The other day I made a great discovery.  (I'll tell you about it in a minute.) But first I want to talk about noticing, something I did a lot of last year.  It helps me to focus.  It teaches me all kinds of things.  And I intend to keep it up.

At times I record the noticings in little books.  At times I share them with others, like you.  At times they just stay in my cabeza.  Other times in my cuerpo.

Noticing is good.

It shows me stuff.  Like tendencies to rush, to stop listening, to leave my body.

It tells me what I need to work on.

It points out when I’m enjoying myself and when I’m not, to what factors into that, and how certain things feel.

It teaches me about how I like to create, about environments I work best in, about how I like to dance, why I like to dance, and who I like to dance with.

It makes me better.

It curbs my frustration.  When something isn't working, stopping to look at why not often leads me to a solution, I've noticed...

And it just feels good.

Okay.  So onto that discovery.

When I take time to notice, I often re-notice.

You see, I keep noticing things then realizing I've actually noticed them before.  Perhaps you're having a hard time seeing the greatness of this discovery, allow me to explain.   

The other day I was working on a footwork pattern.  And something wasn't right.  I was off.

I had choices:  I could stop.  I could go on and be a bit off.  Or I could figure it out.

I decided to figure it out.  Which basically meant to keep going and pay attention.  So I did and saw that my rebellious right tacón was not cooperating, as often it does not.  Simply noticing that my heel was out of line caused it to behave better.

I could have stopped there.  But I decided to continue exploring.  I paid attention to my body and felt what was happening.  I felt my abdominals working.  I felt my heel hitting the floor with determination.  I felt the connection of the two.  And I saw that my heel was now doing what it was supposed to be doing because of this.

It is something I know.  It is something I have discovered many times.  Which potentially, I suppose, could have been annoying.  This idea that things had been going wrong mainly because I wasn't doing what theoretically I already knew I needed to be doing.

But I didn't feel annoyed.   I felt satisfied.  Satisfaction, that's what I felt.  Satisfaction at having remembered this important trick.  Satisfaction and having been able to fix the problem. Satisfaction at having realized that it really didn't take much.

Mainly just some focus.

It's not so much that I forget the need to do this, to deliberately engage certain muscles, but that I just stop paying attention.

Sooooooo, the re-noticing is re-focusing.  And that is something I need.  The re-noticing is just as important as the noticing.  Again and again and again I make the same discoveries. And after awhile things start to stick.

Anyway, all of this has made me think of important things teachers have told me and how those important things can mean absolutely nothing to me or absolutely everything.  More on that later.

What have you noticed?

And you?  What have you noticed lately?  Any big observations in the past year?  Or small ones?  Take just a moment to think about it.  Trust me, this is helpful.  Let me know what you come up with in the comments.

Y otra cosita...

I'll keep noticing things here in Portland and in Spain.  If you'd like to come to Spain with me, you should get on the list for updates by clicking here!

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