‘By dancing everyday, I can move forward with life, in a more sustainable way.’

For some time, my life has felt like a collation of lots of ‘stop’ and ‘go’ moments. For one reason or another, I keep getting stuck, when all I want to do is go.

While having a coaching session with Gillian, last year, at some point, she asked me a question that was a bit like ‘what movement can you take to bring your business forward?’ Something of the sort. All I was able to hear was the word movement. And my answer was, dance. Yes, my answer was: for things to move forward with my business (and life in general) I must dance. Hahaha Do you think it’s funny? I think it’s funny.

At some point, early on with my remembering my trauma, I asked (the universe/God/Goddess) for me to heal without remembering. What I meant was that I wanted to heal myself without actually having visual memories of it, and also without feeling any pain. Remembering felt too painful. That year, for quite a few months, I danced every day to a song.

You know that expression ‘I put my heart and soul into it’? I did it with the dancing. I embraced it as a form of expressing my emotions and how I was feeling. I chose angry songs, I chose sad songs, I chose all sorts of different songs and then just moved to it. I remember this being really healing in a way, where I was not exactly conscious and intentional as to what I was addressing in particular, but it felt good on many levels. Emotionally, physically and to my soul.

I have since, danced on and off, but not everyday.

Since my session with Gillian, I have moved pretty much every day to a song.

Music can bring up memories, it can move us emotionally and it can move us physically. Music is healing. It can take us on journeys through the mind and the body.

As I have more awareness now of my trauma, of the many ramifications in many aspects of my life and body, when I move, I do it with more intention. I pay attention. And I have been experimenting too.

I first committed to dancing for four months and started last September. I decided to explore songs that brought up memories of the past. I allowed songs to come to my conscious mind, I paid attention to them, made note, and then moved to them. During those four months I could see that there was a pattern and I was healing lots of relationships from the past. Different ages, different relationships, different songs were surfacing. I moved through all of them. Sometimes with strong emotions coming to the surface and others just moving my body, in a way that felt good to it.

Together with committing to dancing everyday, I also committed to sharing the song I danced with on social media and even showing up on video to talk about my experiences. I showed up most days on Instagram and shared.

Since then, I have decided to continue to dance to a song everyday for the whole of 2020. I have continued to share which songs I move to and even have a hashtag for it: #dancemoveforward. You can check my shares on both my Instagram and Facebook Stories.

I do feel that there is a shift in my life. I do believe that even though I still get stuck, it’s not at the same level as I used to.

I process so much within me on a regular basis. I pay so much attention to signs, patterns, symbolism. I question, I journal, I reflect. That I had to find a way of also releasing and moving things energetically and emotionally through the movement of my body.

Most importantly, dancing gives me pleasure. It makes me smile. I’m always curious to find out in what way my body wants to move each day. And I am often surprised, of how much it ends up moving, even when I am feeling like I have no energy left in me.

If you want to experiment with this, here are a few pointers:

- allow for your intuition to guide you to what music you are to dance or leave it to complete chance and just press the shuffle button

- allow your body to move you. Start with stillness and listen within you, to what part your body wants to move first and how. The mind can just go on holidays or take neutral notes.

- eyes open or eyes closed. Experiment.

- it’s not a show, nobody is watching, let yourself be taken by the sound of music and send judgement out of the door.

- have fun!

Movement with this type of awareness opens a door to connecting to your body, to creating a different relationship with it.

Music and movement are a magical combination and I hope you get to explore this for yourself.

I’m always looking to exploring different rhythms or just new songs and if you do start practising and sharing on social media, tag me and use the hashtag #dancemoveforward.

If you have any questions or need help with starting your practice, beyond what I have shared here, just send me a DM.

With love,

Pelagia

PS: I like playing with the Instagram filters and this day I was using the cat one, hence the little nose and makeup.

Pelagia Pais is an Intuitive Coach, Healer, Artist and Writer. She is currently writing a book in connection with her Inner Child, exploring her experience of childhood sexual abuse and other painful memories from the past. Giving her Inner Child, the voice she felt she lost very early on and healing her relationship with herself.
You can find more about what she offers, as well as read her blog ‘It’s not all happiness and coconuts’ here.

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