Personal Growth Planet Blog

Drums beat a steady, almost hypnotic rhythm. Bodies move, twist, turn and twirl and intermingle with and among the beats.

Dancing…

In some form or another I have danced throughout my life. As a young girl, I took tap and jazz dance lessons. I can still remember kick ball changing my way across the wooden floors of Miss Lois’ dance studio.

Many bright points for me in the midst of my angst-filled high school years were singing and dancing in the show choir. And, for the past few years, I have taken belly dancing classes at a local recreation center. I am filled with gratitude for the patient and good-humored belly dancing teachers I have who, yet again, try to help me learn to undulate and shimmy.

Through the peaks, valleys and sheer drop-offs of life, it can be easy to become lost.

I’m not talking about veering from the path that society or your family has set for you. I’m talking about getting disconnected and far far away from your true, authentic self.

This might be the you who you used to be. The person who knew what he or she wanted and went for it. The you who was clear, confident and self-aware.

Maybe you haven’t felt this way since you were a young child. Perhaps you’ve never ever felt in touch with the real you.

“That’s unladylike…”
“She’s too old to wear a mini-skirt…”
“Who does she think she is?…”
“Why would he be with HER?…”
“She just needs to act her age…”

Many of us have heard– or even uttered– words like these. We see a woman acting in some way that appears, to us, to be out of the norm and possibly even ridiculous.

We might do a double-take as we see the obviously older woman romantically involved with a much younger man. We can’t help but stare a bit at the woman in her 50s dressed in attire that we associate with 20 year olds.

Last weekend I went to see Tim Burton’s new movie “Alice in Wonderland,” based on the classic novel. It was a visual delight and was also filled with intriguing and expansive messages.

Alice quotes her beloved father and declares, “Sometimes, I have believed as many as 6 impossible things before breakfast.”

What if we each were to start out the day by NOT listing off all of the things we need to get done? |

Rather than writing down the home chores, errands, work projects and other miscellany that I need to accomplish before this day ends, what if, instead, I dreamed up and actually believed 6 (or more) impossible things?

By Amy Phillips-Gary

Do you ever feel like you’re boxed into a room with a very very low ceiling?

I certainly do at times. It’s as if there’s some imaginary boundary that’s preventing me from moving ahead with my plans and intentions.

Whether it’s a ceiling on my finances, my relationships, my creativity and career or my ability to have a healthier fitter body, that blocked feeling is oh so real.

And I put the ceiling there.

It is almost epidemic the way many of us erect ceilings on our own capacity and then act as if we’re helplessly trapped.