In a few conversations I’ve had with friends and peers over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been asked about how I’m staying motivated in maintaining my own schedule of attending online dance/ movement classes a year on from when we first went into lockdown. For the most part, I’ve followed my instincts within each moment and muddled through. In being prompted to look back, I’ve been able to connect some dots and figure out the strategies that have emerged for me – so I’ve pulled together 5 top tips based on my experience.
1. Define what time/ space you have as a resource
If you are considering what classes you want in your schedule, you need to figure out where they’re going to fit. At this point, you’re probably familiar with which room in your house is your preferred space to dance in – so if you’re in a shared household are there restrictions regarding times that you can have priority in this room? Or if you have other work commitments, or responsibilities to care for others in your house, are there any particular windows of time that you can carve out for yourself? For me, knowing that I prefer dancing in the main living room space means that I need to plan to take class in the morning/ early afternoon on weekdays while the rest of my household works, and that I implement a ‘no dancing during evenings and weekends’ rule. Even if you live solo and don’t have many demands in your schedule, I’d recommend trialling some limitations on the time you have available to dance. Knowing where to start when you’ve got an expanse of 24 hours across 7 days to fill can be quite overwhelming – but if you’ve made a decision that some days are designated rest days and that your energy levels are best in the evenings between 5 and 7pm, that gives you a great launch pad for actively finding classes which you can do between those times.
2. Ask around for recommendations
Talking of overwhelm, there’s a lot of classes out there now seemingly at your fingertips from all over the world, with the details being disseminated across different social media channels, websites, booking platforms and into your inbox. So much information is tricky to process and can leave you feeling exhausted and demotivated before you’ve begun! To combat this, I think it’s really useful to reach out to friends and peers for personal recommendations – whether directly through a text message or phone call, or by posing the question more broadly on your own social media platforms and seeing who responds. I’m so willing to share my experiences of classes – especially when the person asking has clarity over what time/ format/ genre of dance they are wanting to engage with - then I feel the information I can supply is likely to hold more relevance. Another bonus of reaching out in this way is that it’s possible you could find yourself with a class buddy – arranging to head to the same class together often means that you will want to have a little debrief after. It’s also a great accountability measure – if you’ve told someone else you’re going to be there, you’re less likely to bail out.
3. Experiment with the motivation for your choices
If you’re going to class because you ‘should’ and out of habit, that can be quite draining. Recently, I have found it helpful to understand which of the following C’s are taking priority and balancing them with my needs and emotions throughout each week:
Checking In – really simply checking in with my moving body with space to listen and notice what is coming up for me
Comfort – for me, comfort often equates with a sense of taking care, and elevating the value of support, trust and familiarity, whether in my body or the class I am choosing to engage with
Curiosity – my most inquisitive state with a readiness to learn, accepting and welcoming the feeling of not holding the answers already and being open to confusion.
Courage – a big motivator for me, an opportunity to be bold, to show up with my whole heart and move onwards. If I invoke courage, there is often a return in the form of self-encouragement.
Connection/ Community – a desire to ‘meet’, be alongside and responsive to other humans.
Understanding these as different drivers, I find really useful in making choices as to how I want to spend my time reserved for moving each week – noticing how these values can overlap, intersect and be catered for. I tend not to pre-plan a timetable, I keep in touch with a broad idea of the classes on offer, and then make a decision to book the night before so that I can be more in tune with my current energy levels before I commit.
4. Write your schedule down (dig out your diary)
How I use my diary has really changed this past year – previous to the pandemic I used it to pencil in possible futures, whereas at present it has become an archive as to how I’ve spent my time. After each class I take, I write it down. The side effect of this is that I don’t need to keep reinventing the wheel: if it gets to Monday night and I’ve not decided what class I’m going to take on Tuesday, I can flick back through my diary and see what I did the previous Tuesday and use that as inspiration. It helps me hold onto a structure without the rigidity of a set timetable.
5. Embrace change, little by little
A month or so into the first lockdown, after many weeks of experimenting, I had a ‘eureka’ week where I felt like the combination of classes I’d woven together as a schedule really fulfilled my needs. So, I repeated it the following week, expecting the same satisfaction. What I actually learned was that I found sticking to exactly the same schedule constricting and frustrating, and it became a slog of obligation. From thereon in, I set myself the goal of changing one aspect of my timetable each week – staying courageous – so that I would continue to enter spaces lead by artists who I had not encountered before. What has been particularly useful in achieving this challenge is finding company classes which rotate through different freelance company members leading their sessions! It also prevents me from holding too tightly to particular classes on particular days – there have been instances where I have kept regular contact with a class each week, finding comfort and community over 6 months or so. When a treasured class, such as this, has then shifted to a time which I was unavailable, being practised in the experience of embracing one change each week means that I am more equipped to respond and regroup without too much turmoil. It has also been really interesting to look back on my year’s diary of movement experiences, and see how naturally this process of embedding one change each week has allowed my schedule to continually evolve in a way that I find engaging.
I think at the root of all of these tips/ suggestions based on my experience, is an understanding that there is an absolute need to be responsive to your own needs and desires whilst navigating the constant possibility of overwhelm. As described, it has helped me to set a framework of self-imposed rules, goals and checklists with the beauty being that I can choose to disregard them or make exceptions and be spontaneous with what feels most useful any one week. There have been odd weeks where I have taken a weekend class, or instead of making a single change to the pattern of the week, have taken a new-to-me class each day, and of course there have been rest/ holiday weeks. Having the ‘container’ for my schedule in place though is what helps give rise to exploring the breadth of possibility. I am hoping all of this acquired knowledge will continue to serve in how I schedule my working life both while I continue to spend most of my time at home, and beyond.
I’ll leave you with this quote from Mary Oliver who sums it up much more succinctly: