"Don't try to do anything. Don't even try hard. Just do it."
Thought of the day, inspired by Tony Robbins.
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philosophy. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Monday, May 27, 2013
I Have A Dream...
I do what I do, simply because I have a dream. Sometimes I forget, but I want to remember, and I want to share it with people, with people who may be dreaming the same dream as I do...
- I dream of making this world a better place, where people live in peace and love one another.
- Where people are not so rushed or hurried to pursue the riches in life, but take their time and feel one another, and feel the world, feel their existence in the world.
- I live, in a slower pace than most people around me. Perhaps I could slow down the hurried, the overly rushed, and make them feel and think, and enjoy their presence, here in the world... just like how nature, moves slowly, but surely.
- I dream that we would be kind to one another, that we would make decisions that considers the best interests of one another, that understand its effects and consequences to one another, that we do not simply take from others, what is not ours.
- I dream that we could live in harmony with nature, that we learn to realise that it is nature that offers us the greatest abundance, enough for all of us to share, that there is no need to fight or to steal or to compete.
- That our need for abundance does not need to be in conflict with the very nature of the universe, of our existence...
Sunday, May 12, 2013
The Pressures We Put On Ourselves
About 2 years ago, I had a major breakthrough in my work with my body. I was finally able to understand how it feels to be truly aligned and released.
However, I was working in a static state, not dynamic - as in standing still vs. movements. The wonderful alignment cannot be sustained as I have yet to develop the necessary muscles to uphold that posture. To do so would take constant work of daily alignment and exercise. In addition to that, I have discovered some dormant muscle injury that was the result of an electro-acupuncture session gone wrong. It was an extremely challenging phase, not only physically, but also emotionally. Soon I slowly let it go, the old habits took over again and I lost that wonderful feeling.
2 years on, I find myself stuck at my performance level, and that there is no way to move forward other than to deal with my alignment again. This time, with a more prepared and positive mind set, and I opt to work more dynamically.
You see, the benefits of working dynamically (with movement) is that you are constantly building muscle and conditioning your movement habits as you work - rather than just "stacking" your joints and expect them to stay there.
So last week, during my dance sessions, as I was working on my body, I discovered 2 habits that was holding me back.
1. There is a sensation of pulling back/clawing down along my middle-lower back muscles.
My teacher commented about my habit of contracting that part of my back to develop an arch and to extend my legs backwards. Now I suddenly realised how dominant that sensation was in my overall body posture.
2. As I work to release that sensation, I found another, even more influential force that is holding me down - there is a pressure over the top of my head that is pressing me down.
Well, technically, it was me, putting that pressure on myself. But it did felt like an invisible hand pushing down on me. It's still me.
So what I did was, I mentally "opened up" this pressure over the top of my head, like opening a box and letting the sensation out.
The mantra I gave to myself was to "believe in the higher power," that is to trust the natural forces to hold up my body, instead of me trying do push myself up.
The counter force to that is also the ground. Dynamically speaking, the more force going downwards, the more counter force there is going upwards, which is how an extended, lengthened body comes about.
So the second mantra was to "believe in the ground I am stepping on." It is the sensation of developing trust, that all is fine.
This sensation extends the highly contracted muscles in my legs, especially my quadriceps and calves.
It is a wonderful load of pressure released from my body from these 2 exercises.
I hope that my sharing of my experiences can benefit your practices as well.
Until next time, warm regards...
However, I was working in a static state, not dynamic - as in standing still vs. movements. The wonderful alignment cannot be sustained as I have yet to develop the necessary muscles to uphold that posture. To do so would take constant work of daily alignment and exercise. In addition to that, I have discovered some dormant muscle injury that was the result of an electro-acupuncture session gone wrong. It was an extremely challenging phase, not only physically, but also emotionally. Soon I slowly let it go, the old habits took over again and I lost that wonderful feeling.
2 years on, I find myself stuck at my performance level, and that there is no way to move forward other than to deal with my alignment again. This time, with a more prepared and positive mind set, and I opt to work more dynamically.
You see, the benefits of working dynamically (with movement) is that you are constantly building muscle and conditioning your movement habits as you work - rather than just "stacking" your joints and expect them to stay there.
So last week, during my dance sessions, as I was working on my body, I discovered 2 habits that was holding me back.
1. There is a sensation of pulling back/clawing down along my middle-lower back muscles.
My teacher commented about my habit of contracting that part of my back to develop an arch and to extend my legs backwards. Now I suddenly realised how dominant that sensation was in my overall body posture.
2. As I work to release that sensation, I found another, even more influential force that is holding me down - there is a pressure over the top of my head that is pressing me down.
Well, technically, it was me, putting that pressure on myself. But it did felt like an invisible hand pushing down on me. It's still me.
So what I did was, I mentally "opened up" this pressure over the top of my head, like opening a box and letting the sensation out.
The mantra I gave to myself was to "believe in the higher power," that is to trust the natural forces to hold up my body, instead of me trying do push myself up.
The counter force to that is also the ground. Dynamically speaking, the more force going downwards, the more counter force there is going upwards, which is how an extended, lengthened body comes about.
So the second mantra was to "believe in the ground I am stepping on." It is the sensation of developing trust, that all is fine.
This sensation extends the highly contracted muscles in my legs, especially my quadriceps and calves.
It is a wonderful load of pressure released from my body from these 2 exercises.
I hope that my sharing of my experiences can benefit your practices as well.
Until next time, warm regards...
Friday, April 26, 2013
Some learning quotes, some food for thought
"Learning is to be aware of what is already inside of us." Bob Proctor
"To dis-cover is to remove the cover of." Jack Canfield
"To dis-cover is to remove the cover of." Jack Canfield
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Sound and Movements
There are many ways of creating dance - or rather "there are many
sources of inspiration" for creating dance. Some create based on a
storyline, a character, an image, an emotion, a life event, a music,
etc..
I personally love creating dance based on music. Music moves me, like perhaps you have seen how Gangnam Style move this baby.
I am one of those very kineasthetically responsive individuals, and was particularly reactive to pulsating pop beats when I was in my childhood all the way through my teens and early 20's, with pop being a huge influence in my interest in dance as mentioned here. Of course I'm not about to burst into a Gangnam "horse ride" the moment I hear the song now, but you get the idea.
Then as I mature, I find myself responding more towards subtle, meditative tones of Asian classical music, or strong orchestral harmonies, including western classical, new age and contemporary genres - such as the soundtracks of Hans Zimmer.
Music gives me vision. I see movement, feel movement, and I am driven to move. Music sometimes drowns me. I can become drunk in music, even when I'm not drinking. Itut is where my most passionate pieces come from.
However, there are school of thoughts who decides that dance should be independent of music. On a moderate scale, it should be telling a story beyond what the music is telling - which has a good point. But on an extreme level, choreographers are purposefully using music or sound just as a backdrop or "noise," and having the dancers dance in a way that completely ignores the rhythms and flow of the music.
Some dances are performed in silence.
I haven't done the extremes yet. For now, I am still very much attached to my music... like a lover...
Moving to sound
In my practice of dance and improvisation, I have found spaces where certain movements and exact matches for certain sounds and certain notes, where our body acts like an instrument, like a recorder with its holes along our torso, or a drum set, with sounds at different spaces.
It may take a more auditory person to be able to "hear" sounds in their body, just as it may take a more visual person to "see" movements in space.
"Seeing" movement
In most of my dance teaching, it is very common for me to give instructions to my students, such as in children's creative dance and improvisation classes to "paint in the sky." This is where you imagine that your hands become paint brushes, and that your sweeping movements create colours where the air is your canvas. You can really have lots of fun, "painting" the world around you with the sweep or your hands, your feet, and other body parts. It is usually important to "see" where your movement is coming from and where its going, partly also to be able to decide on the aesthetic result you are trying to achieve and to fill in the space with the presence of your movements.
The non-visual dancer
However, during my course of teaching, I had encountered one student who was particularly gifted in his hearing. He is a natural musician and composer. He can play any instrument he tries, and any tune he hears in his head - or at least that is what I have observed. However, he was struggling in my class, which was unfortuantely compulsary for him to complete as a part of his IB MYP program.
After struggling for some time, I finally had a chance to work with him personally.
I figured that since he can't "see" movements, perhaps he can "hear" them.
I began working by opening up his body through the sound of my voice, moving through different notes to stimulate different joints in his body.
It immediately worked! His hardened, skinny body suddenly is able to start moving fluidly, and he suddenly understood improvisation in a way he never had before!
Finally, he was able to create a solo piece to submit as a final work to complete his program. It was not perfect, but it was good progress.
And I finally understood now, that some people cannot "see" movements, but perhaps, they can "hear" movement.
If you are a teacher, what difficulty have you encountered with students learning dance?
How do you overcome them?
Until next time,
Take care.
I personally love creating dance based on music. Music moves me, like perhaps you have seen how Gangnam Style move this baby.
I am one of those very kineasthetically responsive individuals, and was particularly reactive to pulsating pop beats when I was in my childhood all the way through my teens and early 20's, with pop being a huge influence in my interest in dance as mentioned here. Of course I'm not about to burst into a Gangnam "horse ride" the moment I hear the song now, but you get the idea.
Then as I mature, I find myself responding more towards subtle, meditative tones of Asian classical music, or strong orchestral harmonies, including western classical, new age and contemporary genres - such as the soundtracks of Hans Zimmer.
Music gives me vision. I see movement, feel movement, and I am driven to move. Music sometimes drowns me. I can become drunk in music, even when I'm not drinking. Itut is where my most passionate pieces come from.
However, there are school of thoughts who decides that dance should be independent of music. On a moderate scale, it should be telling a story beyond what the music is telling - which has a good point. But on an extreme level, choreographers are purposefully using music or sound just as a backdrop or "noise," and having the dancers dance in a way that completely ignores the rhythms and flow of the music.
Some dances are performed in silence.
I haven't done the extremes yet. For now, I am still very much attached to my music... like a lover...
Moving to sound
In my practice of dance and improvisation, I have found spaces where certain movements and exact matches for certain sounds and certain notes, where our body acts like an instrument, like a recorder with its holes along our torso, or a drum set, with sounds at different spaces.
It may take a more auditory person to be able to "hear" sounds in their body, just as it may take a more visual person to "see" movements in space.
"Seeing" movement
In most of my dance teaching, it is very common for me to give instructions to my students, such as in children's creative dance and improvisation classes to "paint in the sky." This is where you imagine that your hands become paint brushes, and that your sweeping movements create colours where the air is your canvas. You can really have lots of fun, "painting" the world around you with the sweep or your hands, your feet, and other body parts. It is usually important to "see" where your movement is coming from and where its going, partly also to be able to decide on the aesthetic result you are trying to achieve and to fill in the space with the presence of your movements.
The non-visual dancer
However, during my course of teaching, I had encountered one student who was particularly gifted in his hearing. He is a natural musician and composer. He can play any instrument he tries, and any tune he hears in his head - or at least that is what I have observed. However, he was struggling in my class, which was unfortuantely compulsary for him to complete as a part of his IB MYP program.
After struggling for some time, I finally had a chance to work with him personally.
I figured that since he can't "see" movements, perhaps he can "hear" them.
I began working by opening up his body through the sound of my voice, moving through different notes to stimulate different joints in his body.
It immediately worked! His hardened, skinny body suddenly is able to start moving fluidly, and he suddenly understood improvisation in a way he never had before!
Finally, he was able to create a solo piece to submit as a final work to complete his program. It was not perfect, but it was good progress.
And I finally understood now, that some people cannot "see" movements, but perhaps, they can "hear" movement.
If you are a teacher, what difficulty have you encountered with students learning dance?
How do you overcome them?
Until next time,
Take care.
Energy, Vibrations and Holistic Wellness
"Everything has vibrations," as physicists, people who dabble in energy works, law of attraction and the likes would tell you.
Sounds are made of vibrations. We all know that. But movements too has vibrations. You and me, as human beings, too, has vibrations.
Vibrations are emissions of energy. We are an energy conductor. Energy flows through us, and into other things, through our actions, our thoughts, our words, into the things we create, and it is passed along as we go.
In Chinese philosophy, we call this chi or qi. In Hindu philosophy, it is Prāṇa. Both come to mean life force or vital energy.
And in our bodies, there are centres or magnetic fields which are said to generate, conduct or store this energy. The dantian in Chinese, and chakra in Sanskrit. These are a series of vital points in our body which corresponds with vital organs. The specific understanding of these points, and its number may vary between teachings, but generally, these series of points runs across the centre of the human torso, from the base all the way up to the head.
Imbalance, stagnation or blockage in these centres are said to cause symptoms of physical ailments and certain behavioural problems.
For example, a blockage in the 3rd Chakra may defined by physical symptoms of indigestion. Emotionally, it may be expressed in the form of anxiety and extreme introversion. Mentally, this person may feel very disempowered and fearful in his or her life.
It's just a Chicken & Egg story
For some, the study of these metaphysical philosophies seem like superstition or beyond logic. After all, not everyone can claim that they can see auras or other people's energy fields.
However, these are just another branch of study that helps us understand and assess the human condition as a whole. Unlike western medicinal principals which only focuses on the anatomy, eastern philosophies acknowledge the correlation between the mind, body, emotion and spirit as being inseparable. It is a definition of our whole being, and a shift in one aspect, will inevitably effect all others.
Take the 3rd chakra as an example again. A weakness in this area can also be seen posturally, in a collapsed abdomen, weak core muscles - or can even be simply defined as a hunch or a slouch. In movement, he or she may find difficulty in opening up the abdomens, such as in a back arch.
The Correlations
There is a direct relationship to how the various aspects of ourselves affect one another. For example, an external event may had happened to trigger one person, a person A to experience anxiety and panic attacks. With that this person is constantly fearful and loses confidence in himself. This lack of confidence manifests itself into his posture, causing him to slouch. The emotional turmoil will also develop as digestion problems and breathlessness. The bad posture and digestion problem will eventually create a downward spiral in his overall health and well-being, and this will eventually be obvious in his overall (lack of) glow or aura. His new postural position too, is already causing (and is also the result of) the collapse in his internal organs, which will in turn develop tense muscles in his neck, shoulders and lowerback, while giving him a larger lower belly. And a weakened life force in turn creates more havoc in our overall system. The longer he stay that way, the more hard-wired his system is to this setting, and the more solidly it manifests itself. After some time, you can't really tell anymore, which problem is causing what.
When met with doctors or healers, he will be given a different description of the diagnosis.
Anxiety. Indigestion. Blockage. Bad posture.
Tackling all
It may sound like a bad news that one thing can effect so many aspects of us.
But it is also a good news! Because, it is possible that changing one part of ourselves can positively effect another.
For example, awareness and practice in good posture will relief the energy blockage in that area. Not only that, a change in posture also automatically sends a different message to our minds, forcing us to be more positive and optimistic about life. A good energy healing session leaves us feeling invigorated and healthy again. A good counselling or coaching session may help us overcome a traumatic event. Medication and exercise may leave us healthier and therefore more positive about life again.
However, as I mentioned above, some situations start to get pretty sticky, when other symptoms have become pretty stubborn over time.
And the best way, ofcourse, is to be able to address as many of these aspects as possible to enable rapid recovery and growth. It is the reason why, doctors have now found that medication, coupled with counselling and spiritual support is so much more effective compared to just simply using medication.
What method of healing
I would not claim to be in the position to prescribe any specific form of healing that is best for you and your problems. But I do wish to share the understanding of the self - mind, body, emotion, spirit. And I would emphasize that when there is one aspect of you that you seem to have been struggling with for a long time, and not able to overcome, look at the other aspects of yourself. Perhaps the answer is there. You may have a problem with your body. But look at your relationships, your lifestyle. Or do you have faith? If your mental state is terrible, look at your posture, how are you using your body?
Be aware and find clues and answer in places you may not even have thought of. But don't dabble too much into the spirit. It's a whole other world. We are physical beings after all. Our spirit is perfect. It just seem like it is not because of the other 3 aspects of ourselves.
Health, wellness and happiness is holistic. One aspect cannot be well independent of another.
Until next time, I wish you well...
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
About Me: The Long Story - My Love Affair With Movement
If you had read my about page, you would probably know a thing or 2 about me and my practice. But here, I will share the in-depth story of how I came to where I am at today.
I love movement
I have been studying movement all my life.
From dance, martial arts to sports, I have observed movement from a range of aspects and attempted to recreate them, to understand how movers move - how the best dancers dance, how actors act, how atheles jump, how action is created and how movement flow.
As I study these people more, I began to understand that there is a state of being in which these people had created, a stage persona in their performances. It is beyond what is taught in most lessons, what you see in the apparent.
In my career as a dance teacher, I had taught this method to my students in rehearsing for their dances. The difference is between a mediocre or technical performance, and an emotionally impactful performance.
What kind of dancer am I?
When most people ask me, "When did I first started dancing?" I didn't know how to answer them. Like most people, I started dancing when I was little, I mean baby. Unlike most people, I continued dancing and believing in dance, through adulthood.
I revel in art - I sing, play music, draw, paint, occasionally build or sculpt things, and I aspire to act.
I started off mostly as a self-taught dancer, emulating my idols from music videos and concert recordings, and just moving to the beat to music. I start off with dancing Canto-pop like idols Leslie Cheung, Aaron Kwok, Jimmy Lin and Dicky Chueng, during the late 1980's to the early 1990's, a time that could be described as the peak of the genre. It was a time of elaborate costumes, grand concert stadiums, world class performances, and of course, superb dance performance and choreographies. The passion in the music and the moving beats sparked my interest in singing and dancing. Of course, the genre also occasionally offered its share of ballads and culturally influenced tunes, along with accompanying performances, sparking my interests in more traditional and lyrical dances.
In the late 1990's, I started paying more attention towards western pop culture. Dancing girl and boy bands - i.e. Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, N'Sync - became a scarce oasis of reference towards stylistic physical expression. And then Britney Spears, and there were no others like her.
At that time, we have no MTV and there was no Youtube. Even my VCR at home was spoilt and not replaced. What you see on TV is what you get. As much as I wanted to dance along, I couldn't reference well enough, so I had to pick up the dances as I go. Even if there were good references, they were not like today's K-pop where they have complete dance videos. I had make up my own steps in betweens.
But of course, I was too ashamed to let anyone know I love to dance. People make comments. You are a bad kid if you shake your body. You can't really dance if you don't go for classes, but there were no classes to go for. Children are expected to sit still.
So, I practiced in private, when my parents were not around, when no one was watching.
I wanted to do everything. I loved moving, I indulged in martial arts and gymnastics. And as you can imagine, I simply couldn't sit still.
Training hard
It started with a discovery of my enthusiasm towards chinese period dramas with kungfu/wire-fu. It served to tie me towards deeply exploring my cultural roots, which led to my interest in spirituality. The visuals that I see in these stories triggered a sense of stories untold so full in my heart, that I had to express it out in some form of mono-acting, and I started practicing martial arts for the parts I play. I was mesmerised by the visuals of female-wirefu, which resembles a dance more than fighting, hoping to someday float, glide and display such grace and power at the same time. This eventually covered more female heroine characters, that are technically tomboys of period dramas. I started dreaming of becoming an actress, and at that time, Michelle Yeoh emerged as an icon of my dreams.
Immediately, I wanted to sign up for wushu classes to get started on my basics. Unfortunately, things didn't quite happen for me. I ended up settling for taekwando classes which were offered in my school. I didn't like sparring, but instead I trained hard to make sure my kicks and my taegeuks look good and perfect, all the way up to my black belt in year 2000.
Later, when I entered university, I finally got the chance to approach wushu and taichi. It was a wonder that the techniques are so different, so much more complex even on the lower level, but it also means much more variety in movements. I get to practice movement patterns that I had always wanted to do, it was something that I wished I had started earlier on, for the basics in taekwando didn't prepare me for this. I managed to do a few performances with the team, one which included using sticks. Unfortunately, I did not stay long enough to learn weapons which I had wanted so much years ago. My body was getting tired of the brutal hardness of learning martial arts. It is not what I want to do. However, the years of training had further developed the tough body that already was.
Bending soft
During my early childhood, I was exposed to an international aerobics. I was mesmerised with the participant's flexibility and ability to perform acrobatics like cartwheels and walkovers.
Then during the 1992 Olympic games, I fell in love with rhythmic gymnastics. But it was not until the next Olympic in 1996 that I get to watch it again on TV. I loved the grace, flexibility and dexterity of gymnasts. I also learned to pick up on the flow of their movements, which sparked my interests in gentler forms of dance.
Unfortunately, there were no known gymnastic classes at that time, or would it have been a worthy investment as by then, it would've been too late for me to start (it is important to take advantage of early childhood to develop the extreme flexibility required). But I never gave up on the dream of performing, so I resorted to self-training at home.
I became obsessed with stretching. My amateurish attempts at self-training were somewhat successful - I managed to achieve over-splits, a good level of back bend, and walkovers - but it had also left me riddled with injuries. I developed a lower back pain, and hip joint pain. I also learned that lack of proper warm up could result in torn hamstrings.
The body in conflict
Other than the activities I mentioned above, I was also a competitor in the school's high jump events. I started in my upper primary school, but did not do it again until my upper secondary years. Again, I worked very hard to train myself to jump higher, but in spite of the lower-body strength I developed, my achievements were limited and inconsistent. I was frustrated and didn't know what to do. My knees were aching. I didn't know what I did wrong.
Over the years, I kept pushing through in spite of my injuries so that I can do the things I loved. I kept fighting with my body to make it do better splits, but it seemed to have come to a plateau, while my hip joint became riddled with pain. My body no longer wants to put out the brute strength I was forcing it to. I was abusing my body, pressing on my spine, trying to tear my joints apart, punishing it when it doesn't give me what I want. My performance dropped. My body felt so heavy. All these training must have failed, I thought. I must be getting old. I was 20.
By year 2003, more injuries, coupled by other lifestyle factors had left me with little motivation. I stopped practicing wushu.
Going easy
Aside from the occasional music video dancing, a stretch or two here and there, I was no longer doing any serious physical training in the years that ensues. I swim, go to the gym, played badminton and took up archery to keep myself happy in between struggling through university coursework. Any serious endeavour towards physical achievement seemed out of reach by now. I will settle with being a multimedia designer.
Starting Over
So when I began working for a few months, and life seemed miserable and meaningless.
I asked myself, what would I have to do, that if I don't, I would die? Dance.
If I don't start dancing, I would die.
So I started searching through the net for dance courses that rings a bell to me, and in a convenient location. I wasn't driving at the time, and relied heavily on the LRT system. I took some trial classes in a few separate location, and I still haven't found what I want, until I happened upon Rivergrass Dance Academy and attended classes by it's founder/director, Ms. Mew Chang Tsing.
A new philosophy
The first thing that is very different from anything I have learned before is the attitude towards the body and towards movement.
The first was, to love our body, to treat it with kindness and respect. To not force the body to do something when it is already hurting, because when guided, gently, it will still be able to do what we want it to, without the unnecessary pain.
Second, is to listen to the body. The body has intelligence and it has movement, movement that is different from what is in the mind. If we can let go of the controlling mind, to be quiet and observe, the body will speak its language and give us it's answer.
Learning these two principles are a continuous process, but by first understanding its concepts and applicability, it is the first steps in the right direction.
Creating dance
As the process of our learning is mostly improvisational, very soon, I am creating dance. Its was like a burst pipe, where all my desires and longings for dance expressions finally found an outlet. Very soon, I was performing on-stage with the group, with my favourite, Lady In Red - a piece which carries a passionate, tango-flamenco tone with the music Assasins Tango.
It then followed by more and more pieces, and greater involvement within the contemporary dance community as a whole, a course on dance composition which led to my first solo piece, The Tree of Life, and the rest was history.
Aside from the influences mentioned above, I also came from a national school system with a heavy Malay cultural influence. at a very young age, I was exposed to Malay classical and folk dances, but I was most taken by Gamelan, Ulek Mayang, Asyik and Inang, because of how ethereal the dancers look on stage, with elaborate costumes, and hypnotic music.
I didn't know how I pick up on the love of spanish-influences dance, but the passion and sensuality speaks to me.
Teaching dance
This burst pipe of creativity eventually flooded into my dance teaching in the international school, where I choreographed pieces for the school production which I directed, working with other dance and music teachers, and the high school students who were given the freedom to create their own - it basically unleashed my creative monster - a playground where pop, contemporary, and cultural performance items co-existed and weave itself into a story of growing up, learning and living in harmony.
The result was, the students get to learn something totally new, the school get to see something new, and expose itself to various forms of dance, and with my performing experience, I helped the students polish their performance quality to a whole new level.
Teaching dance became something that I had-to-do!
What was most satisfying, was not about the choreography process or the performances themselves. But the growth and connection that came during and as a result of the production was where it was most beautiful.
During classes and rehearsals, I have worked with students of various levels, most do not have dance training outside what the school was able to provide. They spent many years not having a teacher who was actually trained in dance, as had been creating dance for performances on their own. I worked to create dances that is suitable for different age groups, different talents and capabilities, and together, I brought them to a level of performance that is entertaining and emotionally satisfying for both participants and audience.
Beauty in a dance performance had to first come from performance quality and polish.
These had to be a result of meticulous training and even nit-picking. Movements were cleaned up.
Then, there is a very basic but impotant element of appearing larger on stage that performers need to be aware of. Movements have to be larger, more lengthened. Students need to expand themselves into a space slightly beyond themselves. This often challenge people in their comfort zones.
Also, there is the element of eye-contact. Eyes needs to be looking in the right places. It was very difficult for students to look up when dancing initially. Most adolescents and teenagers have self-esteem issues. Dancing on-stage and looking up at the audience was most terrifying and unthinkable of. Eyes wander as a result of a wandering mind too. So much training was centered on them being focused and present in the performance itself.
Last but not least, the importance of emotional interaction. Students need to know what their dance is saying, or what they actually wanted to say to the audience in their dance. They learned to accept it, to be honest about it, about themselves and what they wanted to express, or what I needed them to express in their dance.
I talked to these dozens and hundreds of performing students, some on a deeper level. I got to know them on a personal level to understand their unique challenges, and coached them to overcome their own obstacles, bodily, mentally and emotionally.
What's next?
I believed that the training had challenged them to a greater level, but I believed that more people, young and old can benefit from learning dance and training for performance, and overcoming personal obstacles, moving out of their comfort zones. It is my wish to reach out to more people on the same, deep, soulful level, without the constraints of academic curricula which I had to juggle with in school. I wish to create for, and to spread the knowledge of using the body, and healing its injuries.
The healing process
Over the years, I began studying more about the body as I continue studying alot of personal-developement materials. I wanted to heal, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.
When I stumbled upon the works of Tony Robbins and understood how much body language affects a person. I saw a video and was very surprised he spoke to one of his workshop participants, and immediately see shifts in their body when their mindset changes. I began observing body language more deeply, and employed questioning techniques to heal my body and let my body work in a more harmonious way.
Many of these techniques were helpful when I was working with my students. I was very enthusiastic about the results that I got and I am determined to practice further and broaden my reach.
Who am I?
I see myself as a life-long learner and teacher. I love to coach people, to help bring out the best in them, in what they do, whatever it is they want to do, to connect with who they are, and find that creative side of them.
As a teacher, I believe that no one is too bad to learn, and no one is too good not to learn.
It is a matter of desire - do we wish to do it or not?
The jewel is inside everyone of us. You just have to draw it out of each person.
It gets personal
I employ techniques from life coaching and strategic intervention, understanding body language from dance and improvisation, energy chakras and self-healing in my teaching. I do not believe in a sterile teaching environment. A teacher teaches best when she knows her students well, and directly meet her needs and deliver at her level.
For me, I keep learning from personal experiences, my meditations and my readings. I believe everyone should.
I hope to someday connect with you on our journey, where we can share and exchange in mind and creativity.
Love,
I love movement
I have been studying movement all my life.
From dance, martial arts to sports, I have observed movement from a range of aspects and attempted to recreate them, to understand how movers move - how the best dancers dance, how actors act, how atheles jump, how action is created and how movement flow.
As I study these people more, I began to understand that there is a state of being in which these people had created, a stage persona in their performances. It is beyond what is taught in most lessons, what you see in the apparent.
In my career as a dance teacher, I had taught this method to my students in rehearsing for their dances. The difference is between a mediocre or technical performance, and an emotionally impactful performance.
What kind of dancer am I?
When most people ask me, "When did I first started dancing?" I didn't know how to answer them. Like most people, I started dancing when I was little, I mean baby. Unlike most people, I continued dancing and believing in dance, through adulthood.
I revel in art - I sing, play music, draw, paint, occasionally build or sculpt things, and I aspire to act.
I started off mostly as a self-taught dancer, emulating my idols from music videos and concert recordings, and just moving to the beat to music. I start off with dancing Canto-pop like idols Leslie Cheung, Aaron Kwok, Jimmy Lin and Dicky Chueng, during the late 1980's to the early 1990's, a time that could be described as the peak of the genre. It was a time of elaborate costumes, grand concert stadiums, world class performances, and of course, superb dance performance and choreographies. The passion in the music and the moving beats sparked my interest in singing and dancing. Of course, the genre also occasionally offered its share of ballads and culturally influenced tunes, along with accompanying performances, sparking my interests in more traditional and lyrical dances.
In the late 1990's, I started paying more attention towards western pop culture. Dancing girl and boy bands - i.e. Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, N'Sync - became a scarce oasis of reference towards stylistic physical expression. And then Britney Spears, and there were no others like her.
At that time, we have no MTV and there was no Youtube. Even my VCR at home was spoilt and not replaced. What you see on TV is what you get. As much as I wanted to dance along, I couldn't reference well enough, so I had to pick up the dances as I go. Even if there were good references, they were not like today's K-pop where they have complete dance videos. I had make up my own steps in betweens.
But of course, I was too ashamed to let anyone know I love to dance. People make comments. You are a bad kid if you shake your body. You can't really dance if you don't go for classes, but there were no classes to go for. Children are expected to sit still.
So, I practiced in private, when my parents were not around, when no one was watching.
I wanted to do everything. I loved moving, I indulged in martial arts and gymnastics. And as you can imagine, I simply couldn't sit still.
Training hard
It started with a discovery of my enthusiasm towards chinese period dramas with kungfu/wire-fu. It served to tie me towards deeply exploring my cultural roots, which led to my interest in spirituality. The visuals that I see in these stories triggered a sense of stories untold so full in my heart, that I had to express it out in some form of mono-acting, and I started practicing martial arts for the parts I play. I was mesmerised by the visuals of female-wirefu, which resembles a dance more than fighting, hoping to someday float, glide and display such grace and power at the same time. This eventually covered more female heroine characters, that are technically tomboys of period dramas. I started dreaming of becoming an actress, and at that time, Michelle Yeoh emerged as an icon of my dreams.
Immediately, I wanted to sign up for wushu classes to get started on my basics. Unfortunately, things didn't quite happen for me. I ended up settling for taekwando classes which were offered in my school. I didn't like sparring, but instead I trained hard to make sure my kicks and my taegeuks look good and perfect, all the way up to my black belt in year 2000.
Later, when I entered university, I finally got the chance to approach wushu and taichi. It was a wonder that the techniques are so different, so much more complex even on the lower level, but it also means much more variety in movements. I get to practice movement patterns that I had always wanted to do, it was something that I wished I had started earlier on, for the basics in taekwando didn't prepare me for this. I managed to do a few performances with the team, one which included using sticks. Unfortunately, I did not stay long enough to learn weapons which I had wanted so much years ago. My body was getting tired of the brutal hardness of learning martial arts. It is not what I want to do. However, the years of training had further developed the tough body that already was.
Bending soft
During my early childhood, I was exposed to an international aerobics. I was mesmerised with the participant's flexibility and ability to perform acrobatics like cartwheels and walkovers.
Then during the 1992 Olympic games, I fell in love with rhythmic gymnastics. But it was not until the next Olympic in 1996 that I get to watch it again on TV. I loved the grace, flexibility and dexterity of gymnasts. I also learned to pick up on the flow of their movements, which sparked my interests in gentler forms of dance.
Unfortunately, there were no known gymnastic classes at that time, or would it have been a worthy investment as by then, it would've been too late for me to start (it is important to take advantage of early childhood to develop the extreme flexibility required). But I never gave up on the dream of performing, so I resorted to self-training at home.
I became obsessed with stretching. My amateurish attempts at self-training were somewhat successful - I managed to achieve over-splits, a good level of back bend, and walkovers - but it had also left me riddled with injuries. I developed a lower back pain, and hip joint pain. I also learned that lack of proper warm up could result in torn hamstrings.
The body in conflict
Other than the activities I mentioned above, I was also a competitor in the school's high jump events. I started in my upper primary school, but did not do it again until my upper secondary years. Again, I worked very hard to train myself to jump higher, but in spite of the lower-body strength I developed, my achievements were limited and inconsistent. I was frustrated and didn't know what to do. My knees were aching. I didn't know what I did wrong.
Over the years, I kept pushing through in spite of my injuries so that I can do the things I loved. I kept fighting with my body to make it do better splits, but it seemed to have come to a plateau, while my hip joint became riddled with pain. My body no longer wants to put out the brute strength I was forcing it to. I was abusing my body, pressing on my spine, trying to tear my joints apart, punishing it when it doesn't give me what I want. My performance dropped. My body felt so heavy. All these training must have failed, I thought. I must be getting old. I was 20.
By year 2003, more injuries, coupled by other lifestyle factors had left me with little motivation. I stopped practicing wushu.
Going easy
Aside from the occasional music video dancing, a stretch or two here and there, I was no longer doing any serious physical training in the years that ensues. I swim, go to the gym, played badminton and took up archery to keep myself happy in between struggling through university coursework. Any serious endeavour towards physical achievement seemed out of reach by now. I will settle with being a multimedia designer.
Starting Over
So when I began working for a few months, and life seemed miserable and meaningless.
I asked myself, what would I have to do, that if I don't, I would die? Dance.
If I don't start dancing, I would die.
So I started searching through the net for dance courses that rings a bell to me, and in a convenient location. I wasn't driving at the time, and relied heavily on the LRT system. I took some trial classes in a few separate location, and I still haven't found what I want, until I happened upon Rivergrass Dance Academy and attended classes by it's founder/director, Ms. Mew Chang Tsing.
A new philosophy
The first thing that is very different from anything I have learned before is the attitude towards the body and towards movement.
The first was, to love our body, to treat it with kindness and respect. To not force the body to do something when it is already hurting, because when guided, gently, it will still be able to do what we want it to, without the unnecessary pain.
Second, is to listen to the body. The body has intelligence and it has movement, movement that is different from what is in the mind. If we can let go of the controlling mind, to be quiet and observe, the body will speak its language and give us it's answer.
Learning these two principles are a continuous process, but by first understanding its concepts and applicability, it is the first steps in the right direction.
Creating dance
As the process of our learning is mostly improvisational, very soon, I am creating dance. Its was like a burst pipe, where all my desires and longings for dance expressions finally found an outlet. Very soon, I was performing on-stage with the group, with my favourite, Lady In Red - a piece which carries a passionate, tango-flamenco tone with the music Assasins Tango.
It then followed by more and more pieces, and greater involvement within the contemporary dance community as a whole, a course on dance composition which led to my first solo piece, The Tree of Life, and the rest was history.
Aside from the influences mentioned above, I also came from a national school system with a heavy Malay cultural influence. at a very young age, I was exposed to Malay classical and folk dances, but I was most taken by Gamelan, Ulek Mayang, Asyik and Inang, because of how ethereal the dancers look on stage, with elaborate costumes, and hypnotic music.
I didn't know how I pick up on the love of spanish-influences dance, but the passion and sensuality speaks to me.
Teaching dance
This burst pipe of creativity eventually flooded into my dance teaching in the international school, where I choreographed pieces for the school production which I directed, working with other dance and music teachers, and the high school students who were given the freedom to create their own - it basically unleashed my creative monster - a playground where pop, contemporary, and cultural performance items co-existed and weave itself into a story of growing up, learning and living in harmony.
The result was, the students get to learn something totally new, the school get to see something new, and expose itself to various forms of dance, and with my performing experience, I helped the students polish their performance quality to a whole new level.
Teaching dance became something that I had-to-do!
What was most satisfying, was not about the choreography process or the performances themselves. But the growth and connection that came during and as a result of the production was where it was most beautiful.
During classes and rehearsals, I have worked with students of various levels, most do not have dance training outside what the school was able to provide. They spent many years not having a teacher who was actually trained in dance, as had been creating dance for performances on their own. I worked to create dances that is suitable for different age groups, different talents and capabilities, and together, I brought them to a level of performance that is entertaining and emotionally satisfying for both participants and audience.
Beauty in a dance performance had to first come from performance quality and polish.
These had to be a result of meticulous training and even nit-picking. Movements were cleaned up.
Then, there is a very basic but impotant element of appearing larger on stage that performers need to be aware of. Movements have to be larger, more lengthened. Students need to expand themselves into a space slightly beyond themselves. This often challenge people in their comfort zones.
Also, there is the element of eye-contact. Eyes needs to be looking in the right places. It was very difficult for students to look up when dancing initially. Most adolescents and teenagers have self-esteem issues. Dancing on-stage and looking up at the audience was most terrifying and unthinkable of. Eyes wander as a result of a wandering mind too. So much training was centered on them being focused and present in the performance itself.
Last but not least, the importance of emotional interaction. Students need to know what their dance is saying, or what they actually wanted to say to the audience in their dance. They learned to accept it, to be honest about it, about themselves and what they wanted to express, or what I needed them to express in their dance.
I talked to these dozens and hundreds of performing students, some on a deeper level. I got to know them on a personal level to understand their unique challenges, and coached them to overcome their own obstacles, bodily, mentally and emotionally.
What's next?
I believed that the training had challenged them to a greater level, but I believed that more people, young and old can benefit from learning dance and training for performance, and overcoming personal obstacles, moving out of their comfort zones. It is my wish to reach out to more people on the same, deep, soulful level, without the constraints of academic curricula which I had to juggle with in school. I wish to create for, and to spread the knowledge of using the body, and healing its injuries.
The healing process
Over the years, I began studying more about the body as I continue studying alot of personal-developement materials. I wanted to heal, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.
When I stumbled upon the works of Tony Robbins and understood how much body language affects a person. I saw a video and was very surprised he spoke to one of his workshop participants, and immediately see shifts in their body when their mindset changes. I began observing body language more deeply, and employed questioning techniques to heal my body and let my body work in a more harmonious way.
Many of these techniques were helpful when I was working with my students. I was very enthusiastic about the results that I got and I am determined to practice further and broaden my reach.
Who am I?
I see myself as a life-long learner and teacher. I love to coach people, to help bring out the best in them, in what they do, whatever it is they want to do, to connect with who they are, and find that creative side of them.
As a teacher, I believe that no one is too bad to learn, and no one is too good not to learn.
It is a matter of desire - do we wish to do it or not?
The jewel is inside everyone of us. You just have to draw it out of each person.
It gets personal
I employ techniques from life coaching and strategic intervention, understanding body language from dance and improvisation, energy chakras and self-healing in my teaching. I do not believe in a sterile teaching environment. A teacher teaches best when she knows her students well, and directly meet her needs and deliver at her level.
For me, I keep learning from personal experiences, my meditations and my readings. I believe everyone should.
I hope to someday connect with you on our journey, where we can share and exchange in mind and creativity.
Love,
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Are You Really Ready For Weight Loss?
"We do what we must." - Tony Robbins
We feel, and we become.
But if you are overweight, chances are, there is one part deep-deep inside of you, that wanted to be that way.
Body shock
Any drastic changes to our body can be a shock to our mind - whether it is sudden weight loss, loss of a limb, loss of hair - because our mind is conditioned to being in a certain way and the human mind doesn't generally respond well to changes. Whenever it senses change, it will try to revert back into its old pattern, patterns that feels more familiar and comforting.
Sudden changes to our bodies or environments can have drastic effects on our mental health, resulting in panic/anxiety. Extreme cases of body shock may lead to death - it is also the reason why liposuction has to be done in stages.
In response to more gradual changes, the mind will simply respond like a coiled spring and bounces itself back into its old habits - yo yo diets.
So now do you understand why people so often eat themselves back into their old weights after a liposuction, and yo yo themselves even heavier than before their diets?
You are not ready to lose weight.
Your mind and body have been so used to the current weight, that the weight loss suddenly feels uncomfortable. The mind goes into a panic, and sets off the alarm button so that you start eating and eating again.
You are not supposed to be of less weight than you are now!
So what do you do?
Accepting the new body
So, before you embark on your next diet/weight loss program, consider preparing your mind into accepting its new body.
As Rhonda Byrne mention in The Power book, Imagine it, feel it, receive it...
It's all a feeling
So you have in mind the kind of body you want. But "seeing" it in imagination still keeps you at a distance.
Can you feel it in your body? Can you imagine how your body would feel when it is different? When it is more toned, slimmer, sexier?
How would you feel, having a body like that? Do you like it? Are you comfortable with it? Are you used to it?
Imagine, what would a person in that body do in a day? What would be his/her habits? How would you move, talk and walk? How would you eat? What would you be eating instead?
If by now, you feel comfortably fit in and totally awesome in your new imagined body, then great! You may be on your path to weight loss already.
Some people are successful in their weight loss programs because they had unknowingly conditioned their mind into accepting their new body before and during the course of their weight loss. As a result, their body does not bounce back into it's old form when they have achieved weight loss.
However, if you find that the slimmer, sexier body doesn't feel quite right, that lifestyle isn't so comfortable, then there is a part of you that is not ready to lose weight.
Why don't I want to be slim?
Maybe, it's that subconscious thing.
There has to be a reason why you ended up with this weight - an emotional reason, a payoff. You might scream, "Why in the world would anyone wants to be fat?" But these reasons go beyond the common, rational desire of wanting to look and feel good. It goes wayy deeper than that - believes and emotional attachments that make up your subconscious programming, which manifest itselves into the everyday habits that drives you.
It could be a limiting believe that you have held:
Whatever your reason, your subconscious programming may appear quite illogical. Afterall, it is your emotion that drives it, not your logic. How often do you find yourself knowing what you should do, and not doing it? How often do you find yourself reasoning yourself into doing something and ended up not doing it? Because we are driven by emotions. We are emotional creatures and logic often means nothing to us.
Trying to reason ourselves into losing weight is pointless. Using willpower to wrestle your way through your subconscious programming will prove futile.
Self-honesty, self-acceptance
You may or may not be consciously aware of these programming that drives your habits, and your awareness of them is dependent on the level of self-honesty you practice within yourself.
You may learn to discover the reasons by first talking to yourself and asking yourself this question "Why do I really want/need to be overweight?"
You may speak it out loud, but it is easier to write them down own paper. Scribble all the possible answers on a piece of paper/notebook. Keep going when you feel like you are running out of answers. Keep going until you feel that you have reached a point of total honesty with yourself - you may get emotional, you may cry, you may feel scared, you may revive a past hurt or anger.
Whatever it is, get honest. The more honest you are with yourself, the faster you will discover the true reasons for your undoing.
The key is to be entirely open, self-accepting, loving and forgiving. No matter what answer emerged onto your piece of paper, remember to not be judgemental of yourself, not to feel anger or hold grudge towards anyone or yourself. You are only human, and you deserve to be loved no matter what you do/say/think/feel.
Sometimes, the reasons that drives us or motivates us might be a selfish one, immoral, illogical, or downright ridiculous! We didn't know that we are still holding in something from so long ago. But the truth remains that, that is our true and honest self speaking. If we are honest with ourselves, we will always know the reason of why we do what we do. And when you do, release it!
The release
In EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), people tap meridian points and repeat statements to release limiting believes and emotions.
Events in our lives which triggered strong emotions locks in thoughts and decisions made in that instant, that continue to form parts of your subconscious programming. Your decisions may change over months, years or decades, but some of these emotional baggage is so heavy, they continue to linger on long after you had changed your mind on the subject matter.
E.g. - Let's say your boyfriend dumped your for a girl who is rounder than you. At that moment, you decided that "I am going to make myself fatter to look more like her, so that he would love me again."
That would have been an emotional point in your life. Soon, you might start gaining some weight. Maybe you got him back. Maybe you didn't. But you may have moved on. You forgot about the "decision". You are happy with your life now, and wanted to lose weight again and feel like before.
But you don't want to feel like you did before. It would bring you back to the time when you felt so bad about yourself! Why would you want to go back to that?
Accept, forgive, love
Remain calm, loving and accepting of yourself while you ask yourself these questions.
If you want to release your emotional bondage, you must accept that you felt that way, accept what happened to you as the past, that you have moved on. Forgive what happened. Forgive what had been done to you. Forgive the people who had wronged you. They were only human anyway. Forgive yourself for letting that happen to you.
Love. Practice universal love. Love all, love yourself, love people no matter what they do. Love them for who they are.
Accept, forgive and love, it is the most healing thing you can do for yourself and others.
If you are able to accept, forgive and love completely, you will be able to move on. And I urge you, if you are to partake in this process, to complete it up to total release, for otherwise, it would only serve to bring up past unhappiness that you are not able to move away from.
Do not stay in an unhappy place, it is not healthy for you and it will only disempower you.
If you are prepared to keep going and then move on, then good for you. Good luck in trying it. Release your past anger, silly mistakes and brash decisions.
Let go of past baggage and move on.
As you can imagine, this process is not just for weight loss. It applies to anything you want to change in your life.
If you have been working on changing something in your life for a long time and it is not working, you feel extremely stuck, you may try releasing with love.
A new conditioning
While accessing and accepting limiting thoughts and believes releases them from your conditioning, new habits will appear and replace the old ones. If we do not consciously replace habits and feelings we want into our everyday lives, things that we don't want will automatically appear.
As Tony Robbins said, if you don't want weeds in your garden, plant the things you want. Otherwise, you would be forever pulling out weeds.
Weeding is important, but what do you really want to plant?
Start to inculcate that positive image of yourself daily. Integrate positive habits into your life. Imagine, see, feel and live the life you truly want - one that keeps you happy, vital and fulfilled.
See yourself living anew, starting your day fresh and alert. Partake in positive affirmations, visualisations and meditations. 21 days to perfect health
Feel yourself choosing healthy food choices. Go fresh, go vege, go organic, and taste the difference in the life and vibrance your food offers you!
Develop hobbies in physical activities that inspires you to move and get active. Exercise doesn't have to mean going to the gym! Whatever gets you moving, whatever makes you sweat. Play a game, walk the dog, hike up the nearby hill. Play! Enjoy your life, enjoy your body!
Connect with like-minded people, people who wants to live well, healthy, and positive.
Get your loved ones involved in your activities and goals.
Lastly, get up your heavy butt, feel mobile, feel youthful, feel light, and move like you mean it!
Important reminder: The information presented in this article or anywhere on this website are intended for educational use only and are not substitutes for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment of a medical or psychiatric illness. If you have or suspect you may have a health problem, please consult with your health care provider.
We feel, and we become.
But if you are overweight, chances are, there is one part deep-deep inside of you, that wanted to be that way.
Body shock
Any drastic changes to our body can be a shock to our mind - whether it is sudden weight loss, loss of a limb, loss of hair - because our mind is conditioned to being in a certain way and the human mind doesn't generally respond well to changes. Whenever it senses change, it will try to revert back into its old pattern, patterns that feels more familiar and comforting.
Sudden changes to our bodies or environments can have drastic effects on our mental health, resulting in panic/anxiety. Extreme cases of body shock may lead to death - it is also the reason why liposuction has to be done in stages.
In response to more gradual changes, the mind will simply respond like a coiled spring and bounces itself back into its old habits - yo yo diets.
So now do you understand why people so often eat themselves back into their old weights after a liposuction, and yo yo themselves even heavier than before their diets?
You are not ready to lose weight.
Your mind and body have been so used to the current weight, that the weight loss suddenly feels uncomfortable. The mind goes into a panic, and sets off the alarm button so that you start eating and eating again.
You are not supposed to be of less weight than you are now!
So what do you do?
Accepting the new body
So, before you embark on your next diet/weight loss program, consider preparing your mind into accepting its new body.
As Rhonda Byrne mention in The Power book, Imagine it, feel it, receive it...
It's all a feeling
So you have in mind the kind of body you want. But "seeing" it in imagination still keeps you at a distance.
Can you feel it in your body? Can you imagine how your body would feel when it is different? When it is more toned, slimmer, sexier?
How would you feel, having a body like that? Do you like it? Are you comfortable with it? Are you used to it?
Imagine, what would a person in that body do in a day? What would be his/her habits? How would you move, talk and walk? How would you eat? What would you be eating instead?
If by now, you feel comfortably fit in and totally awesome in your new imagined body, then great! You may be on your path to weight loss already.
Some people are successful in their weight loss programs because they had unknowingly conditioned their mind into accepting their new body before and during the course of their weight loss. As a result, their body does not bounce back into it's old form when they have achieved weight loss.
However, if you find that the slimmer, sexier body doesn't feel quite right, that lifestyle isn't so comfortable, then there is a part of you that is not ready to lose weight.
Why don't I want to be slim?
Maybe, it's that subconscious thing.
There has to be a reason why you ended up with this weight - an emotional reason, a payoff. You might scream, "Why in the world would anyone wants to be fat?" But these reasons go beyond the common, rational desire of wanting to look and feel good. It goes wayy deeper than that - believes and emotional attachments that make up your subconscious programming, which manifest itselves into the everyday habits that drives you.
It could be a limiting believe that you have held:
- I hate slim people, they must be sickly/anorexic.
- It must be difficult and painful to be slim.
- It is socially unacceptable/wasteful of my money to order smaller portions.
- I must eat at every meal time, 6 times a day, even if I am not hungry.
- Committing to an exercise regime is laughable/limiting to my social life.
- You were loved because you are round and chubby. You will not be loved anymore once you slim down.
- I don't have time to care about my weight/health.
- You want to avoid being too attractive, because you had received unwanted attention when you were once more attractive.
- You feel very vulnerable against the world and needed the emotional "cushion" the extra body weight provides.
- You like the feeling of fullness over-eating is able to provide you, either in the sense of relaxation from the deep breath or blood rush to your belly, or to prevent the sense of vulnerability from the "emptiness." (yes, because a "normal sized" person experiences periods of empty stomach, in between meals, and it is normal to feel a hungry a few times a day, before meals)
Whatever your reason, your subconscious programming may appear quite illogical. Afterall, it is your emotion that drives it, not your logic. How often do you find yourself knowing what you should do, and not doing it? How often do you find yourself reasoning yourself into doing something and ended up not doing it? Because we are driven by emotions. We are emotional creatures and logic often means nothing to us.
Trying to reason ourselves into losing weight is pointless. Using willpower to wrestle your way through your subconscious programming will prove futile.
Self-honesty, self-acceptance
You may or may not be consciously aware of these programming that drives your habits, and your awareness of them is dependent on the level of self-honesty you practice within yourself.
You may learn to discover the reasons by first talking to yourself and asking yourself this question "Why do I really want/need to be overweight?"
You may speak it out loud, but it is easier to write them down own paper. Scribble all the possible answers on a piece of paper/notebook. Keep going when you feel like you are running out of answers. Keep going until you feel that you have reached a point of total honesty with yourself - you may get emotional, you may cry, you may feel scared, you may revive a past hurt or anger.
Whatever it is, get honest. The more honest you are with yourself, the faster you will discover the true reasons for your undoing.
The key is to be entirely open, self-accepting, loving and forgiving. No matter what answer emerged onto your piece of paper, remember to not be judgemental of yourself, not to feel anger or hold grudge towards anyone or yourself. You are only human, and you deserve to be loved no matter what you do/say/think/feel.
Sometimes, the reasons that drives us or motivates us might be a selfish one, immoral, illogical, or downright ridiculous! We didn't know that we are still holding in something from so long ago. But the truth remains that, that is our true and honest self speaking. If we are honest with ourselves, we will always know the reason of why we do what we do. And when you do, release it!
The release
In EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), people tap meridian points and repeat statements to release limiting believes and emotions.
Events in our lives which triggered strong emotions locks in thoughts and decisions made in that instant, that continue to form parts of your subconscious programming. Your decisions may change over months, years or decades, but some of these emotional baggage is so heavy, they continue to linger on long after you had changed your mind on the subject matter.
E.g. - Let's say your boyfriend dumped your for a girl who is rounder than you. At that moment, you decided that "I am going to make myself fatter to look more like her, so that he would love me again."
That would have been an emotional point in your life. Soon, you might start gaining some weight. Maybe you got him back. Maybe you didn't. But you may have moved on. You forgot about the "decision". You are happy with your life now, and wanted to lose weight again and feel like before.
But you don't want to feel like you did before. It would bring you back to the time when you felt so bad about yourself! Why would you want to go back to that?
Accept, forgive, love
Remain calm, loving and accepting of yourself while you ask yourself these questions.
If you want to release your emotional bondage, you must accept that you felt that way, accept what happened to you as the past, that you have moved on. Forgive what happened. Forgive what had been done to you. Forgive the people who had wronged you. They were only human anyway. Forgive yourself for letting that happen to you.
Love. Practice universal love. Love all, love yourself, love people no matter what they do. Love them for who they are.
Accept, forgive and love, it is the most healing thing you can do for yourself and others.
If you are able to accept, forgive and love completely, you will be able to move on. And I urge you, if you are to partake in this process, to complete it up to total release, for otherwise, it would only serve to bring up past unhappiness that you are not able to move away from.
Do not stay in an unhappy place, it is not healthy for you and it will only disempower you.
If you are prepared to keep going and then move on, then good for you. Good luck in trying it. Release your past anger, silly mistakes and brash decisions.
Let go of past baggage and move on.
As you can imagine, this process is not just for weight loss. It applies to anything you want to change in your life.
If you have been working on changing something in your life for a long time and it is not working, you feel extremely stuck, you may try releasing with love.
A new conditioning
While accessing and accepting limiting thoughts and believes releases them from your conditioning, new habits will appear and replace the old ones. If we do not consciously replace habits and feelings we want into our everyday lives, things that we don't want will automatically appear.
As Tony Robbins said, if you don't want weeds in your garden, plant the things you want. Otherwise, you would be forever pulling out weeds.
Weeding is important, but what do you really want to plant?
Start to inculcate that positive image of yourself daily. Integrate positive habits into your life. Imagine, see, feel and live the life you truly want - one that keeps you happy, vital and fulfilled.
See yourself living anew, starting your day fresh and alert. Partake in positive affirmations, visualisations and meditations. 21 days to perfect health
Feel yourself choosing healthy food choices. Go fresh, go vege, go organic, and taste the difference in the life and vibrance your food offers you!
Develop hobbies in physical activities that inspires you to move and get active. Exercise doesn't have to mean going to the gym! Whatever gets you moving, whatever makes you sweat. Play a game, walk the dog, hike up the nearby hill. Play! Enjoy your life, enjoy your body!
Connect with like-minded people, people who wants to live well, healthy, and positive.
Get your loved ones involved in your activities and goals.
Lastly, get up your heavy butt, feel mobile, feel youthful, feel light, and move like you mean it!
Important reminder: The information presented in this article or anywhere on this website are intended for educational use only and are not substitutes for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment of a medical or psychiatric illness. If you have or suspect you may have a health problem, please consult with your health care provider.
Monday, March 4, 2013
You Want Change
You certainly want change.
If you're not living a GREAT life, if you're not actively contributing to society, if you're not doing meaningful work, if you're not having an abundance of material wealth, if you're not experiencing spiritual peace and alignment, if you're not healthy and fit, if you don't feel loved and have so much love for what you do and the people around you, if your environment is not wholesomely beautiful, you will WANT change.
But not many people make it to change. Everyone knows what they want to do, should have done, should be doing, the right thing to do, but so few actually stepped it up and do it anyway - giving a multitude of excuses to yourself. You know what they are.
Lets get honest. You also know how to change it. You're just not willing to take the effort.
So few are willing to accept who their true self is. So few are willing to answer that call, to do what is right to do, that voice that keeps calling behind their ears, in their hearts, in our hearts.
We know what to do. Yet we don't do it. Excuses. Why?
Because it is easy to deny. Because change takes effort. Doing the right thing takes effort. It is too much trouble. It was well worth it, but we are too lazy anyway.
Let's face it, we are all guilty of it.
Try it: Let's just listen to it for once. Let's just get up and do the right thing for once. See what happens. And then another, and then another. It will certainly lead to a very different place.
I'm sure.
If you're not living a GREAT life, if you're not actively contributing to society, if you're not doing meaningful work, if you're not having an abundance of material wealth, if you're not experiencing spiritual peace and alignment, if you're not healthy and fit, if you don't feel loved and have so much love for what you do and the people around you, if your environment is not wholesomely beautiful, you will WANT change.
But not many people make it to change. Everyone knows what they want to do, should have done, should be doing, the right thing to do, but so few actually stepped it up and do it anyway - giving a multitude of excuses to yourself. You know what they are.
Lets get honest. You also know how to change it. You're just not willing to take the effort.
So few are willing to accept who their true self is. So few are willing to answer that call, to do what is right to do, that voice that keeps calling behind their ears, in their hearts, in our hearts.
We know what to do. Yet we don't do it. Excuses. Why?
Because it is easy to deny. Because change takes effort. Doing the right thing takes effort. It is too much trouble. It was well worth it, but we are too lazy anyway.
Let's face it, we are all guilty of it.
Try it: Let's just listen to it for once. Let's just get up and do the right thing for once. See what happens. And then another, and then another. It will certainly lead to a very different place.
I'm sure.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Why you can dance, and why you cannot dance
Sometimes you see people dance effortlessly, carelessly
Children, drunk people and old people can dance. Sometimes, in-love people. And people who think (know) they are good.
Why? Because they don't care what people think about them, what people say about them, who will laugh at them. They just do it, for the sake of doing it. They feel it in their body, and they answer that call to move! It's very simple.
How do you dance? You just move! Listen to the music, feel it in your body, follow the beat/flow.
All babies and little children can dance. Most just lost that ability as they grow older.
Same applies to drawing/painting, making music and other artsy stuff.
Why you cannot dance?
Because at some point in your life, someone tells you that you can't, or make you think that way, or you grew up got too self conscious about your self and your body to just let it move, and when you needed to be cool, and letting your body to just move wasn't cool.
Because at some point, people start to make you think that dancing has to be in a certain way, a certain steps, a certain style, attend a certain class, follow a certain teacher, be in a certain group, using a certain kind of music, confining you to these so-called standards, instead of allowing your personal style to be expressed.
Because, you haven't moved listening to a music since you were 3 years old, because people ask you to sit down and be quiet, or just follow what they do. Any skill unpolished is not surprisingly rusty. If the last time you actually tried to dance was during your kindergarten concert, don't be surprised if you still dance like a 5 year old. You're not untalented. You just didn't.
Children, drunk people and old people can dance. Sometimes, in-love people. And people who think (know) they are good.
Why? Because they don't care what people think about them, what people say about them, who will laugh at them. They just do it, for the sake of doing it. They feel it in their body, and they answer that call to move! It's very simple.
How do you dance? You just move! Listen to the music, feel it in your body, follow the beat/flow.
All babies and little children can dance. Most just lost that ability as they grow older.
Same applies to drawing/painting, making music and other artsy stuff.
Why you cannot dance?
Because at some point in your life, someone tells you that you can't, or make you think that way, or you grew up got too self conscious about your self and your body to just let it move, and when you needed to be cool, and letting your body to just move wasn't cool.
Because at some point, people start to make you think that dancing has to be in a certain way, a certain steps, a certain style, attend a certain class, follow a certain teacher, be in a certain group, using a certain kind of music, confining you to these so-called standards, instead of allowing your personal style to be expressed.
Because, you haven't moved listening to a music since you were 3 years old, because people ask you to sit down and be quiet, or just follow what they do. Any skill unpolished is not surprisingly rusty. If the last time you actually tried to dance was during your kindergarten concert, don't be surprised if you still dance like a 5 year old. You're not untalented. You just didn't.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Life Lessons from Dance Improvisation
Stop thinking and let your body do the dancing
Authentic improvisation comes from the body, not the mind. You do not think about what move you are gonna do. You just get your mind out of the way and let your body move. Set steps, techniques and movement sequences are not necessarily you. They may not be true to the moment, or your mood, or the music you are dancing to. They may not even be true to how your body should move! To find true movement, sometimes you may have to unlearn what you practiced, and let the movement from your body flow through...
You may have been taught about what you should do or how you should be, but that may not be necessarily true to you. Sometimes, you may have to let go of conscious thought and let your heart go. Then can you live true to yourself.
Be conscious of the body and space in the current moment
One movement may lead to a shape. From the shape, a new movement awaits.
If you find yourself following up with the same kind of movement every time, perhaps you have "automated" your dancing. You are dancing by memory, you are not really improvising at the moment. Choose to be conscious about your body, and discover other potentials of movements following the previous movement, and you may discover something totally new!
The process is a partnership of the body and mind - body exploration, mental consciousness. A good balance produce wonderful results.
Just as many processes and risk-taking require both instinct, strategy and self-awareness. A combination of both gives the best results.
Go the distance
Being conscious of the moment also mean going the distance with each move, maximizing the extends of each shape or movement, be it an extension, a contraction, a release, or a fall. Then only can you truly enjoying the dancing, in addition to appearing more dynamic and interesting.
If you haven't gone the distance in the endeavours you undertake, you probably haven't truly discovered your true potential in it, and learn to truly enjoy it. People say, do it well before you give it up.
Don't take yourself so seriously
Let go and have fun! Jump like a kid in a puddle. Skip around, sway, fall, act and be playful! There are no rules when it comes to improvisation. You can do just about anything. Only thing is, you need to take risks and let yourself go. Try movements you've never done before. Do things you would never think of as a dance. No one can tell you what you can't do. Most importantly, people will notice it if you're enjoying yourself, and they would have so much fun watching you too!
People love to see people who make them happy. Afterall, who can tell you how to live your life?
I would love to hear about the principles from other disciplines as well. Do you have any?
Authentic improvisation comes from the body, not the mind. You do not think about what move you are gonna do. You just get your mind out of the way and let your body move. Set steps, techniques and movement sequences are not necessarily you. They may not be true to the moment, or your mood, or the music you are dancing to. They may not even be true to how your body should move! To find true movement, sometimes you may have to unlearn what you practiced, and let the movement from your body flow through...
You may have been taught about what you should do or how you should be, but that may not be necessarily true to you. Sometimes, you may have to let go of conscious thought and let your heart go. Then can you live true to yourself.
Be conscious of the body and space in the current moment
One movement may lead to a shape. From the shape, a new movement awaits.
If you find yourself following up with the same kind of movement every time, perhaps you have "automated" your dancing. You are dancing by memory, you are not really improvising at the moment. Choose to be conscious about your body, and discover other potentials of movements following the previous movement, and you may discover something totally new!
The process is a partnership of the body and mind - body exploration, mental consciousness. A good balance produce wonderful results.
Just as many processes and risk-taking require both instinct, strategy and self-awareness. A combination of both gives the best results.
Go the distance
Being conscious of the moment also mean going the distance with each move, maximizing the extends of each shape or movement, be it an extension, a contraction, a release, or a fall. Then only can you truly enjoying the dancing, in addition to appearing more dynamic and interesting.
If you haven't gone the distance in the endeavours you undertake, you probably haven't truly discovered your true potential in it, and learn to truly enjoy it. People say, do it well before you give it up.
Don't take yourself so seriously
Let go and have fun! Jump like a kid in a puddle. Skip around, sway, fall, act and be playful! There are no rules when it comes to improvisation. You can do just about anything. Only thing is, you need to take risks and let yourself go. Try movements you've never done before. Do things you would never think of as a dance. No one can tell you what you can't do. Most importantly, people will notice it if you're enjoying yourself, and they would have so much fun watching you too!
People love to see people who make them happy. Afterall, who can tell you how to live your life?
I would love to hear about the principles from other disciplines as well. Do you have any?
The Edge of Competency
Many times, I am given a task to do something, I hesitate. I hesitate to start and I hesitate to finish. Some people call it procrastination. Some people call it lazy. I call myself both. Add it bits of perfectionism, and it's very close friend - feeling not-good-enough.
A Chronic Case of Feeling Not-Good-Enough
Looking back, I find myself being very attached to this feeling not-good-enough. It is as though I'm really that bad at doing anything, that I didn't want to do it at all. Or if I started, I am too ashamed to submit it or post it up anywhere.
I tried a few methods to work myself out of it. This blog being one of it.
Finding reasons to be not good
So I had this habit of constantly finding people and things that are leagues above me, and comparing myself with them. I know that the feeling is partly rational. Looking around me, I certainly know who I am better compared with, but my mind and emotions are fairly focused on the people who are better than me.
I initially started off with people who are just a bit better than me, but I gradually worked up to those of world class standards.
While technically, it is good to aim high and to develop some constructive criticism of ourselves, you know what people say about aiming too high.
Not only that, I also find myself constantly searching for something new to do, some new skill set to develop, and something that I am not good at.
Not that it's bad to challenge yourself with learning a new skill or pushing your standards, but I came to find that it's really not helpful to do everything at the edge of my competency. In fact, this edge has become some sort of a comfort zone, which acts as an excuse for me to not do anything substantial, to push further up on expertise in one skill set, but rather meddle with many.
*Ironically, my writing of this former paragraph still lies within the same pattern of judging myself towards incompetency.
Focusing on strengths
Positive psychologists found that managers who focused on their employee's strengths are able to significantly increase employee productivity. People who have a good understanding of themselves and constantly work on developing their talents were able to achieve more success compared to those who are more focused on improving their weaknesses.
Not only is working on something that you are already talented at improves productivity, it also opens up the avenue for you to push it to a higher level of competency (metaphor: climbing the hill of competency), as opposed to staying mediocre, and needless to say, it is also much more helpful for your self-esteem, passion and desire to do more!
*Which leads me to some new questions:
- Which "hill of competency" should I climb?
- Should I be an expert "meddler"?
I am a hill
So, to ask "Which hill of competency should I climb" already made an assumption that "I am incompetent."
A more positive approach would be:
I am a hill, I become more of myself.
But to "become more of myself" implies that I am not "myself enough".
I become myself
To have to "become" myself implies that I am not myself.
I am myself.
I am who I am.
....It's who I really am...
A Chronic Case of Feeling Not-Good-Enough
Looking back, I find myself being very attached to this feeling not-good-enough. It is as though I'm really that bad at doing anything, that I didn't want to do it at all. Or if I started, I am too ashamed to submit it or post it up anywhere.
I tried a few methods to work myself out of it. This blog being one of it.
Finding reasons to be not good
So I had this habit of constantly finding people and things that are leagues above me, and comparing myself with them. I know that the feeling is partly rational. Looking around me, I certainly know who I am better compared with, but my mind and emotions are fairly focused on the people who are better than me.
I initially started off with people who are just a bit better than me, but I gradually worked up to those of world class standards.
While technically, it is good to aim high and to develop some constructive criticism of ourselves, you know what people say about aiming too high.
Not only that, I also find myself constantly searching for something new to do, some new skill set to develop, and something that I am not good at.
Not that it's bad to challenge yourself with learning a new skill or pushing your standards, but I came to find that it's really not helpful to do everything at the edge of my competency. In fact, this edge has become some sort of a comfort zone, which acts as an excuse for me to not do anything substantial, to push further up on expertise in one skill set, but rather meddle with many.
*Ironically, my writing of this former paragraph still lies within the same pattern of judging myself towards incompetency.
Focusing on strengths
Positive psychologists found that managers who focused on their employee's strengths are able to significantly increase employee productivity. People who have a good understanding of themselves and constantly work on developing their talents were able to achieve more success compared to those who are more focused on improving their weaknesses.
Not only is working on something that you are already talented at improves productivity, it also opens up the avenue for you to push it to a higher level of competency (metaphor: climbing the hill of competency), as opposed to staying mediocre, and needless to say, it is also much more helpful for your self-esteem, passion and desire to do more!
*Which leads me to some new questions:
- Which "hill of competency" should I climb?
- Should I be an expert "meddler"?
I am a hill
So, to ask "Which hill of competency should I climb" already made an assumption that "I am incompetent."
A more positive approach would be:
I am a hill, I become more of myself.
But to "become more of myself" implies that I am not "myself enough".
I become myself
To have to "become" myself implies that I am not myself.
I am myself.
I am who I am.
....It's who I really am...
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
What Education
So the question about education is a hot topic now, brewing somewhere just below the surface of other concerns like the economy and the environment. But in fact, it is the foundation in which all these factors were laid.
If the world is wrong today, so what happened in education for the last 10, 2- to 40 years that made it wrong? Is it getting increasingly wrong? Will the nest 10, 20, 30 years be even worse than where we already are? What about some of the mini revolutions that were so strongly advocated as the new order thinking, providing a great leadership future for the next generation, holistic education and all.
But what's the hit? And what's the miss?
Why is traditional schooling and exams irrelevant?
Lets be honest. How many of us did not agree that 90% of what we studied in school is no longer used in the working world, except for that rare group of people who actually went back to school and teach the exact same things to kids as a job?
Some of those 10% were expanded upon in college, and depending on what course you major in and what job you end up taking, many more were thrown away.
Simple fact that everybody knows.
So school subjects are useless?
Well, I'm not saying that we shouldn't learn about our bodies and how the heart pumps blood through our blood streams that runs through our bodies or how rain cloud is formed and why there is rainbows.
In fact, I'm all for science and knowledge gathering, if just to understand our world a bit more - which certainly helps for us to function a little better. Takes some of the fairy tales and guessing games away as we grow up, didn't it?
And who can deny the importance of literacy? If we are to gather more knowledge through reading, surely the mastery of its language is of foremost importance.
Well, of course we use math on a day-to-day basis. You count your money, you count your time. You count your people, you count your percentages, your probabilities... and that's probably as much as the average usage of maths on a day-to-day life. And that's math up to... lower secondary school.
So what are we missing out on?
Most of us who went through formal education would emerge through life to find ourselves barely prepared for certain things in life, things that we didn't know we didn't know, until we are face to face with situations which slams on our face, making us begin to question things like:
A human or a photocopier?
How students are assessed and evaluated determines the outcome of an education. Whatever the desired outcome is, the students and teachers will work towards.
In the traditional sense, parents, teachers and the students themselves want more As. And in most education systems, having more As mean memorising tons of factual information, calculation formulas and rediculously, entire sentences of fact, word for word. Some even go to the extend of memorising entire essays, so that they could score a language subject!
Technically, what the exam system asks of is for a student to be a photocopier! That students spend most of their time memorising and using various techniques to remember whole text books.
Then why do we need a human brain when there is a text book?
The human brain is made to think. It is made to be capable of exceptional cognitive abilities; gathering multitude amounts of data that we don't even realise we are gathering, processing these information into personalised meaning, weighing its pros and cons and delivering its results to you, all in a split second...
Like why you would smile and make friends with this other person, why you would tell them your deepest darkest secrets, why a baby would keep crying until he is delivered to his mother.
Why you just have that gut feeling that this sales man is lying to you, or when you should switch lanes on the road.
Things like how to write a new story, how to create a new device, who to marry, how to solve the current economic crisis, how to save the world...are questions that have no answer in the textbook.
So why all the emphasis on what's on the textbook?
OK, I guess I have spoken enough and I will not prescribe what's best for the next generation/your child here.
But I do invite all of you to stop, think and reconsider, why we study what we study, or why the next generation should continue what we have done.
Feel free to share.
If the world is wrong today, so what happened in education for the last 10, 2- to 40 years that made it wrong? Is it getting increasingly wrong? Will the nest 10, 20, 30 years be even worse than where we already are? What about some of the mini revolutions that were so strongly advocated as the new order thinking, providing a great leadership future for the next generation, holistic education and all.
But what's the hit? And what's the miss?
Why is traditional schooling and exams irrelevant?
Lets be honest. How many of us did not agree that 90% of what we studied in school is no longer used in the working world, except for that rare group of people who actually went back to school and teach the exact same things to kids as a job?
Some of those 10% were expanded upon in college, and depending on what course you major in and what job you end up taking, many more were thrown away.
Simple fact that everybody knows.
So school subjects are useless?
Well, I'm not saying that we shouldn't learn about our bodies and how the heart pumps blood through our blood streams that runs through our bodies or how rain cloud is formed and why there is rainbows.
In fact, I'm all for science and knowledge gathering, if just to understand our world a bit more - which certainly helps for us to function a little better. Takes some of the fairy tales and guessing games away as we grow up, didn't it?
And who can deny the importance of literacy? If we are to gather more knowledge through reading, surely the mastery of its language is of foremost importance.
Well, of course we use math on a day-to-day basis. You count your money, you count your time. You count your people, you count your percentages, your probabilities... and that's probably as much as the average usage of maths on a day-to-day life. And that's math up to... lower secondary school.
So what are we missing out on?
Most of us who went through formal education would emerge through life to find ourselves barely prepared for certain things in life, things that we didn't know we didn't know, until we are face to face with situations which slams on our face, making us begin to question things like:
- Life and death, the spirit and the meaning of our existence
- Relationships and social skills
- Psychology, mental-emotional health
- Happiness and satisfaction in life
- Health care and medicine
- Management and leadership
- How money works, economy and finances
- How to survive in the modern world
- How to survive if you're thrown into the jungle
- How to survive a disaster/accident/outbreak
- Questioning, reasoning, critical thinking
- Curiosity and investigation
- Fun, play and humour
- Sex, marriage, childbirth, child-rearing
- Personality building
- Human rights, criminality and justice
- Love, conscience and compassion
- What we really want
- How to care for wildlife and the environment
- How to care for other people
- Culture, history, human nature and it's implications
A human or a photocopier?
How students are assessed and evaluated determines the outcome of an education. Whatever the desired outcome is, the students and teachers will work towards.
In the traditional sense, parents, teachers and the students themselves want more As. And in most education systems, having more As mean memorising tons of factual information, calculation formulas and rediculously, entire sentences of fact, word for word. Some even go to the extend of memorising entire essays, so that they could score a language subject!
Technically, what the exam system asks of is for a student to be a photocopier! That students spend most of their time memorising and using various techniques to remember whole text books.
Then why do we need a human brain when there is a text book?
The human brain is made to think. It is made to be capable of exceptional cognitive abilities; gathering multitude amounts of data that we don't even realise we are gathering, processing these information into personalised meaning, weighing its pros and cons and delivering its results to you, all in a split second...
Like why you would smile and make friends with this other person, why you would tell them your deepest darkest secrets, why a baby would keep crying until he is delivered to his mother.
Why you just have that gut feeling that this sales man is lying to you, or when you should switch lanes on the road.
Things like how to write a new story, how to create a new device, who to marry, how to solve the current economic crisis, how to save the world...are questions that have no answer in the textbook.
So why all the emphasis on what's on the textbook?
OK, I guess I have spoken enough and I will not prescribe what's best for the next generation/your child here.
But I do invite all of you to stop, think and reconsider, why we study what we study, or why the next generation should continue what we have done.
Feel free to share.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Why Dance Education?
During my time as a full time teacher, I was asked many times, "Why do we have to learn dance?" by my students. Some parents ask the same, even many teachers do. My subject was considered unimportant in school, especially when other than the International Baccalaureate students, they are not taking any formal examinations for it.
So why am I teaching it? Why is the school offering it? Why does all the students up to year 9 have to do it?
Well, at first, I even questioned myself. I did not grow up in a different environment from them. I went to government school, where language, math and science were given top priority. Subject like art (specifically visual arts), were looked down upon as unnecessary, an extra A for the gifted and that's about it. It was simply my love for the art form that caused me to take it seriously. But yet, it still appear very co-curricular and seemingly exists in the realm of leisure and entertainment.
Why? "I don't know."
"Because you are in this school and the school wants you to."
"Because you need to move and get some exercise."
"So that you can relax and take your mind off the books for awhile."
"Because you have a body..."
But really. "We all have a body, don't we?" as Sir Ken Robinson mentions in his speech in TED, which beautifully and humourously illustrates the importance of dance as an arts education.
So well, as long as we have a body, and we live in/with it until the day we die, shouldn't we learn more about it? Learn how to use it, take care of it, get creative and have fun with it? (in many more ways...)
And learning dance is more than just learning to use it athletically like in PE, but the benefits of learning dance includes those of learning music and visual arts.
From simple dance exercises, students learn to listen, pay attention to and respond to music, its beats and nuances.
In a creative dance or improvisation class, students learn to create and express their emotions through a healthy physical channel, and learn to develop a aesthetic considerations in the process. This kind of class is also very therapeutic.
And not to forget, it is also a fun way of getting to know your friends and yourself!
But one of my biggest reasons for loving and teaching dance was simply about connecting with the body, the anatomy, the movements, the sensations, and wonder.
So, as I often say, learning dance is not just about another subject in your time table. Learning dance is learning about yourself, your body, your emotions. It's your life...
So? Do you have other great answers to this?
So why am I teaching it? Why is the school offering it? Why does all the students up to year 9 have to do it?
Well, at first, I even questioned myself. I did not grow up in a different environment from them. I went to government school, where language, math and science were given top priority. Subject like art (specifically visual arts), were looked down upon as unnecessary, an extra A for the gifted and that's about it. It was simply my love for the art form that caused me to take it seriously. But yet, it still appear very co-curricular and seemingly exists in the realm of leisure and entertainment.
Why? "I don't know."
"Because you are in this school and the school wants you to."
"Because you need to move and get some exercise."
"So that you can relax and take your mind off the books for awhile."
"Because you have a body..."
But really. "We all have a body, don't we?" as Sir Ken Robinson mentions in his speech in TED, which beautifully and humourously illustrates the importance of dance as an arts education.
So well, as long as we have a body, and we live in/with it until the day we die, shouldn't we learn more about it? Learn how to use it, take care of it, get creative and have fun with it? (in many more ways...)
And learning dance is more than just learning to use it athletically like in PE, but the benefits of learning dance includes those of learning music and visual arts.
From simple dance exercises, students learn to listen, pay attention to and respond to music, its beats and nuances.
In a creative dance or improvisation class, students learn to create and express their emotions through a healthy physical channel, and learn to develop a aesthetic considerations in the process. This kind of class is also very therapeutic.
And not to forget, it is also a fun way of getting to know your friends and yourself!
But one of my biggest reasons for loving and teaching dance was simply about connecting with the body, the anatomy, the movements, the sensations, and wonder.
So, as I often say, learning dance is not just about another subject in your time table. Learning dance is learning about yourself, your body, your emotions. It's your life...
So? Do you have other great answers to this?
Thursday, January 31, 2013
The Mind and Body of Pain
Many people unknowingly live with joint pains in their lives. As they go about their day to day lives, as age increase, workload and responsibilities mounting, it is easy to ignore the body and the sensations that it is giving. It is not until a problem becomes too persistent and too painful to ignore that a problem in the body is addressed.
"No pain, no gain" is the mantra that has been taught to us, about the wisdom of working hard and persevering for long term benefits. However, in medical understanding, pain is attributed to a sickness or a problem. As a part of the human survival instinct, pain is designed to help humans or living things identify danger or harm. So how come we are contradicting ourselves?
According to The International Association for the Study of Pain, pain is defined as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage".
While there are many causes for joint pains, including bone or muscle injury, and various other diseases such as rheumatism and arthritis, (an exhaustive list here) and may need medical treatment, some of the more common pains are simply caused by muscle tension and repetitive strain injury - strain caused by activities that we perform on a day-to-day basis, which may not appear harmful or injurious, bu causes damage in the long term.
Some of us experience pain that have no apparent causes or notable injuries when we seek the doctor, and there is little that a doctor can do. Yet, this kind of pain can be very persistent in our everyday activities, especially if you are an active person or needs to perform physical tasks on a regular basis. This kind of pain can stem from muscle tension, joint misalignment or even mental-emotional - such as stress, grief or anxiety, the type which experts call psychogenic pain.
In such cases, the best relief is to be able to alleviate tension through the practice of relaxation of the mind and body.
Breaking The Pain Pattern
As we continue to accept that constant pain and tension is necessary part of our lives, we will continue to breed behaviours and habits that will continue to give us pain - like how you would keep pressing onto that sore knee every time you walk up the stairs.
Eventually, such a pain will become unbearable and you would start to avoid using it all together, and put weight on the other side of your body. This in turn causes pelvic and spinal imbalance, which will create new pains in your hip joints and lower back.
See how this can continue developing into a pain pattern?
The Recovery Loop
We may not realise it, but we may constantly be putting unnecessary strain into little joint muscles to bear the burden of our body weight, muscles which are designed for light movements, whereas large muscles meant to carry the body weight lie dormant. But because we have been so desensitised from responding to our bodily pains, we continue to repeat the habit until the tissues becomes inflamed and sore.
Such as in the situation mentioned above, the tiny muscles in front of the knee cap were forced to bear the burden of pulling the body weight up, when you should really be lifting yourself forward using all the big muscles in your core, buttocks and thighs.
However, by learning that the load of your body weight is not meant to be supported by any one small muscle, but distributed across your body, you understand that the pain is not necessary at all, or can be significantly minimised at the very least. In the process, your body feels lighter, your movements easier and swifter, and at the same time, you are also working those areas that have been gathering fat - your tummy and buttocks - all at the same time.
The truth is that, your body knows exactly how to work and heal itself, if we allow them to. If you can learn to listen to your body more often, to be mindful of how it should really work, and allow its natural processes to take over, you will begin the cycle of healing and increased wellness.
Long-Term Pain vs. Short-Term Pain
So can you avoid pain altogether?
If you have participate in any sports lesson, the first thing you notice after your first class is how sore your muscles are. But this does not mean that you should stop the activity altogether. In fact, when you grew your first teeth, and your wisdom teeth, the process was painful too, at varying degrees. And when you get that wound falling from a bicycle, there were some pain and discomfort underneath that scab that you so badly want to scratch and poke.
The point is, pain is not entirely avoidable. We are meant to deal with pain at one time or another. However, the difference lies in dealing with long-term pain or short-term pain.
Identifying Injuries
1. Lazy habits - Most injuries that develop over time were the result of bad habits which I would label as laziness - habits such as slouching is a posture from the unwillingness to hold up the body using the core muscles, but letting the body "rest" which in actual fact, puts strains on particular small muscles.
2. Wrong technique - Perhaps, you may find that certain exercises you do don't seem to give you better results even if you have repeated it for several weeks or months regularly. But instead, you experience pain in the course of the activity, and the pain may have even increased even though you did you increase the intensity of your exercise. In this case, you should know that you might be using the wrong muscles to perform this activity, as if you have done it correctly, you should see improvement over time, and pain from unfamiliar muscle activity would cease.
Another good indication of technique is the area of pain. Pain in the muscles from overworking is much less of a problem compared to pain in the joint. As muscles are made of elastic tissues and have ample blood supply, it can stretch, and recover itself easily when experiencing microscopic tears (which is common in weight training). However, the joints are made up of tendons and ligaments, both which are non-stretchable. But when stretched or strained, they are slow to heal and generally does not go back to its original form.
Sharp pain is another indicator for wrong technique. Tears in tendons, ligaments, muscles and fascia. Other possibilities include pressing on nerves, which may also bring about sensations of numbness, giddiness or nausea.
3. Holding in tension - Muscles operate in 2 ways - contraction and extension. The alternation of this contraction and extension of muscles create movement in our joints. And naturally, we would think that holding a position means keeping the muscle contracted, and the sensation of contracted muscle seem to communicate strength, control and work. However, the contracted muscle is stiff, and if we attempt to stretch it, we would be fighting with our own body, causing tear and harm. Muscles are mean to be mobile and dynamic, to assist us in movements. If holding muscle contractions is a constant habit, you may have many sores and injuries in your body.
Also, if we are in a state of emotional stress, it is a natural response for our body to contract its muscles, to keep us in a state of vigilance. This state is tiring and it will not take long before the body is exhausted. To maintain endurance, become more flexible and minimise injury, the muscles need to work in a relaxed, extended manner. This not only appears graceful movement, it also helps one feel calm and light!
Change That Attitude
Training, stretching and your favourite activities need not be painful or injurious, if done the right way. Physical activities should be enjoyable, help you stay healthy, fit and most of all, happy!
So if you find yourself in the habit of hurting yourself, ask yourself again:
- Is this the right way to do it?
- Should this be so painful after so many times? If not, then what is the right way to do it?
- How can I use my whole body so that the load of my body weight is distributed across the large muscle groups?
- How would my healthy body do it?
If you are certain that the issue is physical, you can always ask your teacher or trainer for advice, or if you don't have one, attend classes from a teacher who can help you with these issues. Some teachers may dismiss pain and injury as common or part of the process, but a good teacher would be able to point you in the right directions. Otherwise, you may hire a specialised practitioner, counsellor or a coach who can help you specifically with forming movement and emotional habits.
Feel free to comment on if this article have helped you, or if you practiced other techniques that were really effective in helping you deal with pain healthily.
To find out more about how you can improve your life through , email movenphil@gmail.com.
"No pain, no gain" is the mantra that has been taught to us, about the wisdom of working hard and persevering for long term benefits. However, in medical understanding, pain is attributed to a sickness or a problem. As a part of the human survival instinct, pain is designed to help humans or living things identify danger or harm. So how come we are contradicting ourselves?
According to The International Association for the Study of Pain, pain is defined as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage".
While there are many causes for joint pains, including bone or muscle injury, and various other diseases such as rheumatism and arthritis, (an exhaustive list here) and may need medical treatment, some of the more common pains are simply caused by muscle tension and repetitive strain injury - strain caused by activities that we perform on a day-to-day basis, which may not appear harmful or injurious, bu causes damage in the long term.
Some of us experience pain that have no apparent causes or notable injuries when we seek the doctor, and there is little that a doctor can do. Yet, this kind of pain can be very persistent in our everyday activities, especially if you are an active person or needs to perform physical tasks on a regular basis. This kind of pain can stem from muscle tension, joint misalignment or even mental-emotional - such as stress, grief or anxiety, the type which experts call psychogenic pain.
In such cases, the best relief is to be able to alleviate tension through the practice of relaxation of the mind and body.
Breaking The Pain Pattern
As we continue to accept that constant pain and tension is necessary part of our lives, we will continue to breed behaviours and habits that will continue to give us pain - like how you would keep pressing onto that sore knee every time you walk up the stairs.
Eventually, such a pain will become unbearable and you would start to avoid using it all together, and put weight on the other side of your body. This in turn causes pelvic and spinal imbalance, which will create new pains in your hip joints and lower back.
See how this can continue developing into a pain pattern?
The Recovery Loop
We may not realise it, but we may constantly be putting unnecessary strain into little joint muscles to bear the burden of our body weight, muscles which are designed for light movements, whereas large muscles meant to carry the body weight lie dormant. But because we have been so desensitised from responding to our bodily pains, we continue to repeat the habit until the tissues becomes inflamed and sore.
Such as in the situation mentioned above, the tiny muscles in front of the knee cap were forced to bear the burden of pulling the body weight up, when you should really be lifting yourself forward using all the big muscles in your core, buttocks and thighs.
However, by learning that the load of your body weight is not meant to be supported by any one small muscle, but distributed across your body, you understand that the pain is not necessary at all, or can be significantly minimised at the very least. In the process, your body feels lighter, your movements easier and swifter, and at the same time, you are also working those areas that have been gathering fat - your tummy and buttocks - all at the same time.
The truth is that, your body knows exactly how to work and heal itself, if we allow them to. If you can learn to listen to your body more often, to be mindful of how it should really work, and allow its natural processes to take over, you will begin the cycle of healing and increased wellness.
Long-Term Pain vs. Short-Term Pain
So can you avoid pain altogether?
If you have participate in any sports lesson, the first thing you notice after your first class is how sore your muscles are. But this does not mean that you should stop the activity altogether. In fact, when you grew your first teeth, and your wisdom teeth, the process was painful too, at varying degrees. And when you get that wound falling from a bicycle, there were some pain and discomfort underneath that scab that you so badly want to scratch and poke.
The point is, pain is not entirely avoidable. We are meant to deal with pain at one time or another. However, the difference lies in dealing with long-term pain or short-term pain.
Identifying Injuries
1. Lazy habits - Most injuries that develop over time were the result of bad habits which I would label as laziness - habits such as slouching is a posture from the unwillingness to hold up the body using the core muscles, but letting the body "rest" which in actual fact, puts strains on particular small muscles.
2. Wrong technique - Perhaps, you may find that certain exercises you do don't seem to give you better results even if you have repeated it for several weeks or months regularly. But instead, you experience pain in the course of the activity, and the pain may have even increased even though you did you increase the intensity of your exercise. In this case, you should know that you might be using the wrong muscles to perform this activity, as if you have done it correctly, you should see improvement over time, and pain from unfamiliar muscle activity would cease.
Another good indication of technique is the area of pain. Pain in the muscles from overworking is much less of a problem compared to pain in the joint. As muscles are made of elastic tissues and have ample blood supply, it can stretch, and recover itself easily when experiencing microscopic tears (which is common in weight training). However, the joints are made up of tendons and ligaments, both which are non-stretchable. But when stretched or strained, they are slow to heal and generally does not go back to its original form.
Sharp pain is another indicator for wrong technique. Tears in tendons, ligaments, muscles and fascia. Other possibilities include pressing on nerves, which may also bring about sensations of numbness, giddiness or nausea.
3. Holding in tension - Muscles operate in 2 ways - contraction and extension. The alternation of this contraction and extension of muscles create movement in our joints. And naturally, we would think that holding a position means keeping the muscle contracted, and the sensation of contracted muscle seem to communicate strength, control and work. However, the contracted muscle is stiff, and if we attempt to stretch it, we would be fighting with our own body, causing tear and harm. Muscles are mean to be mobile and dynamic, to assist us in movements. If holding muscle contractions is a constant habit, you may have many sores and injuries in your body.
Also, if we are in a state of emotional stress, it is a natural response for our body to contract its muscles, to keep us in a state of vigilance. This state is tiring and it will not take long before the body is exhausted. To maintain endurance, become more flexible and minimise injury, the muscles need to work in a relaxed, extended manner. This not only appears graceful movement, it also helps one feel calm and light!
Change That Attitude
Training, stretching and your favourite activities need not be painful or injurious, if done the right way. Physical activities should be enjoyable, help you stay healthy, fit and most of all, happy!
So if you find yourself in the habit of hurting yourself, ask yourself again:
- Is this the right way to do it?
- Should this be so painful after so many times? If not, then what is the right way to do it?
- How can I use my whole body so that the load of my body weight is distributed across the large muscle groups?
- How would my healthy body do it?
If you are certain that the issue is physical, you can always ask your teacher or trainer for advice, or if you don't have one, attend classes from a teacher who can help you with these issues. Some teachers may dismiss pain and injury as common or part of the process, but a good teacher would be able to point you in the right directions. Otherwise, you may hire a specialised practitioner, counsellor or a coach who can help you specifically with forming movement and emotional habits.
Feel free to comment on if this article have helped you, or if you practiced other techniques that were really effective in helping you deal with pain healthily.
To find out more about how you can improve your life through , email movenphil@gmail.com.
Wednesday, October 31, 2012
The Child Who Defies
Children.
I have been dealing with children in my profession about 3 or so years ago,ever since I started teaching at an international school.
At the first glance, most children seem simple, shallow-minded, innocent. What care do they have in the world?
However, as every educator of children would, I soon faced with problems of misbehaviour. Distruption of the classroom, defiance of instructions, hurting others, destroying properties, all are but a few of very common behavioural problems within a classroom.
Having found myself in situations where I feel trapped in a classrooms full of destructive kids and just struggling to survive, I have certainly learned a thing or two about them.
I have learned that...
They are not monsters at all, they are just kids.
Kids whom you can talk to, listen to, chat with, share things in common with.
Kids with stories to tell - sad, joyful, funny, inspiring - yes, even the worst ones.
If they misbehave in your class, they probably have deeper problems outside of the classroom.
Some could be dealing with friend issues - like bullying, acceptance, self-esteem issues, among others - but most commonly problems at home.
Family problems affect younger children the most.
Among the dozens of students I've spoken to regarding distruptive behaviours in and outside of the classroom, many have problems within their families such as divorce or an absent parent (may be due to frequent travelling, tight working schedules or living with a guardian).
Problems such as divorce affect younger children the most. The sudden change in family dynamics, or the prospect of it can cause drastic changes in behaviour, causing them to be destructive or attention seeking.
Many kids are overly pressured these days.
Perhaps you might have seen an "unhappy child". This is not your kid who throws a tantrum in the mall when the parents won't buy that candy bar.
Unlike most kids, they hardly get excited over the little things that excite most children like a toy or a candy bar.
When they can barely hold up their heavy school bag, they are already too worried about their test results next week, going to one tuition after another, and taking multiple language lessons, music, art, ballet, taekwando, swimming, badminton, mental arithmatic, computer... and the list goes on and on. Some superkids.
Simply put, they were expected to achieve too much for too young an age.
Encouraging children to aim for excellence and develop skills and interests outside of the classroom is not a bad thing at all. Infact, it helps build a child to become a better person.
But the problem starts when parents make demands for them to perform, in ways that they couldn't, and as a result, withdraw love from them.
We as a society have become so associated with quantitative achievement, failing which may result in a scolding, nagging, corporal punishment, cold treatment, ostracising, shaming, etc. so much that it makes a child believe that they have to earn a parent's love, affection and attention. And that there is no such thing as an unconditional love. Yes, not even a parent's love.
What kind of person will that become? In my opinion, either one who lacks self-worth or is overly materialistic.
Kids that are the most problematic as the ones who need most of our love.
Their problematic behaviour is often a sign that they are lacking in love somewhere - could be at home, could be the school, could be their social circle.
But we as educators, the least we could to for them is to give as much love as we can to them. To see them as people, whom we want to understand and help, and not just mindless animals we need to try to control.
Many destructive behaviour are either imitations of behaviours they have witnessed in adults, an expression of the hurt, pain and anger they felt inflicted by others, or an outlet to release pent-up frustrations from pressures around them - an expression of their unmet needs.
Speak to them and empathise with them by learning their back story. You'd be surprised how mature they really are, how complex their emotions can be, how observant they are of the world, and how sensitive they are to the little things that matter - things that makes us all human.
Children are just children
They are people, just like you and me, only in a smaller body, and probably a more limited vocabulary.
But they are also here to learn, for they don't know.
They have hopes and dreams, ambition and disappointment.
They have the most desire to please, to love and be loved. Otherwise, they just want you to pay attention!
They may not be the way we want them to be, but they have to be allowed to be who they are.
Children need to be allowed to be children - to learn through play, to make mistakes, to be allowed to fail to learn, to find their natural strengths and talents, to love and be forgiving by being loved and being forgiven.
There is no one way to raise a child. Like they said, "Treat your children equally by treating them differently."
Each child is different and unique, and responds differently to different forms of upbringing. But one can only know what's best by giving your full love, attention and acceptance of who the child is and have the potential to be.
No one is perfect, but everyone is trying their best.
Everyone, young and old, including ones who seemed to be failing at what they do, really are trying their best.
Every parent, every teacher, really are doing what they think is best for the children.
Just that sometimes, what we think is best may not be the best.
But we keep trying, we keep learning, asking, observing, hopefully, it's as close to perfect as we can get.
So, what have you learned about children and people?
I have been dealing with children in my profession about 3 or so years ago,ever since I started teaching at an international school.
At the first glance, most children seem simple, shallow-minded, innocent. What care do they have in the world?
However, as every educator of children would, I soon faced with problems of misbehaviour. Distruption of the classroom, defiance of instructions, hurting others, destroying properties, all are but a few of very common behavioural problems within a classroom.
Having found myself in situations where I feel trapped in a classrooms full of destructive kids and just struggling to survive, I have certainly learned a thing or two about them.
I have learned that...
They are not monsters at all, they are just kids.
Kids whom you can talk to, listen to, chat with, share things in common with.
Kids with stories to tell - sad, joyful, funny, inspiring - yes, even the worst ones.
If they misbehave in your class, they probably have deeper problems outside of the classroom.
Some could be dealing with friend issues - like bullying, acceptance, self-esteem issues, among others - but most commonly problems at home.
Family problems affect younger children the most.
Among the dozens of students I've spoken to regarding distruptive behaviours in and outside of the classroom, many have problems within their families such as divorce or an absent parent (may be due to frequent travelling, tight working schedules or living with a guardian).
Problems such as divorce affect younger children the most. The sudden change in family dynamics, or the prospect of it can cause drastic changes in behaviour, causing them to be destructive or attention seeking.
Many kids are overly pressured these days.
Perhaps you might have seen an "unhappy child". This is not your kid who throws a tantrum in the mall when the parents won't buy that candy bar.
Unlike most kids, they hardly get excited over the little things that excite most children like a toy or a candy bar.
When they can barely hold up their heavy school bag, they are already too worried about their test results next week, going to one tuition after another, and taking multiple language lessons, music, art, ballet, taekwando, swimming, badminton, mental arithmatic, computer... and the list goes on and on. Some superkids.
Simply put, they were expected to achieve too much for too young an age.
Encouraging children to aim for excellence and develop skills and interests outside of the classroom is not a bad thing at all. Infact, it helps build a child to become a better person.
But the problem starts when parents make demands for them to perform, in ways that they couldn't, and as a result, withdraw love from them.
We as a society have become so associated with quantitative achievement, failing which may result in a scolding, nagging, corporal punishment, cold treatment, ostracising, shaming, etc. so much that it makes a child believe that they have to earn a parent's love, affection and attention. And that there is no such thing as an unconditional love. Yes, not even a parent's love.
What kind of person will that become? In my opinion, either one who lacks self-worth or is overly materialistic.
Kids that are the most problematic as the ones who need most of our love.
Their problematic behaviour is often a sign that they are lacking in love somewhere - could be at home, could be the school, could be their social circle.
But we as educators, the least we could to for them is to give as much love as we can to them. To see them as people, whom we want to understand and help, and not just mindless animals we need to try to control.
Many destructive behaviour are either imitations of behaviours they have witnessed in adults, an expression of the hurt, pain and anger they felt inflicted by others, or an outlet to release pent-up frustrations from pressures around them - an expression of their unmet needs.
Speak to them and empathise with them by learning their back story. You'd be surprised how mature they really are, how complex their emotions can be, how observant they are of the world, and how sensitive they are to the little things that matter - things that makes us all human.
Children are just children
They are people, just like you and me, only in a smaller body, and probably a more limited vocabulary.
But they are also here to learn, for they don't know.
They have hopes and dreams, ambition and disappointment.
They have the most desire to please, to love and be loved. Otherwise, they just want you to pay attention!
They may not be the way we want them to be, but they have to be allowed to be who they are.
Children need to be allowed to be children - to learn through play, to make mistakes, to be allowed to fail to learn, to find their natural strengths and talents, to love and be forgiving by being loved and being forgiven.
There is no one way to raise a child. Like they said, "Treat your children equally by treating them differently."
Each child is different and unique, and responds differently to different forms of upbringing. But one can only know what's best by giving your full love, attention and acceptance of who the child is and have the potential to be.
No one is perfect, but everyone is trying their best.
Everyone, young and old, including ones who seemed to be failing at what they do, really are trying their best.
Every parent, every teacher, really are doing what they think is best for the children.
Just that sometimes, what we think is best may not be the best.
But we keep trying, we keep learning, asking, observing, hopefully, it's as close to perfect as we can get.
So, what have you learned about children and people?
Monday, October 8, 2012
A Good Philosophy
A good philosophy or principle, should be one which serves you well, and one which you can apply to multiple areas - be it a philosophy in dance, movements or in life.
I find that once I build a philosophy, situations in life will challenge it. The challenges mostly serve to strengthen or debunk my believes. In other areas, they caused me to question if I should continue pursuing an activity which appears not to be in-line with my principle or philosophy.
Why develop philosophies?
Because it is easier to navigate the complexities of life once you have a central belief system to be your guide, your core value, your compass. A strong belief system can guide you anywhere in life.
Just like how you can perform any dance well, with a well developed core.
And like in life, once you understand how movement aesthetics can be achieved, it is easy to learn and perform all kinds of dance gracefully - because all well-developed artforms would have eventually arrived at the same conclusion about its aesthetic philosophies,
A good teacher
A good teacher should be able to teach movement based on priciples; the origins of movement, how to use your core for support, how to genuiely look relaxed yet large on stage - and will not make you do multiple mis-aligned movements at a time.
A good dance technique should be sustainable; can be practiced for long periods and mutliple times without causing injuries (as long as your mind remains focused), keeping both performance aesthetics and your well-being in mind.
The catch
If you are a ballet dancer dancing on point, you may find that no amount of technique mastery can alleviate the pain of the pressure being put on your toes. However, the right technique should significantly minimise the pressure by effectively distributing the load throughout your body.
So
What philosophies have you developed about your dance and your movements?
Do you learn multiple types of dances? What philosophies or principles about movements that may have helped you navigate across the various genres?
I find that once I build a philosophy, situations in life will challenge it. The challenges mostly serve to strengthen or debunk my believes. In other areas, they caused me to question if I should continue pursuing an activity which appears not to be in-line with my principle or philosophy.
Why develop philosophies?
Because it is easier to navigate the complexities of life once you have a central belief system to be your guide, your core value, your compass. A strong belief system can guide you anywhere in life.
Just like how you can perform any dance well, with a well developed core.
And like in life, once you understand how movement aesthetics can be achieved, it is easy to learn and perform all kinds of dance gracefully - because all well-developed artforms would have eventually arrived at the same conclusion about its aesthetic philosophies,
A good teacher
A good teacher should be able to teach movement based on priciples; the origins of movement, how to use your core for support, how to genuiely look relaxed yet large on stage - and will not make you do multiple mis-aligned movements at a time.
A good dance technique should be sustainable; can be practiced for long periods and mutliple times without causing injuries (as long as your mind remains focused), keeping both performance aesthetics and your well-being in mind.
The catch
If you are a ballet dancer dancing on point, you may find that no amount of technique mastery can alleviate the pain of the pressure being put on your toes. However, the right technique should significantly minimise the pressure by effectively distributing the load throughout your body.
So
What philosophies have you developed about your dance and your movements?
Do you learn multiple types of dances? What philosophies or principles about movements that may have helped you navigate across the various genres?
Monday, April 18, 2011
Reinventing me and my dance...
Hi all,
Here I am, with my newly set up blog-site. I feel so grateful to be able to share my thoughts, ideas and works with people from these wonderful services we get from the internet.
First of all...
Who am I? I am a dancer, a teacher, choreographer. I also consider myself an educationist and a social activist. I am an idealist, a perfectionist, always seeking to improve myself and the world around me, a big fan of personal coaches and a very feeling person who is passionate about what I do and the people around me...
Tony Robbins said, what differentiates one person from another is the questions we ask ourselves. What are the questions I like to ask?
- What kind of dancer am I?
- What kind of teacher am I?
- What is best for the young people?
- How can we change the world/create more awareness about environments/human empathy/quality education, etc.?
It is challenging to be growing up on the less popular side of society - ending up with an unusual career choice, of a yet very much unexplored segment of the arts in this country, with an uncommon personality type and learning style - being a feeling/kineasthetic learner is certainly not very popular with our traditional education system. But I strongly believe that every talent, personality type or interest has a place to contribute to society, that all is created for a reason.
And the more we know about ourselves, the more we can learn to make better decisions in our lives. And I believe that dance has a way of reaching into the soul, finding out who we truly are deep inside, and bring it into the open for all to revere in its beauty... and that, is the art dance.
So until more updates on my thoughts and works, here a thought for the day...
"When you are dancing, you are in a space and time beyond what is apparent. You embody the world that you have created, and bring it before the very senses of your audiences..."
Here I am, with my newly set up blog-site. I feel so grateful to be able to share my thoughts, ideas and works with people from these wonderful services we get from the internet.
First of all...
Who am I? I am a dancer, a teacher, choreographer. I also consider myself an educationist and a social activist. I am an idealist, a perfectionist, always seeking to improve myself and the world around me, a big fan of personal coaches and a very feeling person who is passionate about what I do and the people around me...
Tony Robbins said, what differentiates one person from another is the questions we ask ourselves. What are the questions I like to ask?
- What kind of dancer am I?
- What kind of teacher am I?
- What is best for the young people?
- How can we change the world/create more awareness about environments/human empathy/quality education, etc.?
It is challenging to be growing up on the less popular side of society - ending up with an unusual career choice, of a yet very much unexplored segment of the arts in this country, with an uncommon personality type and learning style - being a feeling/kineasthetic learner is certainly not very popular with our traditional education system. But I strongly believe that every talent, personality type or interest has a place to contribute to society, that all is created for a reason.
And the more we know about ourselves, the more we can learn to make better decisions in our lives. And I believe that dance has a way of reaching into the soul, finding out who we truly are deep inside, and bring it into the open for all to revere in its beauty... and that, is the art dance.
So until more updates on my thoughts and works, here a thought for the day...
"When you are dancing, you are in a space and time beyond what is apparent. You embody the world that you have created, and bring it before the very senses of your audiences..."
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Very often, we tend to associate relaxation as a state of passivity, resting, and basically non-activity. Not only is this untrue, it also...
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Grief... As human beings, it is inevitable that we will encounter losses and pains, in one way or another... And in it, we grief. Ye...
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A good philosophy or principle, should be one which serves you well, and one which you can apply to multiple areas - be it a philosophy in d...
