What is that feeling?
For this writing, it’s not about sex but the orientation towards life and finding your true self. Finding self- what makes you tick, happy, ecstatic, alive, equals an ability to find one’s true passion
I found my own passion later in life and happily added another one 12 years ago.
A bit of back story here: As an advanced and professional ballet dancer, I knew that I was pretty good at it. Dancing as a career option was planted by my mother very early in my training. It was not something that I decided myself, short-circuiting a potential deep, personal connection with ballet.
My dancing days were filled with the requisite classes, rehearsals, performances, massages, pointe shoe sewing, and ubiquitous dieting. I was by nature a disciplined candidate. I was driven by the attainment of success and being liked by the people who made key decisions regarding upwardly mobile casting and promotions.
My mother was the monkey on my back as my primary motivator, unknowingly contaminating my own potential drive and passion.
Yawn, another stage mother story?
She was, and I was a dancer who worked hard – too hard. Even though I was not really walking in my own shoes, the nature of ballet was simply this: You either work your brains out and rise to an acceptable level of achievement or you hang up your toe shoes. So I did – work my brains out.
There is a difference in the kinesthetic condition – your level of muscular tone – when doing something that emanates from your core. That place of excitement, energized by that pleasurable connection, on a cellular level. Something you are passionate about.
It is true that I valued the time I spent as a professional ballet dancer and because I derived satisfaction from being good at it, the run was successful and so much of it was exciting, rewarding and rich in friendships made and retained to this day.
However, depression runs deep in the offspring of parents who push their own agendas on their children. At a point in my life when I stopped performing, taking class and teaching ballet I was not a happy camper. Depression, just like the hole in the ground, enveloped my being. What could I do that I decided, enjoyed and was good at?
My own discovery of what I wanted to do came after years of Jungian therapy with a very gifted woman. With her help, I found the Alexander Technique, a method of self-care in an environment of awareness and curiosity – tension reduction and the means to modulate tone in our bodies for the better.
I was stunned after my first lesson at how free and easeful I felt. There was something delicious about giving up a whole lot of bracing which I was unknowingly holding onto as if I were still performing.
For years I longed to explore the art of ballroom – for my own enjoyment. This became a platform to utilize the amazing principles that I trained for via the Alexander Technique. I am most comfortable working with movers who wish to explore the unique tenets of Alexander’s discovery – the head, neck, spine relationship.
It is always a joy to see dramatic changes during the course of our partnership.
I’m grateful to have found not one but two passions, and to be able to pass these on to dancers is thrilling.
It’s never too late to explore, find, and pursue your passions!
Happy Dancing! What is your passion story?
If you know other dancers who may benefit from reading my blog, please forward.
To get my free 10 Steps to Competitive Greatness in PDF format, click here.
