Watching one of my favourite movies, Dirty Dancing, always brings back fond memories of the nineties when my friends and I danced endlessly to the soundtrack and performed multiple ridiculous attempts to execute our own version of ‘The Lift’.
It has also made me think that complex choreography is in fact an integral part of our daily lives too, trying to balance work, home, family and friends. Between coordinating numerous commitments, often for multiple people, we can find ourselves leading a crazily busy schedule and frequently having no space or time for ourselves.
Patrick Swayze takes charge in the final scene of the movie when he declares “I’m gonna do my kinda dancing” and we feel the anticipation, the change in tempo, we hear the music swell and suddenly we are ‘having the time of our lives’.
“What rhythm do you want to dance to?”
Keeping up with the rhythm of modern life can be hard, especially if you feel you are not really in control. If you are feeling out of step with your own life then you may want to look at your boundaries and where these are being disrupted.
Let’s rewind the movie to get some more direction from Patrick Swayze: “This is my dance space, this is your dance space: I don’t go into yours, you don’t go into mine. You’ve gotta hold the frame.”
“Ask yourself”
In which aspects of your life are you not protecting ‘your space’? Do you even know what your ‘frame’ is, what your boundaries are or should be? Try this exercise ‘Saying Yes - Saying No’ to help you begin to think about what you want in life (the yes) and see what you have to say no to (the no). This makes it clearer and ultimately easier to begin setting that boundary.
I’d love to hear how you get on - I’m always curious to discover what you are saying no to: is it working late, eating junk food, not exercising enough? What are you wanting to say yes to?
If you no longer want to be an onlooker to the kind of life you want, working with a coach is a great way to make things happen. I can help you clarify what it is you want and help identify how you are going to get there.
Get in touch and let’s have an informal chat about how I can support you to be dancing to the rhythm of the life you want and deserve.
