You’re welcome to fail
WHY DO WE THINK WE HAVE TO ALREADY BE GOOD AT THE THING WE WANT TO LEARN…?
‘I’d like to try yoga but I can’t even touch my toes.’
‘I want to try bellydance classes but my hips are so stiff. ‘
‘I’m not fit enough to join that fitness class.’
‘I want to come to your class but I’ve am sexually blocked up, am scared of opening up, and am numb to my body because I live 99% of my life in my head.’
Why are we so hard on ourselves that we expect that we have to be already good at things we want to learn or develop skills in?
We literally go to classes and seek out teachers because we want to cultivate skills or aspects of ourselves that aren’t developed.
I think it actually comes down to humbleness and being okay with just trying and sometimes failing (or failing a lot).
.
A few years ago I joined some physical theater classes that were notoriously rigorous in their training coming from a Japanese martial arts background.
I’d never done any theater
(in fact extroverted ‘theatre’ people intimidated me big time),
nor any martial arts,
discipline was certainly not my strength,
and most of the people in the dojo were super fit, fast, flexible, youngsters straight out of high school.
I was trembling the first time I rocked up.
Even the ice-breaker games sounded terrifying.
Then the teacher gave us the intro and i’ll never forget her words because they changed everything about being there:
“You are very welcome to fail, but there’s is NO EXCUSE for not showing up.”
Layers of self-imposed pressure, expectations and anxiety fell off immediately.
Really could I just try stuff out and fail, and no one would judge me?
(In fact they’d congratulate and support me more for having taken a risk – even though it didn’t work out)
This attitude brought such rapid growth into my training experience over the years, and so inevitably I nurtured the same invitation in my Shiva Shakti Dance classes.
.
Use the dance floor like a laboratory for experimenting.
We set up the studio to be extremely supportive, safe and non-judgmental…and you get try out endless practices to explore who you are, how you move through life, your tendencies in relationship, and what your body is capable of doing and feeling
And sometimes…regularly (if it’s a good practice sesh)…we all hit edges, disassociate from our body mid-dance, discover that we’re just pretending to feel instead of feeling, realise we have more depth of heart to offer than we’re allowing, self-sabotage, or restrict our capacity to connect genuinely with others
…and that’s where the gold is!
…that is how we learn and grow
No one will give you the stink eye and not want to play with you anymore.
We don’t all sit around crying and soothing each other for our shortcomings.
You just acknowledge it, learn from it, adjust and move on, becoming even more aware and skilled next time you practice.
So if you’ve been considering coming to a Shiva Shakti Dance course or workshop but think your not sufficiently prepared or too sexually blocked, or too old, or put on much weight to be sexy again, or too {insert your own favourite inner criticism}…
These classes are for you.
This practice is specifically designed to give you the space to explore and reclaim the beauty, power and wisdom in your body – no matter where you’re starting.
Trying stuff out is how we grow.
Transformation can only happen through experience
You can’t just think you’re way through it.
So get yourself into a space where you can experiment freely.
“You are very welcome to fail, but there’s is NO EXCUSE for not showing up.”