How to keep the Warmth of your Heart
- Foreign dancers may be better, technically, and more beautiful and professional than Egyptians, but they´re cold. This is where they lose the game.
First, let´s hit pause. There´s nothing to lose or gain because, let me repeat this till exhaustion, we don´t have to live and dance in competition mode. Let whoever wants to compete with you, compete. Let them burn in that fire if that´s their wish - you don´t have to participate in it.
Second, the comment I´ve shared relates to what I call "heart warmth", an internal engine that exhales love, trust, empowerment, kindness, truth. In other words, Magnetism.
The first time I wrote about this concept, I was called crazy. It was the year of 2013 and I´d just released my first book "The Secrets of Egypt - Dance Life & Beyond". Critics poured in, haters swam in their own venom, many readers loved the book and sent me their feedback, a few readers understood what I meant, others managed to understand it and apply it (a minority).
Almost 10 years later, the concept remains hermetic, out of fashion, a weird thing only weird folks are interested in.
What is the HEART WARMTH?
It´s the energetic frequency (and quality) we exhale from our hearts.
In other words, the state of our heart influences the way we feel and think and the things we believe in, and those things - the way we feel and think and the things we believe in - shape the quality of our energy, the energy we give out, our invisible fingerprint.
How many times have you watched a dancer who was perfect, technically and aesthetically, but felt cold, detached, machine-like, boring and, in some cases, almost dead?
On the other hand, how many times have you watched a dancer who wasn´t that strong, technically and/or aesthetically, but you couldn´t stop watching her/him? The kind of dancer who moves your heart, who awakens your soul, who reminds you of your shared humanity.
WHAT WE CARRY IN OUR HEART, MATTERS. IN DANCE AND IN LIFE.
Furthermore, WITHOUT A WARM HEART, THERE´S NO EGYPTIAN DANCE.
For those reasons, I´m sharing a few of the HEART-WARMING STRATEGIES I use in order to keep my heart, dance, and life, warm.
Ready?
Let´s take off.
Strategy #1
I choose to see the best in people and in life.
Daily, I make this decision: no matter what happens, I´ll do my best to see the best in people and in life.
Recognize the positive side of negative things, feel compassion for the challenges we all go through, focus my attention on the beauty, the joy, and the opportunity that are the flip side of ugliness, sadness, and challenge.
I don´t always succeed. Some things - words, actions, thoughts - are so evil, so unfair, so destructive, that staying away is the most loving thing I can do. But even after those impossible-to-accept situations, I go back to the faith in life (I listen to one of my favorite John Mayer´s songs: The Heart of Life. Listen to it BY CLICKING HERE)
Strategy #2
Become the most loving person in the room.
Instead of waiting for others to be loving - through their actions or/and words -, I take the initiative and I offer myself and others the gift of loving words and/or actions.
In other words, I give what I wish to receive and, yes, I become the embodiment of love.
A simple act of kindness, a simple loving word, a simple gesture speaking of tenderness can change a person´s day. Don´t underestimate the power of being the most loving person in the room. There´s magic and power in it.
Strategy #3
I forgive the ones who have hurt me.
I let them and the memory of the pain, go. It doesn´t mean that I agree with what they did, I´ll invite them back into my life, or I support their weakness of character. It just means I release myself from the weight of their presence in my system.
When you forgive someone who hurt you, you´re offering a gift to yourself. Not to the person who hurt you. You´re letting go of that weight.
Strategy #4
I accept the fact that living is risky. And so is opening our heart.
No beating around the bush, here. The truth is all of us have had our heart broken and all of us will have, in the future, our heart broken, again. That´s a part of our human experience. Running away from pain is the same as running away from happiness.
We can either accept it and get used to the broken heart followed by a mended heart or we close our heart for protection - I´ve been an expert at heart shields, in the past, so, I know what I´m talking about - and we live a mediocre existence. For security reasons, we close our hearts to love, trust, vulnerability and, simultaneously, we don´t live.
Risk is a part of this experience called life. Accept it and live in freedom or deny it, keep an iron shield around your heart, and be miserable until you die.
Your call.
Strategy #5
I practice heartfelt Gratitude.
What the hell is "heartfelt gratitude"? Isn´t gratitude, heartfelt?
No, it isn´t. Often, out of habit, education, religious duty or even the pressure from the current trends, we build gratitude lists out of our head. We know, intellectually, what we´re supposed to feel grateful for and we speak the words - "thank you" - but we don´t feel them. Not really. Not in our heart.
Saying "thank you" or "I´m thankful for..." is easy. Writing down a list of things we´re grateful for is relatively easy. Actually feeling it, it´s not.
Heartfelt gratitude is deeper than intellectual gratitude, the same way Emotional Listening is deeper than Intellectual Listening. We either do it from our head or from our heart, hopefully from both, simultaneously.
Heartfelt gratitude demands presence, truth, feeling. I have to feel the gratitude, the abundance, the gift, the joy. Saying it isn´t enough; writing it isn´t enough.
And, make no mistake, heartfelt gratitude opens our heart and it keeps it warm.
Strategy #6
I breathe deeply and consciously.
I can hear my students saying:
Again?
Is Joana obsessed with breathing?
Is breathing the recipe for everything?
My answers to those questions are:
Yes, again. And again, soon.
I´m kind of obsessed with breathing. As a dancer, a teacher, an author, a ca choreographer, a creator of content; as a human being, I resort to conscious breathing all the time. It grounds me; it balances me; it brings me more energy, calm, clarity, hope, mental sanity, and warmth. It restores my faith in life.
How can something so simple be so powerful?
That´s a question for another blog post. Now, trust me: breathing more, deeper, and more consciously will keep your heart, warm. It restores the trust we often lose in ourselves and in the world. It brings us back to our center, a center where there´s only soul, only love.
Strategy #7
I allow myself to feel whatever I feel.
Another big one. A game-changer.
In a world where we don´t have time or space to feel; in a world where we´re anesthetized by speed, war, pressures coming from every corner; in a world where we´ve separated the "good emotions" from the "bad emotions", offering yourself the gift of feeling whatever you feel is revolutionary.
A warm heart is honest, open, transparent. Pretending you are what you´re not won´t work and pretending you feel what you don´t feel, won´t work either.
Slow down. Meditate. Breathe. Journal. Talk to a friend or to a stranger. Be with your emotions instead of running away from them. Cry out loud, laugh out loud. Allow yourself to feel happy when you´re happy and sad when you´re sad.
In other words, allow yourself to be human. There´s no better way to warm your heart than to say YES to your full, raw, multicolored humanity.
Strategy #8
I decide from my Heart.
Last but not least, make it a habit to decide from your heart. When you´re dancing, ask your heart how it wants you to move; in your life, ask your heart how it wants you to act.
Put the ego aside - your pride, your insecurities, your vanity, your need for approval, your ambitions, your "prestige" - and embrace your heart and its wisdom. Put your hands on your heart, feel their warmth invading your chest, and trust the guidance of that magical organ, that alchemy that resides within.
That, and that alone, will make you stand out from the crowd. And that, my dear, is where the Magic of Egyptian Dance and of Life begin.
In this Blog/Podcast Post, a MOTIVATIONAL MESSAGE usually delivered inside Joana Saahirah´s Signature Course, I´ve shared the importance of keeping a warm heart and my favorite strategies to keep my heart how it´s supposed to be: open, vulnerable, kind, passionate, in love with life.
I hope this blog post has inspired you. If it did, JOIN THE WAITING LIST FOR THE 2ND EDITION OF JOANA SAAHIRAH´S SIGNATURE COURSE - authentic Egyptian Dance & Personal Development from the ABC to Mastery - happening, soon. Find the link to join the Waiting List, below ⤵️⤵️⤵️
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