#Grateful

 

Disclaimer: Since it's Thanksgiving week, everyone and their mother will be talking about gratefulness in some form or another. Not there is anything wrong with gratefulness -- it's a beautiful thing and so necessary for finding happiness and fulfillment in life! But when you're bombarded with it, especially when it doesn't feel real, it can be nauseating. So, I apologize for adding to the onslaught but can assure you these sentiments are real. So, here we go #grateful ;)

Since it’s Thanksgiving week, I want to take this time to thank YOU. Thank you for being brave and being a part of this Bad Girl Ballerina revolution. Whether you just joined or have been following along with this movement since it started almost 4 years ago, I’m honored to have your ear, your attention, your bravery.

Why do I say “bravery?”

Because it’s not always easy to be a part of this BGB insurgence. A lot of what I say is pretty radical and hard to hear:

• I’m asking you to go against the grain & explore concepts and mindsets that have the potential to absolutely shatter the “safe” little world you’ve build around yourself up until now. 
• I’m challenging you to defy, or at least question, traditions of the dance world that have been in place for decades. 
• I’m encouraging you to both put more stress on your body than ever before through calculated, focused, intense cross-training...but also emphasize rest and recovery (Quality over Quantity). 
• I'm teaching you to achieve the body aesthetics you desire through nutrient density...not starvation.
• I'm telling you that you can't have it all - fat loss, performance power, and pleasure - maxed out at the same time. You have to pick, choose & rotate your goals carefully.
• I’m pushing you to shift your whole identity from an overblown, fragile ego built off unworthiness and loathing self-hate…to the radical appreciation of the real you.
• I'm pressuring you to wake up out of the fog the rest of the world has you hypnotized by and find your actual power over your life.

If you think any of that stuff is light and easy and fun -- it's not. It's really f*cking hard.

These kinds of life shifts are not for the weak. It takes someone who is brave and ready to change. Someone ready to hear not necessarily what you want to hear…but what you need to hear. It’s not fun to swim upstream and fight the current (a.k.a. the mild brainwashing we’ve all been subjected to as a consequence of growing up in the dance world & the world at large for that matter), but it sure is empowering. Once you build enough strength to swim on your own and actually direct the course of your life instead of being swept up in the current, aimlessly moving along with everyone else, you can appreciate your hard work and all the pain it took to get there. And that feeling is everything.

It’s not easy for me to speak the truth, either. I know it’s hard to take and not what you want to hear. And it sure doesn’t make me popular sometimes. But I'd much rather be hated for opening your eyes to the truth than revered for adding to your delusions. Too many people lie to you in this world already...whether intentionally or just due to innocent ignorance. I won't be one of them. I won't do it - not for popularity, or to be liked, or to go with the flow. You may not always like what I have to say...but you can trust that it is always real. And you can trust that I'm going to talk about the hard stuff that will get you to your next level, whether you can hear it or not.

So thank you for being on this journey with me. Thank you for staying open-minded, inquisitive, and brave even when it is hard. And thank you for recognizing that sometimes you have to push through the hurt to get to the bliss. Happiness and fulfillment are moving targets which means you must constantly search for what you actually need. But the effort is always worth it. No matter what the cost, keep fearlessly pursuing them in your dance career, and more importantly, in your life.