What Makes Your Arms Look Gorgeous? (And What Makes Them Look NOT – In Your Dance and In Your Life)
It Takes Courage to Claim Our Space
A woman who retired as full colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps recalled counseling a woman junior officer. The younger woman was presenting herself too timidly in the presence of her male peers.
The result of the young officer’s nice girl posture was that her ideas and work was not being taken as seriously.
My friend’s advice?
Take up more space.
She suggested that the young officer sprawl more when she sat in a chair – stretch out her arms and legs, rather than sitting in a tight, closed, demure little posture.
Chicken Wings – How NOT to Look Graceful on Stage
Can we just cut to the chase here?
There are wonderful imageries that help us create beautiful flowing technique and lines in our dance.
Chicken wings is not one of those images.
How do we get them?
More important – if we have them, how do we get over them?
Practice counts, surely.
But what if there was a way to make near-instantaneous change – in our dance and in our life.
Interested?
How Not to Have Chicken Wings in the Middle of Our Dance
I recently observed a dance performance, and a highly respected dance teacher was sitting next to me.
The choreographies were good, and the dancers had their moves down right. But something was off.
Instead of having a long, beautiful line, various dancers were pulling in their arms.
The respected dance teacher summed it up in one pithy comment:
Chicken wings.
Chicken wings are not just a matter of poor posture, poor training, or inattention to detail.
What is really going on is that the dancer is constricted in her energy field. She’s afraid to open up and really claim her space.
But that’s not what we want, is it?
When we dance, we’re not just doing entertainment.
When we dance, we are a priestess, taking our people into a transcendent space.
We can’t do that if we’re fearful and constricted.
Tight Shoulders – The Other Extreme
Sometimes, we express our tension differently – we get our shoulders up to our ears.
This isn’t pretty or graceful either. (Nor is it inspiring or transcendent.)
These are two sides of the same coin.
In both cases, it’s like having a kink in our energy hose. Our energy isn’t flowing freely, and so of course we don’t look as good as we might.
Reaching Through Our Energy Field – Inspiring, Enthralling, and Transcendent
When we’re not afraid to extend our reach, we create transcendent moments – in dance, in life.
Recently, I talked with my dear friend Patty Haley – a beautiful dancer (and who has also served as an officer in the U.S.M.C.). Patty teaches women to take up more space when they dance. (See a great video clip of Patty explaining her Peaceful Warrior Girl approach.)
But sometimes, we need to make this change from the inside out.
When We Claim Our Space, We Claim Our Lives
Earlier this week, I asked my friend Julie Marie Rahm, the Resultant, to help me with a challenge.
I’ve done a lot of healing lately, and a lot of integration – but I still had some big areas of “stuckness.”
Recently, I’d felt very unsupported during a challenge that affected my entire Household. It’s not so important what the details were; it’s that I had some old tape playing in my mind.
Because the outer always reflects the inner, I created outcomes that had me feeling unsupported. These outcomes reflected a belief that I had – actually an energy pattern that I’d created.
This energy pattern impacted everything. Finances. Relationships. Stability of business ventures; whether on my own or with partners. Ability to get support and implementation of my creative areas.
More and more, I was seeing this as a pattern – not as a series of isolated events.
And more than anything, I wanted a deep pattern shift.
Julie worked with me for about 25 minutes, using YUEN Mastery, the New Science of Achieving Immediate Results. She did this at a distance; we were on the phone with each other, but once she knew what the problem was, she didn’t even need to have me on the line with her.
She advised me, when we were done, to take it easy for the rest of the day.
She was right – I felt just fine during the session itself, but later in the day, was a bit loopy and spacey – definitely not a day for operating power tools or making corporate budget decisions.
Felt fabulous the next day, and wrote my planned blogpost introducing Julie and the Yuen Method; see Has Your High Priestess Been Shortchanged This Year (How to Fix).
The day after that (yesterday), I really needed to take some time off for pure integration – lots of stuff going on both physically and emotionally.
Today is the fourth day since my Yuen session with Julie.
In next week’s blog, I’ll report how this method seems to be impacting my life overall.
I could feel the shift, as we worked. But it will take time for the real pattern-shifts to manifest on the physical plane.
One thing I can tell you, right now. Some of the blurts that I’d been wrestling with – for the past several years – have eased up substantially. (See Using Belly Dance to Heal Deepest Emotional Wounds, from February 2, 2013. And if you had joined me on the Twelve Lessons of Solstice (which will re-open again at Winter Solstice of this next year), you heard a lot about blurts, and how they reflect our core wounds and impact our lives.)
Can the YUEN Method Resolve Issues with Our Core Power Archetypes?
I’m looking for shifts in all areas of my life – personal, professional, and dance.
In dance, I’d like more strength, structure, firmness of expression. These are Emperor characteristics.
We may also want our Emperor to show up in our lives by having better boundaries in our relations with others (as well as keeping more of our vital energy for ourselves), having clearer communications with others (as well as greater internal connection), and increased financial well-being (along with personal energy).
Our Emperor achetype works to our advantage, both in creating a positive experience in the external world, and in shaping our internal energy selves. These really become the same.
Our Emperor is one of our core power archetypes. Our Emperor serves to define and protect our boundaries, increase communications and energy flow throughout our whole being, and bring in good energy and resources. In short, his job is to protect and provide.
Sometimes, we have some damage in our Emperor connection. Then, our Emperor has a hard time expressing in a useful and sustained way.
As I wrote recently in The Unveiling Journey (the blog series associated with Unveiling: The Inner Journey), our Emperor is on our side. Check out Healing Our Inner Emperor – What a Breakthrough Feels Like.
If you’ve experienced the Yuen Method, please share your experiences in the comments section.
If this is new to you, check back next week, when I report in. Also, look into Julie’s webpage, Problems-Resolved. Read some of her blogs to get a sense of how this method works in practice.
I’m working on healing (or as Julie would say, resolving) issues with my Emperor. You may want to focus on a different archetype or life-area. Either way, I’m interested in your results.
Please share. I’ll read and respond to your comments, and ask Julie to chime in also.
And oh yes. Let me know if strengthening your inner Emperor – or any other resolving done with the Yuen method – helps you claim more space. Personally, professionally, or in dance. Or in all areas at once.
Very best wishes as you use Oriental dance (belly dance) for personal growth and healing!
Yours in dance –
Alay’nya
Author of Unveiling: The Inner Journey
You are the Jewel in the Heart of the Lotus. Become the Jewel!
Founder and Artistic Director, The Alay’nya Studio
Bellydance a courtesan would envy!
Check out Alay’nya’s YouTube Channel
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Oriental Dancer Ronnette Ramirez on Unveiling: The Inner Journey
What does Oriental dancer Ronnette Ramirez have to say about Unveiling: The Inner Journey?
Alay’nya’s Unveiling: The Inner Journey
This is a must read for all women. Most of what is written, relates to oriental dance and the lives of dancers, instructors, and those who dream of becoming a dancer. A woman’s journey is of importance and Unveiling: The Inner Journey, is a terrific guide.
Alay’nya has a HERstory that is familiar to us. However, what she created is a wonderful text of rich knowledge and research for women to use in their pathway. In Unveiling, Alay’nya takes you on a journey to discover what is a woman’s pathway.
… On a personal note, there is a section in the book called “Receiving”. This is my challenge, for I do feel less in control if I receive from others. I will go back to that section and work this issue. Alay’nya’s words hit close to home.
Read Ronnette’s whole review here at Ronnette Ramirez on Unveiling in the Belly Dance Editorial at BellaOnline.
Check Out Ronnette Ramirez’s Belly Dance Editorials at BellaOnline
BellaOnline is a website for women, covering many areas of women’s lives.
BellaOnline includes a Bellydancing Site, edited by dancer Ronnette Ramirez.
Recent posts by Ronnette include:
And just as a side note – Ronnette is fascinated by the character Scheherezade (such drama! such psychological richness! such courage!), and has several posts on her – interesting coincidence that I write about Scheherezade also in Unveiling‘s Chapter 8: The Essence of Stillness.
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Copyright (c) 2014, Alay’nya. All rights reserved.
Related Posts: Emotional Release for Beautiful Arm Movements
- The Healing Power of Belly Dance in Water – The Evolution of Belly Dance – May 29, 2013
- Belly Dancing in Water – Creating More Natural, Graceful, and Sensual Snake Arms – May 18, 2013
- The Most Luscious, Nurturing, Feel-Good Thing You Can Do in Bed, On Your Own (and it’s not even sex!) – Jan 9, 2013
- Breathing, Breakthroughs, and Belly Dance – Dec. 6, 2011
