One of my challenges is playing around, being goofy, and make myself a possible target for feeling humiliated. At the same time, I truly believe it is good to play around, act goofy and simply not take life so seriously all the time. And there’s one area where I have no issue with this.
I recently was on the train with my family, headed for a birthday party. Going there, I sat down next to my daughter, and shared headphones with her. She was on Spotify and I urged her to turn on some ”mommy music”. She knows just what I like, and luckily enough we do share a lot of favorite songs. So I started sit-dancing. You know, sitting in my seat, but dancing away, moving my arms and legs as best I could. Had a great time, and did the same on the train back home. Much to the enjoyment of our fellow passengers.
We had to change trains, and I decided to go all in, so I donned my own headphones and turned on some awesome dance music. Stood there waiting for the train on the platform, dancing to my hearts desire. Much to the embarrassment of my son. Mom, please, stop. Everyone’s looking! So I said – Let them!
The train came, we borded and since the ride isn’t that long, I didn’t grab a seat, but just kept on dancing in the aisle. Again, much to the enjoyment of my fellow passengers.
Once in Malmö, I was invited to another get-together, so I just kept on dance-walking over to my friends apartment!
And you know what? I finally figured out what it is that makes me have such a hard time to ”play”, ask me to do charades or something and I feel extremely awkward and embarrassed, but dancing – it’s just not an issue! Because: the music is my alibi! With my headphones on, I am free to just enjoy the music, get in the groove, and it’s as if I know that even though not everybody would dare do what I do, I think everyone can relate. Relate to hearing a great song and just wanting to dance!
So – if you have an area you want to develop or learn how to do better or more of, and, like me, you have a hard time – try to see if there’s an alibi you can use to make it easier to do.
Welcome to this website of mine, where the underlying tone centers around being gentle to oneself. On Sundays I will be sharing thoughts on how I do gentle, and this is the sixteenth of those. I hope you enjoy it and if you do, please subscribe to updates so you won’t miss out on future posts in this series.