Why I can't dance.

Or why I don't dance well.

The power of suggestion, a suggestion I received at a young impressionable age by someone in an authority position still has an effect on me more than 30 years later.

What has the message? "It is a sin to dance" that was what I was taught in church. And to this day, I have an inability to relax and really allow myself to feel the beat and move my body.

For awhile I just thought it was a lack of training, coordination and confidence. But I have taken classes, (yoga has helped the most in freeing the body), but last night going to a class on how to Salsa, I was nearly sick at my stomach....but I went.

The result? Well I did it, went through the motions as well as most, but what I noticed I couldn't do was move my arms and hips like the others, they were really feeling it, I was just going through the steps. So on the drive home I began to really think on that and realized I was experiencing the powerful effect of direct suggestion. Now, the conscious mind can rationalize that of course dancing isn't a sin, but deep in the subconscious there is a belief that it is. As a hypnotist I see this in my clients all the time and am always amazed at how a small statement from an authority figure delivered to a children 10 or younger has profound, lasting effect.

Removing the belief.

Beliefs can be changed. I am working on changing mine by thinking that I have never actually seen anyone dancing burst in to hell-like flames, or be otherwise cast-out. They always look so free and happy to me, not at all like they were guilty sinners.

The big sin for me was leaving poor Alec E on the dance floor in high school..I promised to dance with him to that popular Bad Company song and panicked and hid from him...still feel a little guilty to this day about that, so sorry Alec.

Changing that belief will require giving myself permission to make an adult decision about what I want to do (weighing consequences if there are any). And then getting in touch with that free spirit part that knows how to move and allowing her to groove. Dance training and practice are also helpful.

Keep in mind the power of direction suggestion, whenever a person is young and impressionable, experiencing deep emotion, or hurt physically anything you say bypasses the critical factor of the conscious mind and goes straight for the subconscious where is stays until released or transformed.