As humans, the importance of being in touch with your wellbeing is often thrown around loosely, but it is not a one size fits all approach. It is so important to have your priorities set and a lifestyle balance that suits YOU as a dancer. With the disruption of Covid-19, it is normal to feel like your routine and balance has been thrown; it’s also important to remember that you are not the only one feeling like this. A change in routine and priorities, doesn’t mean a pause, you just need the tools to return back to normality.
As a young dancer, balancing training with school, work, friends, family and other hobbies can be difficult. With overwhelming deadlines and commitments, it can often be easy to lose sight of your own wellbeing at the best of times. It’s incredibly important to ensure you are making time for yourself and checking in daily with how you’re feeling both mentally and physically. Creating an awareness of your mind and body is vital in recognising when you need to rest and recharge and when you’re at peak performance to really maximise progress from your dance training, without burning yourself out.
The introduction of online school and dancing created a loss of social interaction and therefore motivation for most activities; as young people thrive off and are quickly influenced by their peers’ energy. Feelings of loneliness and isolation are completely normal, but it is important to keep in touch with these feelings and ensure you are doing enough to help them. Returning back to normal is exciting but can be overwhelming after so much time alone. Check in with yourself – are you feeling overwhelmed? Are you making time for yourself? Are you trying to do too much too quickly?
The best way to navigate a return to normality is to live by the rule of 3, and understand the importance of time management. So, at the beginning of the week, evaluate everything you have coming up – deadlines, tasks, assessments, training, etc. And organise them into a priority list. Each day choose 3 things you are going to focus on/complete for the day. Instead of trying to cram as many half done tasks as you can every day, designate a day and time to complete them in order of priority. For example, if you start dancing straight after school on a Monday, then your training is your priority for that day, so you could aim to get more schoolwork done in school hours, rather than giving yourself work to come home to. If you have a day where you don’t have dancing, designate it to study and/or have free time, depending on urgency. Ensure you are giving yourself time to unwind, eat and relax before studying after school – but don’t use this time to procrastinate, as this will increase your stress levels when you don’t get the tasks finished.
Most importantly, don’t put excess pressure on yourself! At the end of the day, you’re catching up on lost time so be sure to give yourself credit for the things you ARE doing. Make time for what matters to you, whether that be hanging out with friends, going to the beach or riding your bike – do it! Stick by the rule of 3 each day and evaluate your success at the end of the week. If you’re still feeling under the pump, maybe there are certain things you need to focus on more often, it all comes down to what works for YOU.
