The Ecstatic Dance of Life
Learning to live like nobody’s watching.
Dear friend,
How are you? And how is your beautiful heart?
I pray all is as well as can be on your end. After all, we are living through such chaotic, powerful, revolutionary times and that definitely takes its toll on a human being.
I know my own heart has been battered, bruised, ripped right open and travelled a tumultuous journey all around the globe to every person barely surviving in this world under oppression and genocide. Perhaps yours has, too? Or perhaps you are somewhere along the long journey into yourself and are facing your own challenges along the way, whatever they may be. Maybe both.
Either way, please be gentle with yourself. And please, always keep your heart open to the whole of humanity. Ultimately we are all family. Let us remember.
I laid myself down on the small hill, the grass still damp from the raindrops that had just blessed us along with sunshine just a few moments before. My body was still bopping to the rhythmic beat as it swirled its way through the headphones, and right into every cell of my body and being. My eyes flickered open. Woah. I closed them again. Not ready. I breathed deeply, allowing my body to continue moving under the command of the beat, despite now laying down. Another deep breath and upon exhale, my eyes flickered open again. And I began to slowly absorb all that I was seeing.
I looked up, entranced by the flawless sky. White, candyfloss clouds adorned the baby blue canvas while pure, innocent light lit them up like giant jewels, just out of my reach. But what’s more is that I could see what appeared to be every cell and atom of every thing bopping along in perfect synchronicity, just like I was with the music in my ears.
Everything was alive.
The sky was alive. The sun was alive. My eyes then travelled down and landed on each of my fellow retreaters sprawled out across the emerald green lawn, lost in their own musical universe too, their bodies synchronised with the chorus of their being. The people I saw before me, were alive.
This was my first official ecstatic dance experience and as my eyes wandered across the lawn, back up to the sky and then to my knees swaying from side to side, my hands held across my chest in a perfect ‘namaste’, I laughed out loud. I hadn’t felt free like this in so long. SO long.
And as I once again took in the sight before me, I realised I had never seen other people as free as they were in this moment too. Noone cared how they looked. How they were acting. Noone cared if anyone was watching. This group of people from all around the world and from all walks of life who were strangers less than 48 hours previously, were now dancing as wild as they wanted to, sober, without a care in the world.
Unbound. Untethered. Untamed. FREE. It was breathtaking.
Every human being on that lawn and inside the big barn where the ecstatic dance facilitator resided was so lost yet so completely found in the present moment. It was one of the most beautiful, magical, powerful things I have ever seen. And in the couple of weeks that have passed since that experience, it’s really had me reflecting.
If we can dance like nobody’s watching, what is to stop us from living our lives like nobody’s watching, too?
There are so many of us living in this world, living this one life, living this one known chance that we get at this human experience - yet we are not living for ourselves. We are shackled to things outside of us and outside of our control, constantly chasing, never quite enough, always doing doing doing so that we can eventually land in a place that we call freedom. But operating from that place of being a prisoner, whether we are conscious to it or not, will never deliver us to freedom. Instead, when we think we have arrived, we will construct a new ‘freedom’ to strive towards - and so the cycle will continue.
We are bound by this world in so many ways. In every area of our lives, in every facet of society, we are subtly and not-so-subtly under the control of powers outside of us and the power of the ego that lives within. It is no easy feat to become conscious of all of that, let alone learn to break free of it. But isn’t it worth trying?
So, how would you live if nobody was watching?
Truly, how would you live if nobody was watching?
If there were no societal standards? No cultural conditionings? No egotistical imaginings?
How would you live if there was no measure of ‘success’, or ‘beauty’ or ‘worth’? How would you live if you no longer had to Keep up with the Kardashians or the Khans? How would you live if you didn’t have to continue to prove yourself to someone or something outside of you?
How would you live if you didn’t have to get the best grades, land the best job, buy the best house, drive the best car, build the perfect body, marry the perfect partner, have the perfect kids and go on those perfect once-or-twice-a-year holidays?
How would you live if no-one was watching you or judging you or hating on you? Include yourself in that, too. How would you live if you stopped judging, condemning, criticising and hating yourself?
How would you live if the only thing that mattered was your own happiness? Your own inner peace? Your own freedom?
How would you live if you just stopped giving a f*ck about what everyone else thinks, and started actually living for yourself?
How would you live if you returned to your Being, and decided, one day, to begin to live completely as your whole, full, authentic self?
How would you live?
I saw and experienced the power of Being on a personal level and a collective level as we all danced barefoot in the grass, under the sunshine and the rain, to the same beat. We were all dancing to the same music fed to us through the headphones sitting atop our ears, but each of us had our own dance, our own way, allowing the music of our souls to guide us on our ecstatic dance journey. Everyone moved differently. But everyone moved beautifully.
Just imagine a world where we could do the same. Where we could allow the music of the universe, the beating of our hearts, the rhythm of our souls and the light of our spirits to take the reins and guide us through the ecstatic dance of life.
All of us dancing like nobody’s watching.
Dancing together, yet living like nobody’s watching.
Just imagine.
With Light, Love & Peace,
Sabah x
(P.S. I finished writing this at 3 am lying next to a disturbed-in-his-sleep 3-year-old, 8 hours before it was due to go out so please excuse the writing. I’m quite aware that this is not my best work but I do hope the message reached you.🙏🏼)
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How would you have written if no one read it? Just like you did now - from the heart ✨ so no need to apologise for your writing not being your ‘best’
And the message was absolutely beautiful ❤️
Sabah, are you fricking kidding me?! Not your best work??? Your words were ecstatically dancing off the screen and into my heart, conveying the thrill and awe of your experience, while making me ponder with exquisite relief who I wanted to be if I could be anyone at all - perhaps the most important question every one needs to ask themselves. My favorite line was when you described the ecstatic dancers as being “lost yet so completely found in the present moment”. How beautiful! I’m so happy you were able to have this experience. I hope we can do something like this together some day. I hope we can do ANYTHING together some day!