trying a similar re-imagining with the situation in the wider world that we share. When I look around, it is difficult not to fall headlong into fear, worry, and even despair. But what if all this turmoil, acrimony, and hatred is “woundedness” coming to the surface in order to be healed? What if we decided to think of it in this way? What if we superimposed on the relentless beat of hostility a new beat – one we could understand, one we could dance to? If we reimagine the chaos we see happening all around us, we can think of it as a wound coming forward into the light. It couldn’t be healed if we didn’t see it.

And all we have to do is be the love that we are. We can carry that vibration knowing it is felt by everyone.

We can re-imagine our rhythm, our song. One we can dance to.

Dance onto the (En)train

 

       

        Under certain circumstances, when metronomes are placed in a room and are started at different times, eventually they all end up in exactly the same rhythm. If there are two guitars in a room, pluck a string on one, and the same string on the other instrument will vibrate in synchrony. This is called entrainment. (click here to see this in action)

         When we dance in the studio we also experience entrainment. We are all listening to the same music in a common space. We are doing the same choreography to the identical rhythm. If someone vocalizes, you realize that the rhythm of your breath would have allowed you to make noise at that same moment. We start to breathe in sync. And invariably, by the end of the class, we have all participated in lifting each other up. And even now on Zoom, when we are in our homes, we have connected spaces, and a common experience.

        It is difficult to keep a positive attitude with chaos raining down upon us every day. What keeps me going is, as usual, dance.

        I confess that I am a news junkie. But I am also a harmony junkie. Those two addictions do not mix. I am certain that rage and outrage every day cannot be good for my health: physical, mental, or spiritual. So I stopped watching the news. Okay, I didn’t completely stop. I skim headlines –somehow the news is (a tiny bit) easier to take if it’s not in audio/visual form. At least I am in control of how fast or in-depth the news enters my consciousness. 

        There are things I know I can do. I call Washington. I sign petitions. I donate (a little) money. I write letters to voters. (I really don’t trust myself to speak). In a letter, I can keep my equanimity and I feel like I am doing something.

        Also, I can dance.

        My despair helps no one. And believe me, I have felt despair and doom in the past months. But I do believe:

-        We are all One. In seventh grade science, we learned that the universe is made of atoms. Atoms are 99.9% energy. We (and everything) are made of this energy, configured in different patterns, but still the same.

 

-        Energy is everywhere. There is no place where it is not.

 

-        Our thoughts, feelings, and actions move energy. What we think, do, and say matters.

 

   Entrainment is real. When we are around people who are showing a loving heart, kindness, generosity, and cheerfulness, we can jump on that train. We can let the love, kindness, generosity, and joy within us come to the surface. When we dance together, we participate in one another’s joy.

 

   So there is another thing I can do. I can look at what’s good. I can put fear and worry aside. I don’t have to bury my head in the sand, but I can choose to expect the best outcomes, because I believe in the inherent goodness residing in all of us. When I come from my heart, it is felt by all. When two or more of us come from the heart, the impact is exponential. If more of us do it, we can change the world.

 

   We can dance onto the entrainment train. We can rise up to be our best selves. And bring others with us.

 

   Oh, and we can always dance.

Dance, Magic, and Possibility

     

When dance choreography is created, there are infinite possibilities for every beat of the music. We see in our mind's eye different movement possibilities and then we make it real when we choose it. When a movement is chosen, it is manifested in our bodies and minds. We have made the possibility a reality.

We are living in a tumultuously chaotic time. No matter what your political affiliation, we all feel the dread and uncertainty of what could be barreling toward us. I have found comfort -- as I do even in normal times --  in dance and connecting with loved ones. 

Fear is aggressive and can make us forget that love is really the only truth. We have the power in every moment to choose love over the falsity of fear. 

Quantum physics sounds a lot like spirituality. But it is not. It is science.

-       Quantum physics tells us is that there are infinite possibilities (waves) contained in every moment. In the laboratory, waves (possibilities) collapse into a particle which is measurable and “real” when it is observed.

-        We live in a vibrational universe: like attracts like.

-        When we “observe” or focus on a future possibility, it collapses into reality – what we see unfolding in our lives.

-        Worry will attract the very reality we fear.

-        Love will attract the reality we desire.

Although I am by nature a worrier, I am attempting to focus on love. It is who we are. It is our families and friends, and (though sometimes it’s hard to see) it exists in the world around us. When we focus on love and all things that spring from love:

Joy

Kindness

Generosity

Courage

Truth

Abundance

Compassion

Understanding

We will see the reality we want to experience. When we imagine the outcome we want and allow ourselves to feel the emotions that align with that outcome – we attract it to us. The possibility becomes reality.

It sounds like magic.

But love is magic. When we observe it and feel it, it is a reality. In fact, it is the only reality. We are sometimes distracted by evidence to the contrary -- False Evidence Appearing Real -- but love is infinite and indestructible. 

We need only remember.