Can you be both critical and self-compassionate with yourself? I think you can and I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive. Lately, I’ve been overindexing on self-compassion, reminding myself, when I falter, that others are in the same shoes as me. The thought of me not being alone, in itself, reduces feelings of shame. At the same time, I’m digging more deeply into the idea of being self-critical while at the same time, not (negatively) impacting my own sense of self worth.
Anyways, one of the ways in which I modify my movement is by comparing to other’s movements that I find aesthetically pleasing. For this example, I’m going to use Kerry (my current 1:1 dance coach) to compare. This video clip (of me) was captured (unbeknownst to me at the time) by Patrick, a dance friend, who shared this with me. When I first saw the clip, I noticed in my body that I felt a little shame, or embarassment, thoughts in my head like “Oh my god, look at how the arms are positioned.” Going back to what I said earlier, I want to practice being compassionate with myself, less judgemental and at the same time, improve. So, in spirit of making adjustments, here are some things I noticed:
- Arm positioning – when shuffling to the right and the last step in the sequence, my arm is bent backwards, the angle a little greater than 90 degrees, about 110 degrees (eye balling here).
- Shoulders – although she turns her left shoudler to the right, she doesn’t dip it down; that is, she still keeps her chest upright
