Hi Dancers!

I hope you read my last blog post about the self-talk loop and the power of affirmations!  It meant a lot a lot to me to write it, and I hope it resonated with you.  I’m back today to pick up where I left off-and to share with you something I’m going to try with my classes this week!

I’ve been thinking a lot about changing negative self-talk to positive-in the book I’m reading, the author suggests that before you go to bed, you talk to yourself in the mirror and tell your reflection all the great things you did that day, and all the things you’re proud of yourself for.  Again, doesn’t that sound crazy?  Because how often do you tell yourself “good job?”  Probably not very often.

Another thing that’s been on my mind is the impact that social media has on our self-talk.  What’s the first thing you do when you wake up?  Probably scroll through Facebook or Instagram, right?  And we can’t help but play the comparison game when we’re looking at social media.  Whether it’s comparing the filtered and highly curated images we see to our own reflection, or comparing the number of likes we got on our latest post to those of our friends, it’s an inevitable and constant part of life these days.  And I see so many people that write wonderfully kind comments on their friend’s posts, but how many of us give those compliments to someone’s face? It sometimes can be hard to compliment ourselves, and other people too.

Then, I heard about an idea from another dance teacher-Tell Me Something Good.  The idea was that her students came into class having chatted out in the lobby and would tell her something good that happened in the day of a classmate.  I think this is a pretty cool idea, and I’ve decided to adapt it in my effort to work on positive self-talk and self-image.  Here’s how it works-at the end of class, each dancer will tell us something they think they did well in class that day, and something they think a classmate did well!  It could be anything-from recognizing that you nailed a turn, remembered a new piece of choreography, really concentrated during barre, or did your best to finish all the crunches.  This gives our dancers the chance to give themselves, and someone else, a compliment!  I’m going to try it with my classes this week, and we’ll see how it goes!  If you’re one of my students, I’d love to hear what you think!

Happy Dancing!