My First Ecstatic Dance and the Power of Embrace

She had known me for less than 5 minutes.

I had no idea what the heck an ecstatic dance was, but in the spirit of adventure and embracing what the universe offers, I said “Sure, I’ll go!”

We walked into a room of about 5 to 10 people, all over the age of 60.

Without much of an introduction, she turned on the music and everyone started to move. 

It started off slow, and I was looking around trying to figure out how I was supposed to move my body… how I was supposed to take up space in this particular situation.

You see, I was really great at molding myself to my surroundings. I could be whatever I needed to be to make others feel comfortable, and I was especially great at understanding and doing what was expected of me. A classic people pleaser.

But as I looked around in search of clues, I noticed that everyone was just moving. No agenda, no expectations, no judgement; just movement. Nobody was paying attention to me. Nobody cared what shape I took.

It took a few songs to settle into the idea of freedom - something I was only familiar with in my solitude. After 10 to 15 minutes of stretching out the anxiety, I started to flow. I moved and my body said to me “ooo, that feels niiiiice.” And so I moved a little bit more and I experimented with my movement, and most importantly, I just kept moving. Before I knew it, I was lost in the freedom of my own energy, and I stayed there until the room went silent.

That feeling, that freedom… I was LIT UP. Refreshed!

That is the power of embrace. That is the power of “I have no idea what I’m doing… and I’m f***ing doing it!” That is LIVING.

Because really, none of us have it figured out… it’s all just a big experiment and we might as well embrace that while we’re here!

If you’re not going to embrace what you’re doing, why are you even doing it? In every moment we have the power to live life fully turned on simply by embracing what we are offered in the present moment. 

I’m so glad that I embraced the opportunity to dance with a bunch of strangers that night. And what a joy it is that I now get to hold the same space for all of you <3