The tough go dancing
It was a crazy year. Yay, you made it! It’s over! I’m celebrating my 9th year leading Embodiment Professionals Mastermind Groups, and every year we have a little ritual where we ask each other:
What was your most regenerative investment of time in 2025?
This is looking at energy and time, vs. money. Money is important, for sure, but having good energy and time to explore that are why you need money. The Mastermind Group is one of my favorite parts of my business. It’s an honor to work with such fine practitioners whose work I believe in so strongly.
I can do my part to convey the profound value of movement and somatic wisdom in a culture that increasingly denies biological time and the vulnerability of human bodies. This energizes me.
This year, however, I was surprised to admit that my tiny beloved Tuesday dance class brought me so much joy.
There is nothing that creates as much good energy and useful thinking than this class. The energy buzz and ease I receive from it last all day long, continuing to resonate as my head hits the pillow that night.
Recognizing this, I decided to start the Mastermind end-of-year meeting with a little dance party. This had a remarkable effect on everything that followed! Moods can darken when doing dreadful things like assessing what went “right” and what went “wrong,” especially this year. The weather gets even darker when naming our dreams and aspirations, somehow…maybe because we all know 2026 is going to be a doozy.
How dare we dream when the world is going to hell in a hand-basket? That’s my brain’s favorite dark thought.
If we don’t name what is and isn’t working, though, we risk being subject to external forces and distractions that can blow us off course very quickly. It’s like saying “no” to your own intelligence, you know, that thing you spend so much time cultivating?
If we don’t step back and assess, we can get lost in performative positivity that isn’t connected to what’s really happening; or we can fall down a negativity hole with thoughts like “nothing went right” or “everything went wrong.”
The “embodiment profession” requires that we practice and become discerning.
It is literally never true that nothing worked well. Never. And yet, those thoughts are so powerful and easy to believe.
Just 5 minutes of dancing changes all that. Your thinking becomes uncensored, light, and honest all at the same time.
So, I’m just saying. If you are going to sit down to write something important, think through a difficult problem, or perform any big cognitive task or have any challenging conversations about 2025 before it’s over: put on your favorite dance music and move to it for just 4-5 minutes beforehand.
Moving can be anything. Boring, repetitive, uncreative, easy, clumsy. Doesn’t matter. One of my Mastermind folks said that they felt self-conscious at first even though their camera wasn’t on…but that the music and the rhythm got them past that and they felt so much better.
Music, rhythm, and momentum are the ancient magic that gets you past that moment of mental hesitation, doubt and judgement.
You don’t have to conquer your brain! You just keep moving and those thoughts go away – cause your brain is too busy in the present moment, more entrained to the ground, the space, the sound and the beat.
Some mysterious screw comes loose.
Your brain turns upside down and spreads its wings. When you start to speak again, words come out more directly, with more honesty and humor. It’s not all so serious.
Your mind is now more fluid and able to put things together in new ways.
So in 2026, I’m going to be putting my two favorite things together. Every Mastermind meeting will now start with a mini-dance party. And there is still one spot open :-).
I’m resolving right here and now to have more mini-dance parties in 2026. You can register for the first one on Sunday, January 11 at 12 noon EST – free – HERE.
