Message To Self
I spend most of my days telling other people what to do, or how to do what they are doing better. This is in the nature of the professions I am involved in.
As a ballet teacher/coach it is my responsibility to correct placement and body coordination. Classical ballet is built around a strong linear aesthetic. There are technical steps that are learned and accomplished depending on age and level of expertise. It is my job to polish or sometimes teach these technical elements. However, a lot of what I talk about in class pertains to attitude and self-image, exploring the choices of style and personality which can exist even within such a strictly regimented art form. Dance is a visual art. A body creates a constant dialogue with an audience. If this conversation is not kept in mind there is an enormous connection missing. What is charisma if not the empathy between two people times a hundred or a thousand.
As a therapist it is my responsibility to analyze a problem, according to chinese medicine concepts, and come up with strategies to eradicate or at the least relieve the troubled area. Food, drink, sleep, lifestyle is discussed and evaluated. Sport, movement, or the lack of it, plays an enormous role. As well, so much about our behaviors and posture reflect our mindset. We need to feel worthwhile in order to dedicate the time to care and heal ourselves. I try to find methods that are easily applicable for the current hectic age we live in. Small tips that can be accomplished in five minutes. Who cannot spare five minutes?
As I teach my classes, encouraging dancers to pursue the risks that I know they are capable of achieving, I am as well talking to myself. And as I treat my patients, encouraging them to utilize those five minutes of a simple tip to care for themselves, I am also encouraging myself to undertake the steps that would bring me benefit. Small or large, every step is a step forward. It is humbling to realize how difficult it is to dare oneself into an unknown. How difficult it is to care for oneself. How difficult to use the time for oneself. Time is our most precious commodity. Using that time wisely is our greatest challenge. I wish I was taking more of my own good advice.