big magic in action

Crowded F train, 10:30pm. I'm holding Big Magic (the book) in my right hand while clutching the ceiling pole with my left as I hover over seated people. A spot clears out so I slide over to where I can lean my back against the door.  

The guy standing to my right holds up his book and says "whoa I'm reading the same thing!" Then we glance at the open pages to discover we are literally on the same exact page, a chapter titled Success.

I ask him what he thought of the book and about his story. As he’s talking, I listen in awe as I imagine this human being and all that has happened in his life and his creative journey that has led up to this moment in time that our paths matched up to have this short conversation.

He is a writer and performer named Rusty who has some great ideas that he really wants to attend to. Big Magic is speaking to him. He doesn’t want that thing to happen again where he wakes up one morning to see an idea he came up with on the TV, brought there by someone else.

I didn’t say much about what I was up to, but I feel like we made a silent pact in that moment. To do our thing. To stop making excuses. To continue to be curious and open to magic.

Before he gets out of the train, I tell him I look forward to seeing his work someday.

….

And before the digital doors of this blog post close during the few minutes you and I, dear reader, get to spend together, I’ll leave you with a similar sentiment:

I look forward to seeing YOUR work someday. Not necessarily on TV or published in a book. Not by a measure of worldly success (although high-fives if it does happen that way!). But rather, in a magical moment when I most need to receive its message. Because isn’t that why we’re here, afterall?

To me, the magical moments make it all worth it.

Quoting Elizabeth Gilbert from the chapter that Rusty and I collided on:

“Do what you love to do, and do it with both seriousness and lightness. At least then you will know that you have tried and that--whatever the outcome--you have traveled a noble path.”

Be curious. Be disciplined. Be open.

Tend to the creative ideas that enter your consciousness.

Do it because it entertains you, and stop if it doesn’t.

And most importantly, don’t forget about the healing, magical force of human connection.

to letting magic happen,

Jess

p.s. If you haven’t already gotten a copy, I highly recommend Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic.

the lost art of entertaining oneself

Sometimes I want to change the world with dance.

And other times I just want to entertain myself.

Neither outcome is more or less noble, interesting, creative, or worthy.

In my opinion, what matters most is that simple act of exercising our ability to make something with this life we have.

But sometimes I catch myself being a little too precious with trying to make something profound.

I toil over getting the right words out in a blog post, or I try to make up a dance to a really deep song, imagining people reading or watching someday in tears as the meaning of life all becomes clear….

But really, Jess? [eye-roll to myself]

I end up clamming up and feeling rigid and trying way too hard, and in the end I just forget about it and go wash the dishes.

And then there are the nights where I’m simply bored.

There doesn’t seem to be anything interesting on Netflix. No one’s around to talk to. I’m sick of scrolling through Facebook. So I listen to music and start dancing. And then an idea comes - not because I tried to make it come, but because I wasn’t thinking about it.

Wouldn’t it be fun to do a remake of Gangnam Style!?

This literally happened a few years ago:

I got engrossed for hours with costume changes and mapping out the different scenes and dancing and setting up my phone camera to capture the right shots…

I was highly entertained and engaged.

A similar thing happened last night (with a random dance video remake that I may or may not share with the world....but subscribe to my YouTube channel if you're curious to find out!)

I realized how much I missed that process, how I’m actually craving more silly creative time, for no “purpose” but to have fun.

Just in case you were taking yourself too seriously, too, let this be your permission slip to entertain yourself.

You don’t need a profound reason to dance or write or make some kind of art.

Seek your own joy.

You may just stumble upon something that lightens you up.

Tell me -

Have you ever tried too hard to make your art profound?

What do you do to entertain yourself?

Keep the conversation going in the comments below.

woppum-gangnam style,

Jess

p.s. In case you're like - "Bored? Man, I wish I had time to be bored if I wasn't so damn busy all the time..."

- know that this post is especially for you. Sometimes you have to carve out time to be bored and give yourself permission to just do something with no purpose. From personal experience, I promise you it's worth it. ;)

what destroyed you can save you

Dance once destroyed me:

The battered toes.

The worries and woes.

Tunnel vision.

Heavy competition.

Bananas for lunch.

Broccoli for dinner.

Painful knees.

More stretching, please.

But dance also saved me:

The lonely nights.

Avoiding fights.

The boredom.

The freedom.

The choice to self-express

Instead of self-medicate.

The purpose that led me.

The feeling that connected me.

People who were true.

Realizing I had a voice, too.

….

Dance - or any creative, expressive outlet - can be your medicine.

Even if you had painful memories from ballet class, or got rejected at an audition and decided there wasn’t a place for you, it’s still possible to reinvent dance for yourself.

I know because I did it. And if I can do it, so can you.

It starts with one step. One small decision to do something you’ve never done before -

Maybe you find humor in the midst of a tough day.

Maybe you doodle a funny picture on the subway instead of filling in your to-do list.

Maybe you ask someone to dance unexpectedly.

Choose to dance. Choose to create something. And little by little, you’ll save your own life.

What's one way you're expressing yourself creatively these days?

Tell me in the comments below and let's help each other thrive.

to dancing through it all,

jess

…

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT:

For the last time this year, I'm offering my You Can Dance Again small group program.

The NYC in-person group is now full, butthere are still 3 spots open in the online program.

We start Wednesday 11/11.

One of the spots might be yours if:

• you know you want to dance more, but have been lacking the motivation, support, confidence, community, etc, to do so

• you already dance, but recognize that you hold yourself back from going full out or being seen for who you really are. or maybe you often get stuck in negative body image, self-criticism, and other patterns that don't feel good and you want to move through them.

• you want to discover a dance world that feels freeing, fun, and accepting of you and your body just as it is

There are a few reasons why NOW is the right time to join:

1. You've been making excuses for far too long, so just suck it up and get support. You can keep saying you'll get to class, but will you, really? This program will help you get to the bottom of what's been stopping you from dancing more and give you the tools to START.

2. There will be under 20 people in this group and the sessions are live. This means you can get lots of personal attention, support, and accountability. We will see each other on video every week. It's not the kind of program you'll sign up for and forget about - you'll get to be an active member and have your voice heard in the group if you choose.

3. We frankly don't know if we'll be here tomorrow. Life is short, as they say. Are you going to create your life or let it pass you by? Again, enough is enough with the excuses for not dancing and taking action.

Here's how it works -

Click here to review all the details, then click the green button under the Online Program option and sign up!

Once you do, I'll send you a welcome email with all the info you'll need to get started.

--> Sessions are Wednesday evenings at 6:30pm EST and they are recorded in case you can't make it there live.

--> We dance for part of the session, and then we dive into discussion around the 4 specific themes you'll see listed on the program page.

--> You'll have a guidebook to write in as you go through the process, specially designed by me to provide you with important writing prompts and materials.

Bottom line -

The You Can Dance Again program is a community in which each dancer is celebrated for their uniqueness and encouraged to not only physically move and get past what's stopping them, but to express themselves and create something meaningful.

I've poured my heart and dancing soul into it, utilizing the best parts of my coaching and dancing experience into a step-by-step package that gets you moving in more ways than one.

The only thing missing from it is YOU.

Click here to read more, sign up, and take ownership of the unique dancer you truly are.

if you're feeling a bit lost...

 “i want to put together a plan, but cant bring myself to do it. whats wrong with me?  

i'm feeling a bit lost. 

i want to share myself with the world but i don't know what to share. 

are the videos i made dumb? 

am i becoming narcissistic?

or was i always and just repressed it?”

I wrote that 6 years ago.

If I could’ve responded to myself then from the place I’m in now, here’s what I’d say -

(and here’s what I’d say to you, if you have been feeling similar things about your own process) -

If you can’t think of the plan yet, it’s because it’s beyond what you even think is possible.

Stop trying to make it happen in your mind, and instead take one step.

The more you dance through life, the more your path will organically unfold and reveal the answers to all the questions you’ve been struggling with.

Share the simplest thing.

Don’t try to share the best thing, or the most creative thing, or the thing that will get you a thousand likes on Facebook. Just share an honest piece of you and trust that your desire to share it is the only excuse you need. Trust that it will reach who it’s meant to. Trust that it’s leading you to something.

The videos you made are not dumb. They might not be the best quality or most popular creations ever, but they communicate something. They are stepping stones. They are part of your process. Keep making them. Keep sharing them. Without practice, nothing will happen. The practice of making them is your meditation.

Just because you want to share something that happens to involve you and your self-expression, it doesn’t make you narcissistic. You can share yourself and still stay humble. The way you do that is by staying connected to the message behind what you’re sharing and your highest and most sacred intentions.

Your boldness, your expression, the joy you share, will inspire someone else to be bold, express something, and feel joy.

That is healing in action. Think about the artists you love and who inspire you - how empty would life be if they chose to keep themselves hidden?

The only thing you’re repressing is the possibility for more healing, more joy, more creation. It’s not up to you to stop those things from flowing. Be the vessel, be the channel, and let creativity dance through you.

One day you’ll look back at this place and wonder why you worried so much.

Don’t wait til that day to give yourself the love and encouragement that you truly deserve.

You got this.

[divider style="6"]

I write this from the airplane returning from California, after teaching at Soul Camp West.

It’s not that I have it “all figured out” now - in fact, there are still so many questions and unknowns in my life.

What inspired me to write this is the perspective I now have.

It’s easy to be hard on yourself and think that you should be farther along than you are, or that you should have certain aspects of your life in perfect order. It’s easy to forget how far you’ve actually come.

Teaching at Soul Camp was a reminder for me. I got to facilitate dance for groups of people. I got to perform. I got to be seen as who I really am. I got to make connections with amazing humans. I got to live in between mountains for a few days.

I don’t know exactly what will come next, but I do know that if I hadn’t been posting my dance videos for the past 6 years, I probably wouldn’t have gotten these opportunities.

Ali & Michelle, the founders of Soul Camp, spoke at the closing ceremony when we were all circled up around the bon fire. Ali spoke about how she never imagined she would be standing there (in a unicorn costume!) doing what she was doing. She talked honestly about feeling lost in the past and struggling with what to do, reminding everyone that it’s totally normal and ok to not know. To keep going. To be led.

And I pass on the same wisdom to you.

Take time today to love your process.

Let go of the mental need to figure it all out right now.

And instead, just be in the now and express something that’s in you.

Step by step, with time, your wildest dreams will be revealed.

in love and loving you,

Jess

A video posted by jess grippo (@jessgrippo) on Oct 29, 2015 at 7:12pm PDT

go easy on yourself

In the park yesterday morning, I found out through my Facebook feed that my friend Jamie Zimmerman had suddenly died on Monday. Drowned in the ocean while on vacation in Hawaii. I had just seen her last month, and was going to be seeing her again at the end of this month at Soul Camp. Tears kept pouring out of me as I read the posts and stories people were posting online.

Jamie was 31 years old, a doctor, a teacher of meditation, and a light and inspiration to so many. It breaks my heart that we are saying goodbye to her presence here on earth.

I sat on a bench and meditated in honor of Jamie.

I felt my breath. I took in the sun. I gave myself permission to just be. (All things that I tend to struggle with on a normal day)

There’s no way to make sense of such a sudden passing of a life, but there is a way to take hold of the life you have right now.

Before I found out about Jamie, I was going to write to you about going easy on yourself. To not push so hard or try so hard. To give yourself permission to slow down.

I’ve heard these things a million times, and I’m sure you have too, but there was something in particular about this week that made the “going easy” seem even more necessary.

Take the pressure off yourself to be perfect. You already are.

Nourish yourself with kind words and good nutrients.

Love yourself first, and then go share love with someone today.

And after all that, make art.

If I could, I would invent giant arms that could cradle us all together right now and rock us to sleep like baby kittens on a sunny afternoon.

honoring Jamie and everyone we have lost, Jess

why create art in a world of tragedy?

“You’re not gonna believe this…”

10 minutes before show time and there’s my mom standing in the doorway of the theater, proceeding to tell me:

“...there’s an armed drug dealer on the loose in Wood-Ridge. We almost couldn’t leave town to come here tonight…”

While it wasn’t the best of timing to hear this news, it did raise a really important question.

Why am I making a dance show?

Why do we create art?

In a world where people are being shot and lives are being threatened and other tragedies are going down every day, who the hell cares about people dancing on a stage??

[....moment of reflection….]

I do.

And if you’re reading this, maybe you do, too.

Here’s my theory on why we care and why we must keep creating:

The tragedies and struggles we face as humans are the very reasons why we need to create art and express ourselves.

For every terrible thing that happens, let us add something beautiful.

For every moment of depression and stuckness, let us help move one another.

Let us unearth the things we are most afraid of, the emotions and fears that live inside of us.

Maybe if more people let things move through them creatively, we’d have less tragedies happen in the first place.

And so, as I type these last words before moving into the day and preparing for the second night of our dance show, I take a moment of silence and say a prayer.

May each dance I make help deliver more positive energy and love into the world.

May it ripple out into waves of inspiration that uplift the planet and one by one put down the guns.

Have you ever made art or seen art in the face of tragedy?

What inspires YOU to create?

Please share in the comments below and let’s keep the creative love flowing.

Oh, and by the way, the sniper in Wood-Ridge was caught and all were safe.

ever grateful for the chance to dance,

Jess

p.s. We’d love to see you at the show tonight.