Why I'm Doing a Dance Documentary

A few days ago, I was talking with a filmmaker friend of mine. I was telling her about how excited I am to be performing at the St. Louis Salsa Bachata Festival and how big of a deal it is for me. You see, I'm 42 years old and I’ve been out of performance dance shape for a long time. I told her about how awesome it would be to step out on stage, feeling completely fierce - back in dance form, head to toe, maybe even better than I’ve ever been before. I told her how empowering and affirming that would be for me - especially after all the frustrations of this year.

I told her about how this entire year has been one difficulty and disappointment after the next (when it was supposed to be a step up from last year) and how it’s resulted in me feeling like I’m completely rebirthing myself - walking through the fires of disappointment again and making peace with certain things about my life while still stepping up to the plate and trying again with old dreams and goals. Even despite my battles with anxiety and depression, I’m rising every chance I get and doing my best to say “maybe it could work this time” instead of “nope, been there, done that”.

I told her about my plan to “go hard” in my own way to prepare for St. Louis. That in the midst of relaunching my makeup line, launching my skincare line and generally trying to live a productive life, I was also going to get “badass dancer” Leah back too. I was going to get back in dancer shape. I was going to lose the weight and the lethargy. I was going to find my energy and unshakable stage presence again and I was going to perform so well that I high-fived myself. Because why not? Why not take it all on. Life is to be lived afterall.

And she said Leah, this needs to be a documentary and I’m going to shoot it for you. And so here we are, with me launching a GoFundMe campaign and setting off on this epic adventure :).

The video below talks more about the project and you can view and share the GoFundMe page here. Much thanks and so much love <3!

Staying in the Game

I am so very proud of myself for this past Tuesday. It was a tough day. It was the first day of my cycle, my emotions were all over the place, I was tired, feeling sick, my usual rah-rah was a quiet, little 'I guess, maybe' and I just felt crappy. But I still had to go to Paul Mitchell and try to be my best self there and then I had this really cool, awesome thing to do that evening that took me back to all the things that were important to me maybe 15 years ago - that I had no desire to do at all at the moment. I was teaching a class called Wise Woman Ways to Happy Hormones for our Central Arkansas Herbalism group and my own hormones were all over the place. And yet, I could not bail on any of it because when I'm feeling my most awesome, these are things that I cherish and feel incredibly grateful that I get to do. 

So how did I get through it? Focusing on my silver linings. Distracting myself into the next minute with things or either thoughts of things I enjoy. Reminding myself that I'm pretty awesome, I rock things like this out all of the time and I even have evidence. Reminding myself that I'm not doing this by myself (my woowoo friends will know what I mean). And promising myself a bomb dinner and vegan (me being nice to my body) chocolate for dessert 🙃.

And it worked :-). The Universe helped me stay focused, enjoy sharing and give out the right information that everyone needed that day. Yay!

So I'm proud of myself for staying in the game yesterday. Sometimes it's just not the right time for a time out and you have to keep it going. I'm immensely grateful to everyone that gave me smiles and good vibes yesterday without even realizing what good and needed medicine that was for me. And I'm immensely grateful to the Universe for always having a path before me to follow 💖🌞😊.

Recap of the WINMind Fit Workshop

This past weekend was magickal. I was a guest speaker at the WIN MINDFit Workshop. It's really difficult to explain how healing and beautiful it was. I can say though that I am beyond honored to have been a part of it and I am so grateful to be able to continue to be a part of it. I am so looking forward to the next installment on June 9th. 

My talk was all about your ego and how it really is doing the best it can trying to protect you. Once you have an awareness of that, it's so much easier to have compassion for yourself and to stop yourself from falling into knee-jerk responses of fear, self-loathing and ultimately projection. 

Speaking at #WINMindFit 

The theme of this workshop was finding the WILL to change. The next will focus on sustaining change. If you are curious about joining us, you can find more information at www.winwoman.org/mindfit  

If you know you are ready to make major changes and are in need of support, remember I'm always available to help you create your game plan. Just message me and we can schedule some time to chat.