Context on the timing: I wrote that note about dancing shame about a month ago when I first drafted this post, which was maybe a day or two after having that thought initially.
For the shame around dancing, where I’m at right now:
- I was able to stand up just now (in the privacy of my own room) and do some dancing without much shame coming up at all, which wasn’t something I could easily do before. I’m actually slightly surprised by that just now; I expected it to be harder/worse before I got up and did it. Other feelings are coming up when I do it more, but mostly not shame, and I think in a good way that might help me process those other feelings. Nice.
- I still definitely expect to have some struggles around dancing around other people; there’s still some trauma-shaped fear of people applying shame, which I don’t think is well founded but is there nonetheless. I still have more work to do on that front. Maybe I’ll try out dancing with my partner later and see what material I get to work with, there.
But as far as I’m concerned, that result is a huge victory already! Using dance to process other feelings was one of my major [things I want to unlock] goals of late, cause I know dancing can be hugely useful for other people in processing emotions and trauma-stuff in particular. I’ll have to play around with that more today and see what I can get from it.
Thanks for asking this question! I hadn’t actually queried where I was at with dancing by trying to dance until just now, and didn’t expect as much change as there apparently was.
Context on the timing: I wrote that note about dancing shame about a month ago when I first drafted this post, which was maybe a day or two after having that thought initially.
For the shame around dancing, where I’m at right now:
- I was able to stand up just now (in the privacy of my own room) and do some dancing without much shame coming up at all, which wasn’t something I could easily do before. I’m actually slightly surprised by that just now; I expected it to be harder/worse before I got up and did it. Other feelings are coming up when I do it more, but mostly not shame, and I think in a good way that might help me process those other feelings. Nice.
- I still definitely expect to have some struggles around dancing around other people; there’s still some trauma-shaped fear of people applying shame, which I don’t think is well founded but is there nonetheless. I still have more work to do on that front. Maybe I’ll try out dancing with my partner later and see what material I get to work with, there.
But as far as I’m concerned, that result is a huge victory already! Using dance to process other feelings was one of my major [things I want to unlock] goals of late, cause I know dancing can be hugely useful for other people in processing emotions and trauma-stuff in particular. I’ll have to play around with that more today and see what I can get from it.
Thanks for asking this question! I hadn’t actually queried where I was at with dancing by trying to dance until just now, and didn’t expect as much change as there apparently was.