Dance.

I’m serious, but let’s back it up.

The thing I’m most scared of in this world (which is so ironic) is dancing in front of others.

I’m serious, and in case you didn’t know, dancing has been not only a passion, but something I pursued as my career path when I was 14, and I did that until I was 18, before I changed path and started medical school.

But the thing is, dancing in front of others is really scary to me (in fact, when I was in nationwide ballet school, I didn’t even dance in front of my partner, and we were in a relationship for 3.5 years).

So yeah, scary.

But this last year I’ve done dance classes almost every single day, and it’s what I’m so grateful for now, is how intensely I feel the fear. I realize the second it’s there, and I notice how my moves get constrained, and sometimes I even freeze and sometimes completely forget the choreography.

And how have I dealt with it?

I’ve literally been dancing with fear.

I notice the fear, and I know I don’t dance as good as I could when it’s there.

And when it usually shows up is when we dance in groups (so the others are watching us), and when the teachers are filming us. But I did an incredibly mindset shift really early on, and that was instead of thinking:
“My goal is to look good while I dance”

I decided:

“My only goal is to stay on the floor until the dance is over”

That’s it, and if I forget choreo, if I look stupid, it doesn’t matter. The only goal, the only thing that would make me proud, was if I stayed on the floor until the choreo was over.

Did I always succeed?

No, sometimes my fear took over and I walked off the floor, and sometimes I stood in the darkest, most hidden place in the room not to get seen.

But… and this is important… progress happened.

So each week I walked off less, and I hid less and less.

And so this I wanted to share to let you know that…

The only way to deal with fear is to face it.

You can’t think your way out of fear, you need to do what you’re most scared of and know that fear will be there with you (sometimes messing it up for you).

But the only thing that feels worse than dancing with your fear is knowing you sabotaged your dreams because you were unwilling to be uncomfortable for a couple of seconds (and sometimes minutes).

Hope this gave you some new insight, but most importantly, more courage to not look good, not do it perfectly, but simply not letting fear stop you.

That’s the only goal.

First we learn to dance with fear.

Then we learn to dance.

/ Sara <3