259. Under the Influence: What is something has impacted you positively in your life?
Apparently when I was very young, I liked to dance so much that my mom enrolled me in dance lessons starting with tap at age 4 so when I entered Kindergarten, I already had something to show off. Mom changed my instructor (I wonder why?) after the first year and I was then taking tap and ballet. I vacillated between it being easy and being the best in class to frustrated and hiding in the bathroom demonstrating I had a hard time regulating my emotions. I practiced at home without mom asking me to which I think started shaping my determination and tenacity to reach a goal. When I couldn’t sleep, I would rehearse the steps mentally thinking through my foot and hand positions as well as body expression with the music. It was years later that psychologists found that mental rehearsal was effective in feeling lower levels of anxiety and stress during events and helped people feel more confident in their ability to handle the situation. This mental rehearsal was instrumental in helping me in most situations in my life.
