Hi dancers!

The last couple of blog posts I’ve been talking about self talk and affirmations and the impact they can have.  In the past few weeks of trying to change my own self talk to be more positive, I’ve definitely noticed a difference.  I realized how many times negative self talk crept into my day, and while it’s not easy to change that, I’ve really been making an effort to try!

Since we’re on the topic of positive thoughts and affirmations, I’d love to talk about something else that I think will especially be interesting to our competition team dancers who are heading into the heart of their season-visualization.  Visualization is a useful technique that can help you reach your goals!  The concept is simple-you visualize what you want to happen in great detail.  So, if you are getting ready to take the stage, you might visualize yourself in costume, on stage, performing your solo perfectly-nailing all your turns, remembering all your steps, and performing with lots of energy and facial expression.  Here’s a really interesting quote from The Success Principles:

“When you perform any task in real life, researchers have found, your brain uses the same identical processes it would use if you were only vividly visualizing that activity.  In other words, your brain sees no difference whatsoever between visualizing something and actually doing it.”

Isn’t that incredible?  Visualization can have tremendous power.  There are many examples of athletes who have used visualization to improve their performance.  Spend a couple minutes in the morning and before you go to bed visualizing your goal, filling in as much detail as possible!  Even try to imagine the emotions you’ll be feeling.  I encourage all our dancers to try visualization this week and see what happens!  And as always, please comment and let me know what you think!

Happy Dancing!