ever feel like an outcast?

It was my first week at Pittsburgh Ballet Theater's summer program and my parents had just dropped me off after our long drive from New Jersey. I was 16, extremely shy, and it was my second time living away from home for the summer.

I started the whole program a week later than everyone else, and the feeling of being an outcast was palpable.

I quickly said good-bye and get-out-of-here to my parents to avoid any potential embarrassment. Hallways of bunheads chit-chatted their way to their dorm rooms, passing me by like I was invisible. I was scared of not knowing what to expect, and worried about whether or not I would fit in.

As I unpacked my stuff in my lonely second-floor dorm room (including the boxes of Teddy Grahams I smuggled in), I noticed the door had a sign with my name on it. Jessica Grippo. I took out a pen and wrote in big letters beneath it:

a.k.a. “THE NEW GIRL”

Minutes later a girl stopped in front of it and laughed. She peeked her head in, introduced herself and invited me to dinner with her group of friends.

“I have a feeling you’re...one of us.”

That night at the dinner table was a sigh of relief -

I felt connected to the four other faces who surrounded me. I laughed. I heard stories and told some of my own. I realized I wasn’t the only one who thought those bunheads were a little too stiff for their own good. I made friends and would spend the next 5 weeks getting closer and closer to them.

I’m not best friends with that Pittsburgh crew today, but the friendship we created was so meaningful to me. It helped me find home and find myself in a foreign place.

I bring this up today because I want to ask you -

Where in your life are you feeling like an outcast?

Very often when we’re not in our full expression, not doing the things we truly want to be doing, we can feel isolated, like no one really understands us. It can breed more isolation, resentment, depression, and stuckness.

If I hadn’t expressed myself with “THE NEW GIRL” sign on my dorm room back then, I might not have connected to that awesome group of people who became my community. In fact, there were plenty of other ballet classes and programs I was part of that I spent totally alone, too scared to reach out to anyone.

In adult life, we don’t often have the opportunity to be thrown into new groups of people and friends -- unless we seek them out.

Here are a few suggestions for creating more community and connection in your life:

• Check out Meetup.com and join a group or two that interests you. Don’t see anything that you like? You could also start a Meetup of your own!

• Seek out a class that you could attend weekly, consistently. A dance class, art class, martial arts, etc - what have you been wanting to explore? Also see below for something I’m offering this year.

• Start a group of your own. Host an event or just invite people to a group event. When I first moved to Brooklyn, I invited 3 friends to join me on a beach trip. They didn’t know each other at the time, but to this day the 4 of us are still great friends and even have a nickname for our group.

• Strike up conversation in an elevator or on line at the grocery store. Even brief moments of connection feel fantastic.

Any suggestions to share? Still feeling stuck?

Share in the comments below!

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Have you been feeling a bit alien in your current surroundings?

Do you desire to express yourself as the artist you truly are?

I invite you to speak up!

We’re down to 2 spots left in the Thriving Artist’s Program.

Apply here.

[/feature_box]  After finishing up a group session with my current clients in the program earlier this week, I was filled with that same feeling I had when I was 16: I found home. I found myself again. And judging by the shares from each woman there, I could tell they felt the same.

They are each working through their own path, live in different places -  from New York and North Carolina, all the way to San Francisco and Los Angeles - but yet have so much in common with one another:

• making their way out of draining desk jobs and into their passions

• reviving dance, painting, and singing back into their lives

• creating community and positively impacting the people around them

It’s not too late to join this group of fantastic humans. In fact, it’s the perfect time to join.

Apply here and I’ll get back to you within the next few days to let you know if it sounds like the right fit, and talk about next steps.

If you’ve read this far, I already have a feeling you’re... one of us.

inviting you to be yourself,

Jess

time for a fresh start

 

Let out a big sigh, creative one.

Are you ready for a fresh start?

Ready to lighten up your load?

Sometimes all it take is some focused intention.

When was the last time you sat down and talked about your dreams?

When was the last time you really listened to your heart and soul?

These words: “dreams,” “heart,” “soul,” can sound very cheesey. Words reserved for 9 year old girls with bedazzled headbands, maybe, or the next meeting of the woo-woo club.

But what if those words were actually applicable to YOU?

This weekend, I encourage you to try them on.

Make time and space for yourself, or gather with a group of close friends, and do the following:

• On one piece of paper, write out all the crap you’re sick and tired of - the situations or behaviors that are draining you.

• Put on a piece of music that stirs your emotions, and dance with this piece of paper until you’re ready to rip it up and throw it away.

• Then, take another piece of paper, write down the question, “Dear Heart & Soul of mine, what is it that you truly want?” Then free-write from the perspective from your heart and soul about your DREAM, i.e. the vision of what you truly want for yourself and for the world.

• Share this letter out loud - either with the group you’re in, or if you’re doing the exercise solo, call someone up or post it below in the comment box ;)

• Then go play, have fun, be yourself to the max. Don’t take it all so seriously.

Tomorrow happens to be a significant astrological event - the New Moon in Sagittarius - which, according to Mystic Mama, is “a time of aligning with our deepest truth and having the courage to move, express and create from our center.”

Go with that feeling!

You have the power to create what you want.

Tell me in the comments below what you're ready to shake off, and what your heart and soul are really craving right now. 

I’ll leave you with something I wrote earlier this month while the sun was setting over the ocean. Use any part of it as an affirmation for yourself if it applies, and if not, please write your own.

I believe in myself.

I believe in my ability to create life and beauty and joy and abundance and health and a meaningful imprint on this planet.

I believe in the power of creativity and artistic expression.

I believe in this earth, I believe in the moon.

I believe in a universal connection to something greater.

I believe in dance.

believing in you,

Jess

5 steps to making aligned choices

I’ve spent so much of my life in the kinda/maybe/sort-of land, not fully committing or making decisions until it became absolutely torturous or until someone else made the decision for me.

For example -

Person: “Are you moving to LA or just visiting?”

Me: “Well, I’m kinda moving there…”

Person: “Do you want to go see this movie tonight?”

Me: “Maybe…”

It was much easier to play the confused role.

It was much easier to say “I don’t know” than it was to take a stand for SOMETHING and risk that it might not be “right” or that it might bother someone else.

The results of being in this energy?

Mixed messages. Doing one thing while thinking about something else. Never fully being IN anything. Lots of time and energy wasted on overthinking. People’s feelings = hurt.

It basically sucks.

Can you relate at all? Have you ever “kinda/maybe/sort-of”-ed your way through a situation?

If you recognize how you’ve been playing a role in keeping yourself and others stuck in this mode, I have a proposal for you.

This is my 5-step body-based formula for making a choice:

1. Think about one scenario that you’re confused on.

2. Write down the potential choices you could make within that scenario.

3. One by one, embody each of those choices by dancing and moving around to what it feels like for you.

4. Take note of what your body wants to do when you imagine each choice, and pay attention to the feelings that come up for each. Write these down next to each potential choice on your list.

5. Make a bold move to pick one of them, based on what your body is telling you.

Feel free to use this and re-use this strategy as needed.

And if it doesn’t come easy at first, that makes total sense. Be gentle with yourself, because understanding the language of your heart and body takes time. (Believe me, I’m still working on it.)

What I know for sure is this:

By getting more connected to your body, you’ll exercise your ability to literally MOVE forward in your life.

When you stop creating drama that clouds your truth, you free yourself up to create your dreams, your art, and your passions.

In other words, you truly become the creator of your life.

What would YOU be freed up to do if you actually were able to make clear-cut decisions?

Tell me, please! There’s a blank comment box below waiting to be filled by you.

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And, if you’re in the midst of making decisions or feeling stuck in transitions in your life, I invite you to join me on a 4-week journey that starts next week.

Click here to find out more and take the first step of your bold new life!

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Remember:

The answers are inside of you.

Life is inside of you.

You can create what you desire.

It is safe for you to take up space, expand and grow.

Your body is a sacred portal to your dreams.

moving with you,

jess

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feeling discontent?

Today’s note is brief, creative one.

I’m guessing you’re in some sort of transition right now.

Things might not feel totally clear.

Maybe there’s some impatience or frustration apparent for you.

If you’re feeling any sort of discontent, know that it’s totally normal. In fact, it’s an essential part of being a creative being.

Next week I’ll have something new and exciting to share that might help shake you out of any icky feelings that might be present, but until then I wanted to leave you with a note from the Muses you might need to hear....

[via Sonia Choquette’s Ask Your Guides cards:]

Sooner or later in our evolutionary process, each of us begins to realize that it’s not the having that fulfills our soul, but rather it’s the act of creating that brings us satisfaction.

Contentment in what we’ve created - no matter how grand - inevitably subsides, and our creative juices once again long to flow. That’s why the once-ideal partner ceases to mesmerize, the perfect job eventually becomes mundane, and the great adventure becomes tedious.

Although there’s a lot to be said for enjoying what we have now, we must nevertheless respect the fact that our basic nature as creative beings is...to create. Without the process, we can’t be fully content - at least not for long.

Your Muses are present, and they call on you now to embrace your creative discontent and undertake new projects. Their message: “See your frustration as a longing to learn more, expand more, dare more, and create more.”

What are you feeling frustrated with?

What are you longing to create?

Let's talk about it in the comments. After all, it's more fun to get these things out in the open than it is to be silently tormented, alone with your thoughts. (Am I right?)

Can't wait to hear from you.

to creating our way,

Jess

p.s. Did you miss the live broadcast of our Virtual Showcase? Check it out here:

There were tears, there laughs, there were beautiful drawings and touching words. Oh, and there were dance breaks!

Anneris shared her inspiring story of overcoming her own fears around putting her creative self out there, and she shared the project that she's been working on: her beautiful children's book with an inspiring message.

Listen in and you'll be inspired. Towards the end I walk you through a brief exercise and movement segment to help you tap into your own creative desires and put them in motion.

pointlessness vs. productivity

When I was 20 years old, my Italian boyfriend Giuseppe bought me a magenta egg, carved out of some kind of stone. We found it in a tiny art shop outside of Firenze.

In a form of broken Italian-English, I asked him, “What’s the point?”

I can’t remember his exact words, but the idea was that it had no point other than just being what it was. He told me to keep it as a reminder.

I thought he was un poco pazzo (a lil crazy) -- chalk it up to my American-influenced mind that placed so much value on things that were productive and had obvious purpose. But I said Grazie and kept the egg anyway.

This moment, let me mention, was also a mere year after I had quit dance. Again, I was in the mindset of “What’s the point?” “What difference am I really making by dancing around all day?” I had decided to move on to academia and more direct ways of helping people. The arts felt too selfish for me at the time.

It would take me many years and many self-imposed dance sessions to realize that dancing was truly a part of who I was. Just by dancing and being myself I was contributing to the world in a meaningful way. And to top it off, the more I danced, the more my career expanded and the more I was able to help people.

I had a feeling you might need to hear this story today.

I had a feeling that you might be placing too much value on what you’re producing in the world, rather than accepting the inherent value you have just by being yourself.

I’m in California now, which brings up a lot of what Italy had brought up for me over 10 years ago. I’m still learning and still soothing that part of me that clings to productivity, but here’s what’s apparent:

Not every second of the day needs to be filled with action.

There’s no room for receiving anything if you’re constantly trying to produce something.

Sometimes a magenta egg is the whole point.

There are moments to work and there are also many more moments to sit and daydream and listen and dance and feel the sun and see the stars.

Imagine how much more space you could create in your life if you let yourself be…

I invite you try it out this week.

Take some things off your to-do list.

Follow your impulse.

Give yourself permission to do something “pointless.”

I’ll leave you with a poem that has been in my heart, plus a recent dance video.

Leave me with a comment if you feel moved to share something.

to the value in you,

jess

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A poem on being

by Jess Grippo 10/22/15

Sweet presence of being

of fully seeing

that all along I was deceived.

I thought I had

so much to do

but only had to be received.

If joy can happen

in the here and now

why didn’t it happen before?

That’s a question to surrender

‘cause we can’t go back,

but clearly I wanted more.

Now it’s apparent

that the more I wanted

was actually inside of me

And as long as I stay

true to myself

happy I will be.

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Is dance your thing? Do you want it to be?

I'm now accepting enrollment for the fall sessions of my You Can Dance Again program. After Monday, the price goes up by $100, so click this button now to get all the details and let's dance it out!

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4 ways you might be hiding

Let’s talk about hiding today.

While this could potentially mean that you spend your time ducking behind a large object in hopes that no one sees you, I’ll venture to guess that there are many more subtle ways of hiding that you are engaging in on a daily basis.

Usually we hide to protect ourselves - from ridicule, from vulnerability, from a range of fears - which makes sense, because really putting yourself out there can be a scary thing.

But how much is that protection serving you and how much is it holding you back from accomplishing the work you really want to do in the world?

Hint: If you ever find yourself complaining that more people don’t hire you or know about your work, chances are you’re doing quite a bit of hiding and it’s not really serving you.

I want to share a few key ways that you might be hiding to help you identify your patterns and get out of your own way,

But first let me be clear about something:

I’m not saying that you need to jump out of the hole tomorrow and run around town naked. I’m not pushing you to do something you’re not ready to do. I’m not placing more value on outward appearances than inward process.

In fact, I want you to honor your self-protection first and recognize how it’s served you. I want you to dance with your fear of being seen before you make moves out of it. I want you to follow the natural cycles of your creativity so that you don’t force outcomes when they are not yet ready to be unearthed. I want you, most of all, to just be yourself and see how it feels to do more of that in an open way.

So take that in and then see if any of these resonate with you...

4  Ways You Might Be Hiding:

• Downplaying - Talking about what you do as if it doesn’t really matter to you. “Oh yea, I kinda dabble in making art but it’s not a big deal…”

• Diverting - Quickly changing the subject to talk about someone or something else. “But that doesn’t matter, tell me what do YOU do? Tell me more about THAT!”

• Omitting - Leaving out key aspects of who you are - in conversation, on your website, etc.

• Staying silent - Choosing not to put yourself out there - i.e. to not apply for grants or jobs, to not contact potential collaborators, to not share your work.

Here’s my confession -

I’ve been involved in the sin of Omitting for quite awhile, without even really noticing it until my amazing coach pointed it out.

There are many people in my social circles who either know me as a dancer or know me as a health coach and I tend to leave it at that. I’ve left out sharing more about the life coaching work that I’m totally passionate about, the work that has actually been my main focus for years: specifically working with people on unearthing their buried creative passions and helping them to reintegrate them back into their lives. I haven’t shared that the people I’ve worked with have gone on to start dance companies and other kinds of creative businesses, to make career changes, to perform or publish their art, and to finally own the title “artist.”

Why have I left this out?

Well, it can be awkward to rattle all that off to someone on a random occasion, and it’s also easier to be known amongst a small group of people who I know will “get it” and to not risk being looked at funny when you tell someone you’re actually a creativity coach.

So I’m taking steps to out myself in this way more and more and am already feeling a notable difference. (If you subscribe to my emails, you’ll even notice something new and different at the end in the “About” section ;)

So what’s yours?

In what ways have YOU been hiding?

Out yourself in the comments below with one specific way you’ve been hiding lately.

Do you feel ready to let it go? What needs to be said or done in order to do so?

How you choose to share - or not share - yourself and your work has powerful implications on the outcomes of your life. Choose wisely ;)

I can’t wait to hear from you! (Or am I the only one who was hiding?)

coming out,

Jess