Exercise 1: Channeling Your Inner Goddess
Now you get to begin thinking about how to become a tango goddess (or swing goddess, or salsa goddess, etc.). Or, if you don't dance, how to become a goddess in your everyday life.
It's best to do this exercise the last thing before you go to bed. Take out your journal and write the names of two women you admire. Women who for you embody the word "goddess." For me, this first list might include Michelle Obama and Helen Mirren. If you're a dancer, your list can include dancers you admire.
Under each woman's name, write five qualities she possesses that you find beautiful and reflective of her goddess nature. Don't worry if the qualities you write down make no sense. Just write down the first five qualities that come into your head.
Don't try to control what names make your list. Even if the names on your list don't make sense to your conscious mind, let your subconscious make its choices. If you are surprised by some of the names that come up, that's even better. You're discovering unexplored aspects of your innermost self — what kind of woman you want to be, what kind of women you admire. And actually you'll find out that this is the kind of woman, at least on some level, you already are.
Do this exercise every night for one week. Make sure that every night you don't look at what you wrote the night before. At the end of the week, look over all your entries. Pick your favorite two women from all your lists and your favorite five qualities from all your lists. Notice if the same quality repeats itself again and again. That means it's important to you. (The qualities do not have to be from the same women chosen as your two favorites). This new list is your goddess template. You will use it in future exercises.
Exercise 2: The Shopping Cart Tango
The next time you go to the market (make sure to grab a shopping cart, not a basket) you're going to do a little dance called "The Shopping Cart Tango."
Grasp the handle lightly with both hands and start walking down an aisle. Slow your steps. Try to make each step the same size. Keep your stride length consistent. If they are playing music in the store, walk to that rhythm. If not, imagine your favorite dance song (slow is best) or bring an iPod.
Try to feel like you and the shopping cart are one. That it's an extension of your body. Try to feel like you are walking in a kind of gliding movement. Enjoy this feeling. Like dancing.
Now think of one of your goddesses. How would she walk right now? Do this exercise as if you were an eight-year-old child playing a game. Just pretend. It doesn't matter if it is perfect or "good." Just have fun with it.
Now try the other goddess. Or just try on one of your favorite goddess "qualities." For example, "gracefulness." See how graceful you can make your walk.
Do this and all the other exercises as often as you like. A goddess always feels free to "dabble."
Reprinted with permission of the publisher,
Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA).
©2011 by Jamie Rose. www.us.PenguinGroup.com.
This article was adapted with permission from the book:
Shut Up & Dance! The Joy of Letting Go of the Lead -- on the Dance Floor and Off -- by Jamie Rose.
In this wise and funny book, Jamie Rose shares with readers the life lessons she's learned from tango and other great partner dance traditions. Dance changed Jamie's life, and she discovered that she wasn't the only one. The secret? Whereas before they may have worried that if they let go of their grip on things for a moment, everything would fall apart, now they knew that sometimes letting go of the lead is the best way to keep things together "-- especially in a relationship. SHUT UP AND DANCE shows how to dance your way into a happier, sexier life -- even if you never step onto a dance floor
Click here for more info or to order this book on Amazon.
About the Author
JAMIE ROSE has been a professional actor for more than thirty-five years. Perhaps best known for her regular role as Vickie Gioberti in the 1980s prime-time hit series Falcon Crest,at forty-five, Jamie Rose was an independent, take-charge woman whose career as an actor was going nicely, with frequent roles on hit television shows and in films. But there was one area of her life that wasn't working: her love life. But something magical happened when she signed up for tango lessons: she began to understand that letting someone else take the lead from time to time wasn't giving up, but rather, "letting go." In this wise and funny book, Rose shares with readers the life lessons she's learned from tango and other great partner dance traditions. visit her author website at http://jamierosestudio.com/
