Be Curious like a 2 year old

Why is it that we seem to equate curiosity with 2 year olds.  I mean, aren’t 4,  5  and 6 year olds curious?  Do we have to go all the way back to age 2 to remember that we were truly curious?

Hmm..think about it…..

Kids don’t set out to be curious. They don’t say I’m curious about those lights in the sky and which ones are planets, which ones are stars.  They are merely enthralled with the excitement of discovery.

One of the best reasons to be around a toddler is it reminds us of how pure our joy of discovery once was.   However, many adults are seeking the unknown, unfamiliar and uncommon inspiration for their work;  accessed through being in the moment, unfettered by rights, wrongs, shoulds,  expectations or obligations.  Just like a 2 year old.

And here’s another reason to re-examine our toddler self.  We had GREAT posture.  Just like the cultural interferences that may have dampened our curiosity in favor of ‘rightness‘, we often find ourselves out of whack and uncomfortable in our own bodies, divorced from the freedom and easy uprightness that we all knew very well as little kids.

But it is possible to regenerate the ease, coordination, and freedom in movement that we knew years ago. Since we once had it inside us, we can access it – but now we need to find that users manual that we didn’t need -UNTIL NOW.

I was grateful to have found my users manual 15 years ago in the midst of intense neck and shoulder pain. (For more about this  click here).  Training in FM Alexander’s discovery was key to kicking me in the butt and teaching me that my ballet habits were firmly established, not useful anymore and not going away anytime soon.  Here are 3 things that I learned and continually pass on to my students:

1. Be curious – as Moms Mabley said:  “If you always do what you always did, you will always get what you always got.” It’s impossible to change when using the same tools that have not worked before.  There was no aha! moment for me until  I got curious and questioned my habitual patterns of ‘fixing’ my posture.
2. Replace “just do it” with “just do less” or the more commonly stated “less is more”.
3. Question your assumptions about how to change your posture – ballroom or otherwise.  My students inevitably realize that it is infinitely more pleasurable to pause and be curious when change is desired.

And YES, we all have things that we want to change – better diet, consistent exercise, stop reacting with anger, gum chewing (I’m doing it now!), sitting at the computer too long (uh-huh) fill in yours here ______.

What’s the habit you want to change?  If you don’t have any, that’s great.  Let me know how you’ve managed to avoid them or how you have eliminated them.

Happy Dancing!   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.