Some of the most profound lessons I’ve experienced around letting go, have come to me through dancing.
The first came in a dance class several years ago in college. We were in a challenging position (the splits), and the teacher, master Graham dancer Christopher Dolder, instructed the group: “Can you let go more, can you let go *more,* can you let go MORE…..”
As our hamstrings burned and our hips continued to open, the process of letting go became a visceral awakening. We became acquainted with the experience of moving through the kind of intensity where the only choices are to give up, or surrender and allow the expansion to transform us.
Fast forward to the present, and I was moving through the ballet portion of a class taught by my dear friend and fellow dancer, Conisha Wade. During a rigorous ballet sequence she said, simply: “Let it breathe~~~~”
Here’s the powerful (and aptly titled) song we happened to be moving to:
Ahhhh….in that moment the movement that I had been trying to tell my body to do, began to effortlessly flow through me. It was the awareness to let go of controlling it….to let it be what it is, to risk being imperfect, to surrender to the movement itself….to let it breathe…..that allowed beauty and ease to emerge.
In the dance of life, where have you been holding on to a certain outcome? What is your deeper vision you are calling in? How much are you willing to let go and let it breathe, to allow for miracles?