Hello, hello, Soulie’s and welcome to another fresh week of our blog. I thought this week I would discuss the upcoming retreat that I'm a part of in Noosa, Queensland Australia.
I fly out this Saturday morning and there is 16 of us going on this adventure, Hosted by Marnie Hay from Red Back Fitness in Eltham and supported by Belinda Denison. Marnie is a facilitator that is all above celebrating being alive, and because of this calls her voyages are named “Reboots” instead of retreat. Marnie believes you should live a life that does not need retreating from.
The Reboot holiday is about returning to play, health and wellness. I'm going as contributing guests, I will be receiving some of the goodness (because it's important for healers to get the healing) But I'll also be contributing with some Reiki, supporting the facilitators and supporting guests that might need help in the moment, if big things come up for them that needs talking through.
The main highlight of my contribution is that I will be hosting an Ecstatic Dance night. All the members of the recboot camp know about this workshop. Some of them are excited and some of them are terrified - naturally.
What I want to speak to and lean into is why do we reserve play and silliness for only those who have earned our absolute trust? Normally that comes from that maybe you were heckled or maybe someone made fun of you when you were silly, and if so what a bummer - that, that critic might have sent you back into a cave that only a very small select few get the best silliest, funniest parts of you.
Now I would like to say that a couple of years ago I returned to my authentic self, with zero f*cks. It doesn't matter who I'm speaking to or what I'm speaking about. You will get every bit of Gayle and all of her goofiness. For me it’s about consistently showing up simply as I am. You don't have to earn my trust to get the best parts of me. The other reason I do that is because there is such a medicine in it for me to not have to flip between different people and have my guard up, to create this level of protection, because fundamentally your opinion of me is starting to matter less and less. Not that I don’t care, simply that I believe I’m either a person for you or not. Nothing more and nothing less.
And boy is that a wonderful way to dwell, the better I get at mastering that, what an easy going place to live in. I'm not having to constantly reset and reconfigure my behavior to suit someone else’s comfort level. I can be my silly-billy self. Some people might even think I’m a moron… that’s ok. I know I’m not.
Now back to the dance, let's discuss the dance. This dance will have energizing music. It will start off with music that is more aligned with opening up your chakras because again, it is still an energy movement to support clearing the funk. What I do though, is put a “mask” on it so that feels familiar. When something feels familiar, it feels safer to dabble in this space authentically and with as much enthusiasm as it deserves. Initially we'll start off with just some gentle movement, some nice bass music, not too fast, just to warm your body up.
Once we are moving and awakening, then we will come into familiar sounds that are traditional anthems that people just can't help but move to they feel it deep in their body, getting the cells firing within you. We give in to this absolute surrender of play and silliness. We give into this delight, this euphoric experience of being together as one all being silly, all being dorky, all having fun. In this space, there is no judgment, there is no shame there is nothing to hide. In fact, I'll be encouraging you to show me the dorkiest moves you possibly have. And we will laugh, and we will celebrate and we will wiggle, jiggle and dance away our funk.
We will dress in an 80’s theme to get into characater, which is a part of wearing a mask. This will help us to feel less exposed and make it easier to relax.
Now, let’s dance!!
Enjoy your week ahead. As always, thank you for reading.
xoxoxoxoxo
