Happy November friends! It is amazing it’s November already and there are only two months left of this year. We hear everyone say how each year feels faster than the last, and there is truth to that. But also 2026 was something extra. Research shows us that when we take in more information than we can process, time feels faster. We cannot actually hold awareness of the present because we are too overwhelmed attempting to keep track of the multitude of things happening. Our modern lives are pushing on this as we have access to more and more news in any given moment than ever before. It is both amazing and absolutely not sustainable. It is too much! Our nervous systems are wrecked, and our health is taking the toll. This is why moving our bodies is essential and a huge reason why I love teaching.
Creating accessible training has always been key to what I do and offer. This changes regularly as people’s lives change~ in-person versus online, length of classes, series or on-going, workshops or popups, private or group…so many different variables that make training available for people’s lives or not. One of the biggest changes I have seen with dance training since the pandemic is the shift from dance being an on-going process to reconnect to self and others TO a process of assembling skills, working on particular goals, and adding things to the resume. Don’t get me wrong I love a goal oriented process as much as the best of them. BUT I fear we are missing out on what the regularity of a practice can do to support our health, our healing, and our ability to be present. Yoga and pilates are more commonly associated to a Practice and so I see more people able to approach those forms with this concept (although we still often have more of a goal lens versus focusing on a presence mentality). For me, dance has always been how I understand where I am, how my body doing, and what I am actually feeling about life. It is this consistency and compassion that allows us to arrive, reconnect, process, and be. I feel like it is exactly this experience we need in order to combat the contemporary technology driven world. So that our days do not just slide by in overwhelm and stress, but that we get a chance to breathe and live more fully in the present.
An on-going practice takes prioritizing and dedication. It is a long game. With the current environment of “go go go” thinking longer term can feel nearly impossible. Thus practices fall to the way side in hopes of getting through the day and trying again tomorrow. But tomorrow comes and goes and before we know it months have gone by. And then it’s November.
So how can you approach the last two months of this to bring more focus to the present, to your body, to your breath? How can you carve out consistent time to just be in your movement, to process, feel, heal? What could that look like? Let’s make that happen.
