Dance like no one's watching

A lot of us have been conditioned from a very young age to be cautious, to be concerned about the opinions of others, to hide a large (or small) part of ourselves from the world in order to remain ‘safe’, to hold back and hold onto fear…..fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, fear of getting hurt, fear of something going wrong, fear of what other people might think. The trouble is, all of these fears are based on past experience or on worry of the future. All we really have is this moment, right now to choose how we want to live. I’m not saying that our choices now don’t affect the future, I’m talking about how much we hold back or refuse to let go and how many ‘moments’ we might miss along the way.

I started thinking a bit deeper about the issue of holding back the night Tim and I were walking along a dimly lit cobblestone alleyway in the gorgeous Italian sloping village of Ravello. We could hear music in the distance and as we drew closer, we realized it was Frank Sinatra. The scene could not have been more perfectly set for an old school film and I was swept into another world, with an instant urge to dance. I grabbed hold of Tim and we danced in the alleyway like we were Fred & Ginger…..mmm, maybe not.... at least it felt that way. We were living the moment, until a couple started walking toward us and Tim decided it was time to stop, even though there was plenty of room to walk around us. I tried to convince him to keep the moment going, but to no avail. I think I was just excited because I hadn’t felt so intensely free and uninhibited in quite a long time and I didn’t want to let go of that moment. All I wanted to do was keep dancing as if no one was watching.

After dissecting the issue with Tim, we both agree that we desire to live our lives like that…..to be spontaneous, to leap forward in the moment and not be held back by our inhibitions, to let them go and dance as if no one is watching. In the example I’ve just given, Tim was the one holding back, but I can tell you that it has very often been the other way around. It's time for a change.