Be Thankful for your Body

Thanks for being pretty awesome, body!

When it comes to body love, I often talk the talk without walking the walk. I'll post empowering articles and I'll encourage other ladies, but then I look at my own body and I'm like "Teeth, why you gotta be so sticky-outy? Belly, why you gotta be so fat?* Hips, why are you so TIGHT?"

So I have to be honest, I haven't been dancing this week. Part of it is natural laziness, and we don't have bellydance class this week, but it was easy to make excuses because my right hip was so. damn. sore. And it has been for about a week. I don't know what I did to it, but I am guessing at some point I stretched too far, or forced a stretch when I wasn't warm enough, and I messed things up. I mean, it's not unusual for me to have a little pain in my right hip after a really hard class, but this was a lot of pain and in different areas of my hip, and it sucked. And I honestly think I made it worse by using the pain as an excuse to not go do some ballet or what-have-you, because then I sat home and didn't get warm and spent too much time sitting on the couch with 20+ lbs of dog pinning my hip into position. I'd think to myself "I should warm up and stretch this bad girl out while I watch this DVD" but then I'd sit down and someone would get into my lap and that would be it.

This was a good reminder to be kinder to my body, in my actions and my words. To honor my limits from day to day, to have patience with the sloooow progress of stretching and not try to force my hips to be more like other dancers' hips. And besides, my body gets a lot of other things right. It's given me long, flowing hair, strong fingernails, elegant limbs, pretty eyes, and skin that takes ink well. I don't have any major health problems, I don't have to wear glasses, and I don't have allergies. Good job, body! You're pretty awesome.

Take a moment and thank your own body for the stuff it gets right. After all, it's the only body you're going to get, until we perfect either cloning technology or android bodies.

*Ok, that's my own damn fault. I eat cookies every day. Cookies are amazing. 

Halfsies

Even dedicated, committed people need a little break sometimes. I was feeling really cruddy and run-down today. I almost skipped class altogether, but I really should save that for when I'm genuinely sick or out of town, so I decided to compromise and only take one of the two classes tonight. And it was a good class, jam-packed with dancers, a pleasant temperature in the studio, and we got to do some arm drills, hip work, and traveling across the floor.

Maybe after a cookie and some tea I'll even feel well enough for a little extra practice!

To vent or not to vent?

Sometimes I wonder how much I should vent on this blog. There are, at times, things that I want to get off of my chest, but I worry that if I say them publicly, someone will be hurt. I also think that some of the things that annoy me stem from me foolishly expecting everyone to be the same as me in some regards, and that's just not going to happen.

Then again, maybe I'm just cranky because my right hip is stiff and I can't find a good stretch to make it feel better. Stupid hip.

My legs!

Day 354 of practice.

Drills class was intense tonight. We had to do one-legged hip work, which is not that bad, but we also had to do it with a deep knee bend, and then on releve, which would have been impossible without the bar to hold onto. My legs are already sore and tired, so I'm guessing they'll really be complaining by tomorrow! There was also some brain-breaking layering. All in all a good night of classes.

Drill baby drill!

Day 206 of practice.

No, I'm not talking about oil, I'm talking about hipwork! I haven't been happy with my mayas lately, and I've never, ever, EVER been happy with my taxims, so tonight I made myself spend most of my practice time drilling them. No music even, just trying to make them smooth and big. A well-executed maya or taxim just makes a dancer look like she's made of water.

I also did some stretching, because I haven't really been making that part of my home practice for the past few months. It felt good! I need to be better to my body. After all, it's the only one I get -- although my husband keeps going on about us eventually replacing our fleshy bodies with robot ones.

Bleargh

Day 191 of practice.

Not feeling particularly great right now. Kept the practice simple... working on the range of motion in my hips with various stretches and isolations.