Power of one candle to light the darkness
Power of one tree to give shade
Power in one smile to change the mood
Power of one hand to feed the hungry
Power of one kind word to change hearts
Power of one heart to ignite hope in the world
Power of one touch to lift the soul
Just one heartfelt move… makes all the difference!
Life is precious
Hearts sacred
Rhythms divine
Kindness humane
And in these interconnects
All is truly well & miraculous
Savvy
To remember to be kinder to oneself as much as another
Is a habit of a lifetime to cultivate.
It’s good to acknowledge the now
And remember every movement is happening
As it is preordained.
Let worry take a backseat
As well as the need for overt perfection.
Just keep the faith and hope alive in your heart
Simply know deep within…
All is well as it is meant to be.
Savvy
Life reflects itself through the things you do, the people you meet as well as in your passions and perseverances, in so many intriguing yet enthralling ways.
One such beautiful reflection I experienced in my travels earlier in France.
A sense of deja vu, a throwback to the fond memories of teaching dances to people in the different places, all thanks to the Dance & the magic of movements.
While visiting France I met my colleague from the world of dance, Celine Maheo who resides in Rennes
Celine is a practicing clinical psychologist and an Argentine tango dancer.
What’s beautiful is that she is a dedicated professional who uses the dance therapy for helping Parkinson’s patients with their movements through Tango dance sessions.
My interest was piqued, as earlier I had been conducting very similar dance sessions as well, especially remembered our Seniors Dance for Wellness workshops back in India.
So over a beautiful meet and greet sipping cups of hot herbal tea at the Les Grands Gamin at the heart of Rennes, ensued a free flowing conversation where we exchanged notes on each others life. Our passion for dancing was the visible to see as we hardly knew how moments passed by.
To dance is to sense connections beyond the dancing bodies.
To dance is to honour life and its unique expressions in the movements.
Savvy Raj
And when Celine invited me to her next Tango Therapy Workshop, it was an offer I could not refuse. I was actually keen to understand whether and how the cultural differences change the way of conducting and experiencing workshops here.
Dancing can improve the mobility and balance in senior adults.
Adapting the dance to suit the requirements of the group, like simplifying the steps, the placement of the feet, improves their coordination, mobility and balance.
The dance session was deeply engrossing & truly inspiring to witness and participate as well. The music played that day stayed with me well after the session.
So the next step turned out to be me conducting a Chacha session for them. The challenges of language barriers were surrmounted easily as Celine offered to translate my teaching from English to French.
Everything fell in place beautifully and voila time flew again.We danced a bit of Chacha that day and also some more in the next few sessions as well. I was told later by the learners how much they enjoyed it!
It was an amazing experience sharing the joys of movements and I thank Celine for her inclusivity in requesting me to conduct the dance sessions as well. And I deeply appreciate all her beautiful learners that I met,connected and danced with. It was a truly warm and wonderful time spent with them all.
After the sessions we would gather together and discuss opening many facets of the learning and imbibing. It was a beautiful way of empathising and understanding each other.
Some of the beautiful souls I got to interact with in the few months I was there.
Dance has a way of soothing your entire being and bringing forth and connecting you with the depth of who you are. That is when dance begins to feel meaningful and transforms life.
The dance connects established, in those sessions is a beautiful memory etched in my heart, that I will cherish forever.
I chanced on these beautiful moments again as I found the photos I clicked back then and I decided to give them a little artistic effect.
All across the world April 29th every year is celebrated as International Dance Day, although every day is a great day to dance!
I dedicate this post to all my dance friends and colleagues and all the dance educators in the world who are making the world a better place, with every step in time.
Savvy Raj
These inspiring words are by William Martin The Parent’s Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for Modern Parents 🙂
The ordinary can be a gift in disguise 🙂
This is heartfelt share of a beautiful story forward .
Sometimes while performing some duties, does such a thought come to mind that why should I do this work, what’s in it for me?
Contact Lenses
A true story!
Brenda was about halfway to the top of the huge granite cliff. During her first mountaineering attempt, she was breathing while standing on a ledge. While she was resting there, the safety rope hit her eye and the contact lens fell out from her eye.
“What now?” She thought, “Here I am on the edge of a cliff, hundreds of feet above the ground, and now everything has gone blurry.”
She looked around again and again in the hope that somehow she might reach the top of the mountain. But she couldn’t see any way.
She felt panic growing inside herself, so she started praying. She prayed for inner peace and she prayed that she could find her contact lenses.
When she somehow reached the top, a friend thoroughly checked her eyes and clothes for the lens, but could not find it. Although she was calm now as she had reached the top, but she was sad too, because she could not see clearly across the mountains.
She prayed to God that, “Oh Lord, you can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and you know very well where my contact lenses are. Please help me.”
After a while, another group of climbers reached the top peak. A member of the crew shouted, “Hey, have any of you lost contact lenses?”
It was quite shocking, but do you know where the climber saw it? An ant was walking slowly on a twig on top of a rock, and that contact lens was on it!
The story does not end here. Brenda’s father was a cartoonist. When he heard the incredible story of the ant, prayer and contact lenses, he drew a cartoon picture of an ant with the title, “God I don’t know why you want me to carry this thing. I can’t eat it and it’s too heavy as well. But if that’s what you want from me, I will carry it for you.”
I think we should all happily say, “God, I don’t know why you want me to carry this load, I don’t see anything good in it and it’s too heavy as well… but if this is what you want of me, I will definitely carry it and that too with full enthusiasm.”
Nature doesn’t invoke the worthy, it makes whoever it invokes worthy. ♾️
“We remain conscious of God in everything we feel, think and do in constant connection with God. The easiest way to do this is through acceptance and surrender.”
The Degrees that we acquire
Are but an endorsement of our skillsets
But degrees do not define our nature.
No matter the set expectations.
Our behavior day in & out,
Is a testimony to our true education
No amount of degrees can guarantee our behaviour.
Our ways of being and our attitude towards others speaks a lot more…
Of how we apply our education in our lives.
Savvy
Allow the self some food for thought
Acknowlege that there is something more
To understand learn and explore
Allow space for growth
To evolve in the journey
There is much knowledge gained this way
And much to discover more along the way.
Savvy
An expansive quote on the way of work comes to mind in this now
It’s hard to do one thing 100% better than everyone, but you can do 100 things 1% better. It all adds up.– Jay Steinfeld
A few musings pertaining to the way of Continous Improvements at work…
Integrity speaks more than words.
Have confidence in your principles
Think of ways to support one another
Collaboration is a great team builder
Working to improve without antagonizing
Take your ego out of changing scenarios
It makes it easier to adapt to changes.
As you lead, help team, to own their work
Help teams to lose their self doubts
Help make their vulnerability a strength
Being understanding than seeming smart
Is important for one and all.
Choose to do good by people all the time
Make space to find authentic resolutions
Create culture to welcome feedback
To allow yourself to know where you are
Nurture, the genuine human connections
Build trustful relationships with one & all
Work will feel totally worthwhile!
Savvy
Universal Oneness is an awareness
In reflections of the truth of the being
Interweaved and interconnected in every life .
Strength shines through the vulnerabilities.
As a power in the very fragility
Touched by divine grace
Enmeshed in the senses
Fired in the cauldron of life and living
Comes a consciousness of the flow
In and around us
Beyond the illusion of separation.
Is the dance of connection.
Savvy
Savvy
Circles of compassion
Creates connections
Bonding boundlessly
From the heart.
Everything flows from love
Creating synergies in synchrony
Between strangers strengthened
In these compassionate connects.
Savvy
Having a passion may help you succeed.
But having compassion will enrich your meaning of success 🙂
Savvy
There is more to speaking than what we simply hear.
And the power of positive speech cannot be underestimated.
Speak as you would like to be spoken to
Speak clearly with confidence & certainty
Speak to convey the message than try to control.
Speak using positively affirming words.
Speak politely and avoid sarcasm.
Speak with empathy and avoid criticism.
While speaking to children…
A child hears and understands the tone of your voice well.
Keep it balanced as far as possible
Use it well to convey the messsge without yelling.
And most of all
Speak with words that appreciate than admonish.
It makes all the difference.
Savvy
The strength of the Interconnects….
Runs deeper than we can fathom.
We need one another and ourselves
To complete the circle of life
As we are however we are
To help one another in need
We can take a step to bring ourselves
Closer to the truth of our being
Such is the need of our times
More than ever before.
Savvy
Savvy Raj 