Are You Afraid to Dance? 2 Insights to Get over your fear
I Love to dance. My husband, not so much. I understand though, because I used to be afraid to dance too. My confidence has grown over the years, and especially since I’ve been on my spiritual journey. Now I can more easily dance like there’s no one watching. How about you? Are you afraid to dance? I’ll share two insights of how I overcame my fear of dancing in public.
I used to be so self conscious. I would worry about what other people thought about my moves. Then I started to realize two things:
I am dancing for my own joy and beautiful self expression
Almost everyone else on the dance floor is just as self conscious
An event that really helped me get out of my shell was the Giving Back Conference for Women Entrepreneurs. After the formal dinner, the dance floor was opened up and there was this incredible girl power energy in the room.
There is something so freeing about dancing with a bunch of other women. No fear of a man brushing up against you. No fear of someone ogling you or coming on to you.
It was AWESOME. And we all encouraged each other to step into the circle we formed to give each person a chance to shine.
I loved being able to shake my thing, stretch those arms out and so some sexy moves, feeling totally uninhibited. I felt FREE.
A few weeks ago I had a chance to be a Dancing Queen again at a Toastmasters conference. I was a little uncertain how things would be in this environment with both men and women present. I was apprehensive- who should I be on the dance floor? Did I need to hold back?
Then I remembered that I declared that i would just be me at the conference. So I danced like no one was watching.
Women dominated the dance floor, with only a 30% male representation showing up to strut their moves. One of these guys, Leo, a young Toastmaster in his 20’s was doing the typical guy side step shuffle. I was so proud of him for showing up. He asked if I danced (like professionally or at a dance school). I told him “no, I just move my body the way it wants to move. Why don’t you try it?”
Leo stuck with his side shuffle and got his arms in the groove a little more. I could see that he was still holding back though.
That’s o.k. I have felt like that too. And when I realized how good it feels to just be myself, thats when I could really let go and be free. That’s when I stopped being afraid to dance.