Sleep....

Over the last two weeks or so, I have only been getting a handful of hours of sleep a night. I feel as if I've just been tossing and turning and not getting as much "restful" sleep, as I should be getting. Well, Friday night and last night, I feel as if as soon as my head has hit the pillow I have been out until my alarm has gone off. I guess I finally caught up to the sleep that has been eluding me. Thank goodness....

I'm not sure why sleep has been eluding me, I have been tired from all of the dance performances/rehearsals and from work, I haven't really been having bad dreams (that I can remember anyway), I just haven't been achieving restful sleep. But, after sleeping well for the last couple of nights, I am finally feeling better - physically and emotionally. I am hoping I haven't just jinxed myself and that I'll be able to sleep tonight as well as I have the past couple of nights... =)

Something I have thought about in my semi sleep-deprived state is that I am still allowing people to take advantage of my "people pleaser" mentality. I have one again found myself putting the wants/needs/opinions of others above my own. One such opinion came in a belly dance sword I had been looking into getting. I showed a photo of it to one of my fellow dancers and her opinion made me go with a different balancing sword over the one I was excited about getting. After thinking about my decision, going back and forth about it, and talking to someone who's opinion I value greatly (thanks, Mom!), I ordered the scimitar I wanted today! As soon as I get this new one, yes, I will be the owner of two belly dance balancing swords but they are very different from one another and I will be able to use them for very different pieces of music. I can hardly wait to get my new one in the mail and get into the studio to work with it! Maybe when I get my new dance scimitar it will help me to harness my inner "warrior" in other aspects of my life as well. =)

I am looking forward to having the day off tomorrow with nothing that I have to do. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to spend my day off, but I am definitely looking forward to it. Sure, I could always straighten up my apartment or something along those lines but it's kind of nice to not have a "structure" for tomorrow. If there is something I choose to do, I can. If I decide to take a nap at one in the afternoon, I can. Yes, we have dance class tomorrow ("why should we close the studio just because it's a holiday?" my instructor would say), but the rest of the day is my own; hopefully I will be able to convince the dogs of that. =) I wish I could take the day to work on and off with my sword but that will have to wait until I get it.... Even though I was reading an article online today about sword dancing that you really shouldn't work with it for too long at any given period of time or you run into the risk of injuring yourself. As I told one of my brothers today, I don't want to get to that point where I might injure myself because I happen to like my body parts where they are currently located. =)

Well, since I have been writing about sleep, maybe I should bring this to a close for this evening in the hopes that sleep will come to me once again tonight. Before I close, I will send out a great big "Thank you" to the men and women, who are currently serving, have served or work for/with our Armed Forces! =)

Balancing Act

Well, this weekend, I danced my solo using a sword twice (once on Saturday and once today) and I am pleased to report that all of my body parts are intact and there was no injury to myself, others or property. =)

Yesterday's performance was my sword solo debut (even my instructor hadn't seen it yet; only a couple of people saw me working on variations of it at the studio after classes) and overall it went pretty well. The sword tried to slip off of my head once but I was able to stop it from falling all of the way off and was able to rebalance it pretty quickly.

After the performance, I asked my fellow dancers for some feedback. For the most part, everyone was very impressed with my solo but I did get a few suggestions. My instructor, for one, wanted to see me use the sword more (I only danced with it for just over a minute of a 5 minute + piece). Someone else suggested that I "dance" the sword off instead of just "getting rid of it."

Before today's performance, I took their suggestions under advisement and had worked on some new possibilities to work into my solo piece. We got to the performance today and the wind would not stop gusting! The gusts of wind did make it difficult for sword balancing (and I did have some people tell me that they didn't think I should use the sword today but just dance to my music) but I did it anyway! Granted, I did do more dancing "with" my sword rather than a lot of balancing it but I did manage to have it on my head for a bit. I also balanced it on my hip while doing a side bend and that was pretty cool. =)

I am proud of myself that I was "brave" and decide to use my sword for balancing today and didn't just put it aside because some of the other dancers said they didn't think they would do a sword dance today. Like I said, I did have to do some modifying as I went through the dance due to the wind but I still think I did a good job. Yes, I did complete a "no-no" in the eyes of my instructor because I turned my back on my audience to walk towards the stage and set down my sword in the middle of the dance when I was done with it, but I can't go back and change it now. We opted not to dance on the stage they had for us today because it was not in good shape to be dancing on (the top was slippery, the pieces were raised in some areas, some areas moved when walked on, etc.) and we danced on the concrete in front of the stage. In the middle of my solo, I couldn't really take the time to look around for a place to put my sword so I made a split second decision to put it on the stage behind me. Yes, in hindsight, I could have handed it to my instructor's husband who was sitting in the front row, but he was taking photos of our performance so I didn't want to give him the added responsibility of watching my sword. Oh, well. Things to think about for the next time....

Once again, I am attempting to extend what I am learning in belly dancing to my "normal" life as well. I do know that my life is not normal =) but I mean my life that doesn't directly apply to dance (i.e. my work - - - even though the theme of this week's lesson plan in different types of dancing from around the world - of course belly dancing will be included). I am working on finding the balance that I can bring to my life. I know that there are times I do worry about the "small stuff" and that is something I am trying to work on - not necessarily sweating over the small stuff. I guess I am questing to find balance and not lose any body parts..... We'll see if everything remains intact this week or not....