There are lots of teachers out there that will work you to your limit, push you though barriers and demand results. There are certain kinds of people that need and can take that. Maybe that is you, if so none of what I say next will mean anything to you.
But maybe that used to be you, but now you just can't do that anymore...
I can't do that, since I was 12 I've had ME so fatigue is never very far away for me.
So let's just get this straight here. Fatigue is not tiredness. No amount of sleep or rest gets rid of it. You have to be more holistic and manage your energy levels in lots of ways that will probably take a long while to make any sense to you. And certainly won't make sense to anyone who thinks that fatigue is tiredness. So I've had to find my own routes to simply having some kind of a life.
I studied the Alexander technique in my early 20's. I think of it as a philosophy of movement. So much of how we think effects how we use our bodies and move. If you are in a good place mentally this is the most amazing technique as it frees up so much more energy. If you are punishing yourself for some reason (PTSD, complex PTSD, narcissistic relationships... etc.) Then this is the hardest technique to employ and will be lost on you.
I found Belly dance before Alexander Technique and it just felt so right. It quickly gave me so much more energy and helped to free up some of the pain in my back and neck.
But the boost was more than physical it was mental too. I felt more alive, the costumes gave me creative incentives for my fabric and make up addictions. The music gave me more scope and ideas for my music... it was just the complete creative package for me.
I'd seen Flamenco dance as a very young kid and always wanted to be like the Spanish Ladies! But finding a class and a fit was so much harder for me. For years I was just too busy teaching bellydance, when I started to get more free time to spend on learning Flamenco the classes were so far away my energy would be spent just getting there. Then I'd hardly be able to absorb anything. It was also so much more complex to me than bellydance. Body movements feel normal to me, hands and feet co-ordination is just so difficult. I've always been borderline dyspraxic, and I could feel the teachers frustration with me which of course made it harder for me to grasp.
So I had to take it in hand and not go to classes. Just work with videos, and play them over and over again until I got it. For this reason I always supply my students with videos of the combo's we are working on because I know I need it. In other universes perhaps people don't but I've never been there, and students can always ignore them if they don't need it, or don't want to practice.
I know today we live in a world of hacks and fast results. Everyone demands more of your time for less incentives and everything can feel so overwhelming. For these reasons learning long term arts or crafts are so much more important. It is a way of claiming back your time. Over the years you can see how you have grown, how you have got better just by devoting a little time each day or week. If in the time you devote to your art you also loose yourself to the flow state then time really does stop and all your cares vanish for a while.
I love dance as it indulges so many of your senses but it is also exercise! So you are getting physical benefits too. In my universe of dance classes it doesn't matter if you have to sit out and watch most of the class. I've had to so many times... But you still learn. Your brain is working it out. And studies show that your muscles are also reacting and contracting when you just watch so there is still physical benefit too.
I never go for the burn and demand that you push yourself to the limit. If you want to feel free, but drop out and any stage if you need to. Rest up, re-set, check in with your body and go again if you want to. Stop if you can't. Learning this is so hard as it goes against the mindset of society, but so powerful for those of us that need to be careful how we spend out energy. But the crucial thing here is that this technique does give you more energy, and it can happen pretty quickly too.
For a full list of classes visit www.fulyadancer.co.uk
Indulge all you senses with DANCE!!!
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