Taking Off The Mask And How Dancing Helps

There’s something about midlife that invites a kind of unmasking.

The people-pleasing begins to lose its grip as we stop making so much bloody effort to be likeable.

And slowly, the parts of ourselves that we have kept tucked away begin to stretch and breathe.

My friend Beatrix and I were talking about this recently. We met when she started coming to my No Lights No Lycra dance sessions. Then she started to come to yoga classes and over time we have got to know each other more and more.  As time went by, we discovered that we had many things in common and were both late-in-life, self-diagnosed neurodivergent. Understanding this for ourselves gave both of us so many answers to our lives and all that we felt - the sensitivity, the deep care, the over-whelm, the creative tendencies and the intensity.

Last week Beatrix shared something with me that I related to straight away:

“ It’s got to be either shiny or on fire to capture our attention” 

So True! Neurodivergent minds crave aliveness.

We are either fully lit up or we’re gone.

When we care, we care deeply - we often fall headfirst into what fascinates us. Going down a rabbit hole for hours on end.

Dancing is a wonderful medicine for neurodivergent people.

It’s how we discharge energy, process emotion, and speak the language of the body where nothing needs to be translated or fixed.

When I dance in the dark, I’m not performing. 

I’m expressing. 

I’m alive.

And maybe that’s what taking off the mask is - a return to our aliveness.

A remembering of our truest, deepest essence and the unapologetic expression of that.

And somewhere along the way, we realise that we are fucking glitter bombs.

Bright. 

Messy.

Unexpected.

Colour and light that refuse to stay contained.

So here’s to my uniquely wired, deep feeling, easily distracted, just right - glitter bomb friends.

Here’s to midlife as the great unveiling 

As we take off our masks and shine brightly forevermore

Ta - Da 🪄🪄