For a time in my life, I was overweight. I also didn't dance well (according to what other people told me). When I would dance, I often felt a lot of shame over how I look, both my weight at the time and how I moved. 

Its interesting...when I brought my attention to how I looked dancing, I would find myself getting lost in my head about how awkward and fat I looked on the outside...and I would forget just how good dancing feels on the inside. 

For many years, I've studied movement through various modalities. In a slow and subtle way, this process of studying movement brought my attention more and more to the internal experience of movement.

What I noticed, is that when I brought my attention more and more to the internal sensations of movement as a whole, I began to accept how I moved and how I looked more and more. It was a subtle slow process, and it wasn't until a few years later, when I had music on, and I was dancing and playing with my dog, that someone told me "oh you dance well!!!". I was shocked. Then I found myself paying attention again to how things were looking on the outside, to see if I could "remember" what I did, which wouldn't be the same as the free-flowing creative movement I was doing before. Then I remembered to let go of how things look on the outside...and found my way again. 

There are times when you really do need to pay attention to how things are sounding and looking on the outside...yet I find far and away that often takes way more of students attention than is helpful or needed. 

The less I paid attention to how I looked on the outside, the more I found myself paying attention to how good it feels to move...from the internal perspective. I naturally began to move more often and since I was listening to my body, I could move for longer, without going into pain or strain or shame and self-blame. 

This process was something very familiar to me in singing, but what I didn't foresee was how it would spread into how I danced...without much effort. 

This acceptance of how your voice really is, right now, is the slow but mighty way to build confidence in your singing, which is a powerful way of bringing confidence and courage in your life. Acceptance can be found through bringing your attention to the internal experience of singing, even when tempted to "check" if you're doing better. 

So in the Feel Better, Sing Better class, we'll be building the skill of sensing what singing is like from the inside, instead of what singers normally do...which is to focus on how "good" it sounds on the outside. 

When you sing words, what is really happening inside? Are there consonants that feel easier, more fun than others? What's really happening? Are there movements you do everyday that sit under the surface of your awareness, little joys left out of your awareness? How might they help you connect more with the joy of singing and creativity? How would that benefit you? Find out in class. 

Find out at the FBSB Class this Sunday @ 3pm