Anyone who plays a sport or engages in any physical activity knows that practice improves your ability. The human body responds extremely well to repetition. Whether we are repeating positive behaviors, or negative, the body will grow in the direction we give it. In the dance studio, we call it “muscle memory.”
Muscle Memory
Muscle memory serves us well because when we are actually dancing, thinking has a way of interfering with our performance. Practicing technique in our downtime allows us to enter the flow – a place of inspired movement, a place beyond mental control.
We train our bodies to do what we want them to do in the moment. And we can do the same thing for the mind and soul. Self-awareness is that point of communication between mind and soul and we must develop muscle memory around what our hearts desire if we want that to manifest in our daily lives. But when it comes to self-awareness, who has time to practice? And better yet, what exactly do we practice?
Self Awareness
Maybe not everyone needs to practice self-awareness. I suppose there are people out there who were raised in an environment that completely supported the essential self. But we live in a culture that generally doesn’t. we have to create positive patterns in our subconscious so they can guide our lives in the way we want them to go. Allowing your soul to guide your thoughts and decisions takes practice. Below are some of the things that you can do every day to practice positive self-awareness.
3 Steps to self awareness
- First and foremost, take some time every day for meditation. Ten minutes of quieting your mind can go a long way in inviting the depth of your being to come closer to the surface where it has a shot at manifestation.
2. Surround yourself with others who can keep you honest and on track with building up your knowledge of who you are and what your soul desires.
3. Filter your intake. Evaluate the movies and music you expose yourself to. Do they support your growing sense of your true nature?
4. Enlist a daily reminder of some sort that your essence is divine. There are hundreds of options for daily reminders, books, email notices podcasts, books on tape, etc.
In the daily rush of work and play, you don’t really have time to stop and think, what is the right thing to do? You have to build some muscle memory that can carry you through the day.
About the Author:
Tracy Martin contributing writer to CountryDancePros. She is an Author, Life Coach, Soul Searcher and former successful competitive ballroom, swing & country dancer. She has spend countless hours on the floor as a student as a teacher and even more time contemplating and writing about her journey.