Take a deep breath
and let it go!
Sweaty, smiley, slightly sore! How sweet it is to have one week back of dance classes with you! Every single class and every single song has felt like a gift.
As many of you know, the week before I left for my summer holiday I injured my knee wakeboarding. The week was spent seeing various doctors and hearing multiple diagnoses, ranging from needing surgery and months of recovery to simply needing weeks of rest. What would this mean for my career for the remainder of the year?!
After nearly two and a half years of constantly trying to adapt, hustle, and find a way to keep working in the face of COVID, the message was clear — Kathleen, you need to give up control. Instead of pushing through pain or worrying about outcomes, you are being challenged to practice patience and to face the reality that sometimes you are holding on so hard to what you want that you are robbing yourself of other opportunities and possibilities that exist.
Not easy stuff to think about or simple habits to break!
So, I rested, I read, I let all thoughts of work or dance go and I focused on telling my body and mind — hey, you have worked so hard, you can relax!
Now don’t get me wrong, there is a difference between letting go of control and giving up. Everyday I stretched, did gentle exercises, and massaged the area around my knee literally saying,“Great job, thank you” out loud to my body for how amazingly it functions. All of which I believe helped me get back on my feet so well.
Just this weekend at a body alignment session, I asked the practitioner, so what else can I do? Give me more exercises! He laughed and before he could speak, I knew the answer. I took a deep breath, I felt my body, the tension that had risen up thinking I needed to do more or be better, and I deeply exhaled. “It’s not about doing more, is it? Maybe it’s about releasing and letting go more?” Bingo.
Now, I’m far from free of worries, expectations or control- freak tendencies suddenly this week! But on more occasions I’m finding myself aware of tension in my body and mind, pausing, and taking deeper breaths to let go of the stress. It all goes to show— sometimes lessons come at the least convenient times or in the worst, painful packages, and yet, leave us more enriched than before.
Wishing you a week of deep breaths and letting go!
xx,
Katie
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