Our own self-esteem is such a delicate thing that it seems to require daily upkeep! And there's no time when our self-esteem is challenged as much as it is when we're growing up. There's so much "social garbage" that we learn as we get older - things like comparing ourselves to others and caring what other people think. When you're young, you just live in your own world without inhibition. But when we lose the ability to do that, we lose so much more.
Dancing from the age of five helped me escape the fears that social conditioning gives us and thus I was able to grow without barriers. I can think of a few specific things from dance that helped me:
- Having great teachers who made it a mission to find something special in each child was a blessing. My teachers encouraged me and my parents, and pushed me to be my own personal best.
- After each show that I performed in, I became less nervous in a crowd. I learned strategies to drown away the audience and find my own solitude even in front of 1000 people.
- Dancing every week with my peers and instructors taught me how to accept myself and love myself despite what others around me were doing. There were always temptations to compare myself to others, but my passion for dance helped me overcome that and instead of walking away with my head down, I practiced more at home every day to help me become who I wanted to be as a dancer.
- Dance helped me realize that a lot of what we do are habits, and therefore under our control. For example, if I can't do the split today, it doesn't mean I can never do it. When I was nine, I held my splits every day for 60 seconds and within the year I was able to do my right splits. That was my lesson learned: if you want something, work on it every day and you will achieve it.
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