Balancing Act: Juggling Dance, Work, and Life
Key takeaways
Personal autonomy is crucial in determining the role of dance in your life; finding balance involves periods of daily dancing or months without.
Free Mind provides class options, but self-care and scheduling are individual choices.
Incorporating daily deep breaths can bring stability, guiding routines until dance becomes a natural part of life.
How to balance it all?
Life is a balancing act, constantly taking us through a revolving door of task after task. All the stress of work and personal endeavors can pile up, so it is important to incorporate passions and self-care into your routines, such as dance. That may sound redundant-if you already have so much on your plate, how could you add one more thing? That is where balancing, and learning to make yourself a priority comes into play! Dance is both a passion and hobby that helps to free the mind and body, aspects of life that are important but often overshadowed in adulthood. There is no doubt that work may take precedent, however incorporating dance into your life should also be a component, and that is all about learning your own balancing act.
The skill of time management does not come naturally to everyone, and that is okay! While there is no shortage of calendars, digital or physical, even those tools are not always beneficial to balance. Take some time at the beginning of each month, week, then day to mentally create an overview for yourself. Having an idea of upcoming events can ease the mind and help you to be proactive even if it is subconscious. This is not meant to be a stress factor; it is only meant to make you self-aware of your life’s demands. Within this overview, you will be able to notice days that are completely booked, and days where you could take some time to show yourself love. The range of classes at Free Mind are only growing each week, in number of classes and styles offered! Therefore, you can choose dance classes that help your schedule, not hurt it. If attending a weekly class causes too much stress, just try to attend whenever your life allows for it. Free Mind will welcome you as frequently or sparsely as you are able to dance!
Always put yourself first
When life gets busy, we often put self-care on the back burner, however it should be the opposite! In the midst of chaos, taking moments to reflect on the hard work you are accomplishing should not go unnoticed. Self-care comes in all forms, it could range from 1 minute a day of meditation, 30 minutes of reading before you go to sleep, or getting yourself on to the dance floor! Some weeks your schedule may allow for larger acts of self-care than others, but it is key to acknowledge all components of giving back to yourself. When it comes to dance, listening to your body is extremely important. If you need a stretch, try Free Minds “Intro to Contemporary” or if you feel restless and need to move join the studio for an artist specific groove session such as “Born This Way: Lady Gaga Dance Fusion.” Self-care and balance are all about understanding your personal needs, whether that means taking a week off from dance or attending 3 classes that week is completely up to you!
So, the question becomes, how do you maintain a healthy work-life balance? The best advice is to keep the two as separate as possible. When it is time to be clocked into work fully be present in that setting, however when you leave work try to keep all those thoughts in the office to clear space in your mind for yourself. This will allow your priorities to shift based on what setting you are in and leave more room to focus on dance after work hours. This method plays into the idea of setting aside time for yourself each day. On days where you can come to Free Mind, that is an act of kindness towards yourself, because you have completed a task that is for no one else besides yourself and your personal goals. Having passions, such as dance, keep you connected to yourself. Throughout life you may not always hold the same job, but you can always hold your love for dance. Let dance become a constant in your life, so even if every other factor of the day went awry, dance is there to keep you stabilized. Balance may mean that dance is a constant in your life even if other factors are not. Free Mind opens its doors to all dancers who just need a space to find peace within themselves on any given day.
It’s on you
The only person who can determine what role dance plays in your life is yourself. Having periods of time where you dance every day and having periods where you don’t dance for months at a time are all part of finding your own balance. No one else can tell you how to schedule your life and own self-care, Free Mind will only tell you what classes are offered each week in hopes one may match your needs. Taking moments each day to take deep breathes can help you find some stability in your life and guide you through routines until you are able to let loose in a dance studio. Whatever method of time management you find works best for you is how to best proceed in this balancing act that is life. There is no one way to find balance, and there is so much room for trial and error while on the journey there. Only you can choose when to come dance at Free Mind, and hopefully one day it will be as natural an element in your life as breathing.
