Have you ever been frozen by the fear of what others are thinking of you? Or experienced the feeling of being so wrapped up in what someone else thought of you it threw you totally out of your body?
…Maybe it was when that person you are attracted to walked into the room, or a teacher or someone you really look up to asked you a question…
Have you had the experience of freezing up and then feeling and sounding like all of a sudden you don’t know who or where you are? Of the embarrassment or even shame that followed that experience?
As a professional dancer, I went through a lot of my training obsessed with what teachers, choreographers and peers were thinking of me, how I looked and how I was dancing. As a dancer however, this was debilitating. I would cause me to get worse… Not better! I was at times so obsessed with getting approval from someone else – I would become completely out of touch with what I was feeling and experiencing on the inside… Making actual quality dancing impossible.
It was brutal for me. I was nervous, terrified of being rejected, hanging off of every word that my teachers said to make or break my spirits. Then I would do poorly at whatever I was trying to do… Which meant I didn’t get the approval I so wanted, or worse I got negative feedback, which only perpetuated and worsened the cycle of fear, pain and insecurity.
Finally though, in reaching out for help with this, those teachers of mine who had the wisdom and care to see the suffering I was in and real tools that could help me, I was able to gradually start to shift this.
The secret lay in learning how to return again and again to what was happening for me on the INSIDE - staying connected to what I was feeling in my body. It was a long road but I am now at a point where I am no longer so easily thrown out of my embodied experiencing, and when on the occasional time it does happen, I know exactly what to do to re-ground and re-center myself in my own experience.
As a dancer and therefor someone for whom being seen and judged on appearances was a daily occurrence, the negative effects of this issue were really magnified. It also meant that once I had the will and tools to make change, I had a lot of opportunity to practice implementing.
This said, the painful experience of being ‘knocked out of our bodies’ because of fear of judgment or the thoughts of others is something we all experience. AND it is something that there is a very real set of tools to help us with and that it is possible to change!
It’s called being EMBODIED. It means deeply and immediately feeling what is happening in the wondrous universe that is your own body! …And it has the power to impact profoundly how you feel on the inside and how you show up for the world on the outside. Giving you the tools and freedom to meet and move through challenging feelings with confidence and ease. Allowing you to show up fully and unreservedly for the incredible journey that is your life!
...And getting EMBODIED is precisely what Embodied In Motion is all about! The resources, tools, courses and processes we offer are all focused on getting you more INTO your own body and therefor better able to meet and experience your life with full power and joy. We hope you will continue to experience it for yourself and join us on this awesome ride:).
