Breaking old Labels

… You Are What You Think!

A label maker is good for one thing and that is to order chaos through clearly marked identification labels. We put labels on our school books, kitchen items, moving boxes, study desk, storage items, office cupboard etc. This form of categorizing is how we keep control and maintain order in our physical external world making our internal world calmer.

We also put labels on people, places, ideas and ourselves. Some labels are helpful by aiding in identification and status. Other labels can hinder us as people, limiting our innate potential.

Your innate potential is like your own personal bright light and limiting labels are like pieces of mesh covering the brilliance of who you really are. When you have too many limiting labels your own personal light becomes covered with little or no light able to shine through. This affects your self worth, confidence and personal performance ability.

“If you think you can or think you can’t you are right” Henry Ford

How do we identify labels that limit us?

How can we change the way we think?

Labels can be true or false, accurate or inaccurate. Some examples of inaccurate labels are “She hurt my feelings so she is bad” or “my teacher didn’t acknowledge me so they don’t like me”.

Statements that blame others for you not feeling good within yourself are limiting labels. No one is ever responsible for how you feel. When we perceive situations in certain ways that bring out emotion in us and we don’t know how to resolve that emotion, we categorize it by labeling it “good” or “bad”. We then store that labeled baggage in our memory until we are ready to bring it out of storage and change the label.

Here is an example:

Teacher tells student that their technique is messy

Student then assumes that they have “bad” technique and works hard on improving. Instead of focusing on the improvement student continues to focus on the perceived “bad” technique labeling themselves as a dancer with “bad” technique. A more beneficial label would be to label themselves as a student who is diligently mastering dance technique.

Identifying a label you have given yourself that is limiting and negating your self worth is important. As we grow our labels also need to change. Just as we grow out of our clothes, our personal identity is also undergoing constant change and evolving.

How to Identify a Limiting Label?
1) Become aware of your self talk and the emotions that arise.
2) Notice when you are feeling disheartened, sad or disempowered then look at what you were thinking when the negative emotion emerged.

How to Transform a Limiting Label

1) Eliminate absolute terms such as “always” “never” “good” and “bad” as these words are limiting. If you find yourself labeling as “always” being a certain way or statements like “I can never do that step” you have the CHOICE to believe that or CHALLENGE that thought.
2) After you have identified the limiting label (original thought that created the negative emotion) challenge it through quality questions such as;
● Is this really true?
● Where do I demonstrate the opposite trait? (e.g. if you label yourself as not successful - see where you are already successful)
● Do I always do that?

You are responsible for the way you think! You have a choice to choose thought patterns that aid in your evolution as a performer or hinder your progress.

Your Emotions Create Art

Physics 101 - What goes up must come down! Guess what? Your emotions are the same.
A great artist knows how to use their emotional cycles to create works of art such as choreography, productions, music, dance - you name it we all do it! Beethoven had a string of personal muses each time he created a new masterpiece and the depth of his experience included extremes of pain and pleasure; happy and sad is evident in his work. Shakespeare (although married) used the inspiration of human drama and romance to create world famous iconic stories. On the edge of the rational mind and the irrational heart is where the centre of true inspiration lives and as a dancer, choreographer, performer or teacher you need to know this!

The ability to draw upon your personal stories and emotions for art’s sake requires awareness of what it is that motivates you. Everyone will have a painful story that drives them into expressive action. However, when you are unable to separate yourself from your story by letting your story consume you, you can end up internalizing this powerful energy which can depress you to the point where self expression is stifled. When you identify your story as being part of the human story (knowing that you are not alone, yet you are very unique) you identify your personal experience as a gift to humanity. Therefore, to not utilize and draw upon your personal experience and heart’s wisdom to create art is not only a disservice to you, but also to those that you interact with and those who may use your skills and knowledge.

Heartache comes in many forms e.g. romance turned sour, career failure, deceased loved ones, friendship misunderstandings, illness etc, but at its most basic, a heart ache is an unfulfilled or unmet expectation.

The pain of unfulfilled expectations or desires can be very confusing and to state the obvious, painful. Yet there is tremendous power in pain and when we use its energy wisely, pain can become a life changing, a life enhancing and a life enriching experience! Ask yourself; how do you use the power of pain? Do you let it consume you and defeat you? Do you try to quickly fix or resolve your pain? Do you ignore it and “harden up”? Do you eat chocolate? Do you go for a jog? Do you dance? Do you listen to music? What do you do?

Here are a few basic principals to help you transform your pain into creativity that you can channel into your highest value;

1) A basic physics principal is that energy never dies it is only transformed. The same applies to people. When something leaves your life, something else will appear to fill the void.
2) Let yourself FEEL the pain without trying to analyse or resolve it. When you feel the grief, cry it out or express it. Any repressed pain can end up being expressed in your body through illness or injury. Let it out!
3) After you have cried start to identify what specific details you missed about that person; was it that they gave you attention? Was it their eyes? Write down every little detail of what you perceive you miss.
4) Use what you perceived you missed and express it through your highest value; for example choreographers might create a piece about love and loss. Dancers might bring more dynamics into their routines.
5) Identify the benefits of how you have transformed this energy. Does it give you more time to focus on your career? Family? Finances? Fitness? Creativity? Where are you feeling refreshed and enhanced from this transformation?

Your emotions are a part of you helping you to grow and integrate more of yourself into what it is that you love. Feel it, express it, make money from it and do it all over again!

The Resistance Factor

At least 3 times per week I ride my bicycle into Byron Bay. I live 6km out of the town centre and the ride gives me clarity and ideas for my three favorite things within my world of dance - directing my school, writing for Dance Life and my work as a performance enhancement coach. As I was riding this morning I noticed the higher the gear I was in the greater the resistance in my muscles, creating a greater challenge and harder ride. In that moment I could have chosen to let my tired legs win, slow up the bike and simply cruise, or I could step up to the challenge by letting my powerful mind drive the bike and override my tired legs. I chose the latter and when I did this I became capable of riding faster; and boy can I ride fast! I become more focused, alert and centered as my senses become alive and I am more capable of handling the traffic obstacles.

Life provides similar analogies and so does the dance studio. The more we are challenged, the more capable we become of mastering harder choreography and technique but only if we take on the challenge! The more we repeat those challenging steps and create a consistent rhythm the easier they become and we quickly find ourselves ready for a greater challenge. This is how we improve, this is how we grow and this is an important principle in life.

The same principle also applies to the mental and emotional aspects of dance. Today dancers not only need to be dance fit, they need to be emotionally and mentally fit. Your mental and emotional fitness is only strengthened through having a balanced perception of yourself and of the world around you. This enables you to endure set backs, audition rejections and critiquing from your teachers, directors, examiners and adjudicators. It also enables you to humble yourself after the high of the win and get you focused again on the next goal. Your mind and emotions play a major role in your dance life.

I do not necessarily promote “positive thinking” but rather, “balanced thinking”. Balanced thinkers know that for every positive experience there will be a drawback and for every negative experience there will be a benefit. Your world is perfectly balanced with challenge and support, however when you chose to focus on only the negative without the positive or the positive without the negative you become out of balance either stressed or hyped.

So while you are refining your goals for 2010 consider creating goals that will help you grow emotionally and mentally. Some goals maybe;
• Stand at the front of the dance class more often
• Ask your teacher to give you more feedback on your ability and career prospects
• Enter more eisteddfods so you get used to staying focused at competitions
• Audition audition audition!
• Try public speaking

Try something new, anything that will help you to grow out of your current mental and emotional box. Decide to love yourself no matter what the outcome and give yourself permission to fail; it is only through failure that one can discover success!