Mark Twain coined the phrase “Sing like no one is listening, love like you've never been hurt, dance like no one is watching, and live like it is heaven on earth.” 

My mother thought that her awkward clumsy overweight daughter would benefit from ballet but rather than giving me confidence and grace it just made me feel more awkward. After a few months of lessons, the teacher said that I wasn't a right fit for her class which meant I wasn't graceful and slim.

Throughout my life I just avoided places that involved dancing in public or if I had to go to one of these, I just stayed stuck to my seat so I didn't have to get up and humiliate myself in public.

A few weeks ago, I went to listen to a friend’s new musical group. People were dancing. For some reason I decided to throw off over 50 years of being embarrassed and feeling awkward and I felt the music so I got up. I just danced and I didn't care that everyone was watching and I just had an incredibly liberating feeling.

Last week a woman at the charity shop where I volunteer was so moved by the music playing in the sorting area that she started doing ballroom dancing totally oblivious to where she was. She used to do ballroom dancing so the music brought back a memory.

I think that to dance like no one is watching can work but also just being in the moment and not caring about people watching can work.I wonder if any Moodscoper has had an experience with dancing, singing or really anything that they felt unconfident about, but one day just went with their feeling and didn’t worry about what others thought.

Leah 

A Moodscope member