Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Self image prompt

How did you relate to your classmates? Were you comparing yourself to them? If so, why did you do that and what did you learn? -Shira.net prompt

I attended my first ever tribal belly dance class today at the Well Being Studio in Itaewon. Man, it was hard. I've been sick in bed for two weeks, so I'm physically weak. Plus this brand new posture and style to learn and so many little things I had to concentrate on that had become automatic for me in Oriental style dance classes. Whew.

Add to that my being distracted by the teacher's and other student's long, lithe bodies in the mirror, mine looking round and plump by comparison, they showing off slender tummies and dance pants that accentuate their movements better while I was covered in workout gear. And I wondered if I could ever look so slim and graceful. It doesn't help that I typically barely glance at myself in the studio mirrors, preferring instead to carefully watch and emulate the instructor.

Anyway, I left feeling particularly "blah" about myself. But I stopped by What the Book? and chanced upon a memoir about food and sex and sensuality. The author is brilliant and her book laugh-out-loud funny. ("Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses" by Isabel Allende) See the poem from the post below this. She begins by stating at age 50, "I repent of my diets, the delicious dishes rejected out of vanity, as much as I lament the opportunities for making love that I let go by because of pressing tasks or puritancal virtue."

It's cheered me up a bit.

It's not so much seasonal affective disorder as I need to exercise almost daily to keep from feeling depressed and crazy-like, but the weather and illness have trapped me indoors, trapped me in my bed and my head, increasingly insane. I'm sure, with patience, the weather will improve and I can start working out and feeling happy again.

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