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What to do if You’re Scared of Freestyling
Description
Freestyling in pole dance can feel frightening and physically stressful, often driven by fear of failure and harsh self-criticism. This episode offers some practical strategies to cope with that. Drawing on sports psychology, we’ll talk about research (Ceccarelli et al., 2019) showing self-compassion predicts better stress recovery and fewer maladaptive thoughts after recalled sports failure, and use Neff’s (2003) framework of self-compassion: mindfulness (noticing thoughts without over-identifying), common humanity (remembering others struggle too), and self-kindness (treating yourself as you would a friend). We’ll also go through some specific strategies that you can use in the moment to help cultivate more self-compassion.
Citations:
Bluth, K., Gaylord, S. A., Campo, R. A., Mullarkey, M. C., and Hobbs, L. 2016. Making friends with yourself: a mixed methods pilot study of a mindful self-compassion program for adolescents. Mindfulness. 7:479–92. doi: 10.1007/s12671-015-0476-6
Ceccarelli, L. A., Giuliano, R. J., Glazebrook, C. M., & Strachan, S. M. (2019). Self-compassion and psycho-physiological recovery from recalled sport failure. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 1564.
Neff, K. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self and identity, 2(2), 85-101.
Chapters:
00:00 Freestyle Fear Is Real
00:57 Coach Disclaimer And Shoutouts
01:48 Why We Fear Failure
04:13 Research On Self Compassion
06:19 What is Self Compassion?
07:25 Mindfulness And Meditation
10:55 Common Humanity And Community
13:06 Self Kindness In Practice
14:51 Tools To Calm And Reset
17:53 Final Encouragement And Wrap Up