Daily Movement Prompts, Monday January 9, 2017 edition:
What would you tell you teenage self?
I had the amazing good fortune today to teach ATS bellydance for three hours to 15 students and 3 teachers/admin members at an Arts Academy for high schoolers up in the mountains, half of whom were international students (with English as a second language). And I got to share my class room philosophy with them: No Pressure, No Shame. This Body, This Day. And the “lyrics” that I think of for our finger cymbals pattern: “I can Dance. I can Breathe. I can Zill. I can Live. I can Love…”
I wish I had a better sense of these things when I had been a teenager. And I have no guarantee that any of this will stick with them after only one 3-hour session. But we danced, we supported each other, we had team work, and they felt safe to move without judgement or ridicule.
What an amazing experience.
How are you moving today? And how have you learned to be nicer to yourself than your days when you were a teen?