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.
‘Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children‘ Kahlil Gibran
A life well lived
Includes experiences
That makes us who we are.
We are not set in stone
Or cast in iron that cannot mould
Our emotional being cannot be suppressed
We are life living breathing and exploring possibilities.
Our infinite ways of expressions is unique to our being
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.”
Notice the good Sometimes the simple act of noticing something good can make all the difference… Trust there is always more Than what your eyes can see In the sensing and the knowing The yet undiscovered good manifests Right before you for you to notice.
Came across an interesting piece of information… worth a share.
Trees have a “heartbeat” 💗. Previously, scientists thought water moved through trees by osmosis, in a somewhat continuous manner.
Now they’ve discovered the trunks and branches of trees are actually contracting and expanding to “pump” water up from the roots to the leaves, similar to the way our heart pumps blood through our bodies.
The only difference between our pulse and a tree’s is a tree’s is much slower, “beating” once every two hours or so, and instead of regulating blood pressure, the heartbeat of a tree, regulates water pressure.
We need to see beyond survival We need to go beyond adapting We need to transform our life Beyond the present perceptions That we are conditioned by We need to release the fear and anxiety And apprehensions that we are living with We need to build the peace within.
We can touch transcendence Through faith, prayers & meditations For insights to stabilize and get embodied In such a stage of conscious presence As we build our self awareness We vibrate and tune into new frequencies We hear and listen more and evolve In our unique journeys.
Mathews, a hotshot sales manager, on a Sunday evening, was in the parking lot of a shopping mall. The parking lot was packed. Cars were crawling with anxious drivers looking for that one vacant slot. Mathews, sharp and aggressive as he was known to be, spotted a vacant space ahead and quickly zoomed in. He could see another car trying to reverse into the same slot, but Mathews was determined to beat the other man to it. And he did! Mathews felt jubilant – as we all sometimes do with life’s little victories. The old man driving the car was disappointed. He looked Mathews in the eye and continued his search for another parking slot.
Two days later, Mathews was preparing for one of the biggest moments of his career. He was close to winning a big contract for his company. And all that was left now was the formal handshake meeting with the client’s CEO. As Mathews walked into the client’s office and saw the CEO, he felt a sudden sense of discomfort. Yes, it was the same man from whom he had snatched the parking slot on Sunday. And you can guess what happened thereafter. Alas! If only Mathews had grown up with the HTDO habit!
So whats HTDO?
It has probably happened to you before. As you walk towards the door of an office, or a hotel, the person walking in front holds the door open for you. Remember how good it made you feel – if only for that moment.
Isn’t it surprising that although we all feel good when someone holds the door open for us, we seldom do the same for other? How come?
It’s probably because we are all preoccupied with ourselves and obsessed with getting ahead. Here, then, is a life-changing lesson they don’t teach you in any B school – ‘Hold The Door Open’.
The world can be divided into two types of people. Those who push open a door, walk through and let it slam behind them. That’s the 99% of the population. And there’s the 1% who hold it open to allow the next person to walk through. Learn to do that, and you too could join the select 1% club. HTDO doesn’t merely make other people feel good. It makes you feel good too. HTDO translates into a behaviour of helping and caring.
Winning in life is less about naked ambition and more about helping other people win.
Someone once said, “It’s nice to be important. But it’s more important to be nice”
Make a beginning. Hold The Door Open.😊👍🏼
I loved reading this inspiring forward so much that I simply wanted to share.
If there is any of you who would like to share their stories of holding the door open pls feel free to do so.
Savvy Raj 
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