Miracle88,

I’m sorry for your suffering, and know how difficult criticism can be to work with sometimes. On one hand, we do wish to become more skillful, “polish”, and on the other, we want to know what we have, are, is beautiful now. Teachers that are teachers, such as their heart is really into teaching, manage this balance well. Helping the student see their beauty in total, stepping in tune and out of tune as we learn, helping the student hone themselves.

Teachers that are artists, such as the heart rests with the dance itself, often strike harder. Their attention is on the precision, the lines, the harmonies, often ignoring the students. If you can toughen up a little, accepting her stick is meant to see the dance brighten, then it won’t feel as personal. For her, it sounds like it is about seeing the dance done with more precision, rather than helping you see your own beauty as a dancer.

The solution is accepting that your beauty as a dancer is already vibrant, radiant, because you love doing it. The skillfulness, your practice, even enduring the harshness of your teacher… perhaps all because the song calls to your heart, the dance wants to be danced through you. Even so, you’re far more than a dancer, and “being a great dancer” isn’t what makes you beautiful. You’re beautiful because you do what you love, and that shows to anyone looking. Have you been looking? If you let yourself, the painfulness of the sensitivity will perhaps diminish, accepted as part of the grace that keeps you in tune with the dance.

Namaste, sister, may your steps be content and peaceful.

With warmth,
Matt