How dancing helped me overcome my shyness

October 6th, 2008 Posted in Tips
5 Comments »

I used to be a shy, correction, I used to be, and still am, a shy person. But back in my teenage years, I was very very shy; to the extent that I couldn’t give a presentation without feeling those tiny muscles above my cheeks twitch, and I would shy away from approaching people and socialize.

It’s difficult, really, for us introverts in this world. Extroverts have it so easy for them, their ability to swash away in public without worry or internal resistance, being able to just speak in public at a moment’s notice, mingle with people whenever they like.

Being shy is like a barrier to advancement and success, the ability to speak and hold yourself well in public is extremely valuable if you want a smooth sailing career and journey to success. Knowing that, I realized that being shy is a barrier to myself, some sort of a glass ceiling that holds me down from achieving more, both in my career and in my life. And it dawned upon me early in my career life, about a few months after I started my first job, that my shyness is holding me back.

I knew something had to be done.

I was thinking of joining Toastmasters, in fact, joining anything at all that can help, when I flipped the newspaper one day and saw an article about salsa dancing. The class was held nearby, about 100m from where I worked, so I decided to just try it out and see how it’s like. You know, maaaaaybe, just maybe, it could help.

What I didn’t realize was my decision that day changed my life forever.

It has been a long journey, learning salsa dancing with no dancing background whatsoever. But looking back, those initial moments of courage when I forced myself (more like being forced by the instructor) to rid itself of fear and shyness and step onto the dance floor, ignoring all the peering eyes, has unknowingly cracked the glass ceiling, the barrier that held me back, bit by bit. Today, there is absolutely no problems for me to step onto the dance floor and ridicule myself, I mean, dance in public.

Whaddaya know, no more shyness!

And this has somehow helped me in countless other ways. It’s easier for me to speak out in meetings, hold a meeting, do a presentation, and numerous other things that once were such monumental tasks for me.

Yup, if you’re shy, and you want to do something about it, take up a dance class. It could be latin, hip hop, salsa, any dance class. You’ll not just learn something new, but you’ll also learn how to be more agile, get some much needed exercise weekly, learn to be less shy, and probably one day be able to break through the shyness barrier of yours that’s holding you back.

Good luck!

, , ,
Read More

Catch Up With My Good Friend

August 24th, 2008 Posted in Just stuff
No Comments

For context, refer to:

Part 1: She Says, I Like You But Only As A Friend

Part 2: She Say’s I Like You But Only As A Friend

Caught up with my good friend on my very fast 1 day trip to Singapore. It’s been around 2 years since we last met. It’s good to see him. We met up around 3:30 pm in Wisma Atria and he took me to a nice little cafe in Paragon. When he ask me what would i like to drink? The first thing that came to my mind is i need a good chocolate milkshake! He looked at me stunned, why? You should have told me earlier i would take you to a place that serve fabulous milkshake haha! I told him, it’s ok i’m sure whatever milkshake they serve here is better than Malaysia. Sorry to say people, M’sia serve bad milkshake. I’ve been back here for 10+ years and i have never had a proper milkshake. I didn’t know ice-cream was so expensive in M’sia that they have to serve it with either a lot of milk and water and it would taste stale with whatever flavor you ordered, ewww!

I got my chocolate milkshake and he also ordered a orange cake with vanila ice-cream. The cake was really yummy! Not too sweet nor fattening just nice. Oh… and my milkshake was FAB! The feeling was OOO going down my throat, where have you been all my life :P We spend the whole afternoon catching up with his things, my things and whatever things that’s going around. By the way i was at Singapore for one day cause my bf has to attend a meeting, so i tag along. Time flies… before we knew it it was 6+ and time for dinner. My bf finish his meeting and was suppose to meet up with us at Paragon. After half and hour still no sign of him. Apparently he couldn’t get a cab. He walk a few streets down hoping he can get a cab from there, it got worst, he was a little lost. Did you know in Singapore you can’t just hail a cab from anywhere, you have to go to a taxi stand. Usually it’s pack especially during peak hours. My friend said, ask him to wait there, we will find him no point when he can’t get a cab. So we went to look for him.

We found him standing in front on this. Telok Ayer Market also known as Lau Pa Sat. We decided we wanted to eat Chinese food so my friend wants to take us to one of his favourite place that serve famous Shanghai dumplings. We took a cab and went back to Paragon. I forgot what’s the name of the restaurant.

This is on the cover of the chopsticks. Ranked by the New York Times as one of the World’s top ten best restaurants. Well it better be good ;)

We started off with the famous Shanghai steam dumplings also known as xiao long pau. I have to say… it was fantastic!

A closer look. Hmm… i’m making myself hungry.

I think this is fried rice with pork chop, my bf ordered this, tasty!

This is their own homemade noodles with pork chop. If you like clear soupy noodles, this is good. Otherwise you might find this boring.

This is my friend’s favourite. It looks like wanton noodle soup. He says it looks boring but it’s tasty.

Last but not least, you gotta have a nice bowl of chicken soup. I’m a soup lover. This soup comes a little close to my mom’s soup. My mom make fantastic soup. Good soup has to taste pure and tasty with the original spices that’s cooked inside. All 3 of us is a soup lover, something we didn’t missed.

We had a great dinner, but sadly my friend has to go back to work to prepare for some crappy proposal. He was bitching about his work to me. He is in a nightmare, hell hole that he can’t seem to get out of (he is in the IT field). After that, we said our good bye’s and he’s off to work and we headed back to our hotel and pick up my dancing shoes and off to Union Square.

Union Square is the place to be when you are a salsa fanatic. They have salsa every night and it’s packed with people. They also have a Spanish band that will play for about 20mins. Nice dance floor and space with good ventilation. You will find all the salsa craziness in there. For the salsa fanatics, Union Square is located at:

165 Tanjong Pagar Road
#02-05 THE AMARA HOTEL Singapore 088539
Tel/Hp : 62246116
Fax : 62241661

I saw only a few familiar faces as it was on a Tuesday night but still it was packed. Had a few dances and call it a night. The next day after my bf finish his meeting, we drove back. I mean “I” drove back. I can’t believe i actually drove all the way from Sg back to M’sia. It’s not that bad, only about 4 hours. Hat’s off to me ;)

Till next time…

, ,
Read More

My Not So Latest Obsession… Salsa Dancing

July 26th, 2008 Posted in Just stuff
1 Comment »

About 2 years ago, met a online friend and he introduce me to the world of salsa. From that day on, it has turn into another of my obsession. Especially when it comes to dancing. Woohooo! Ever since i relocate back to Asia, can’t seem to find anyone that’s passionate about dancing. After introduced to the salsa world here, i find that people that’s in salsa are very passionate about dancing. Well… at least at the beginning before they fade out of the scene.

Salsa, salsa, salsa

My friend took me to a club that has salsa night on every Thursday. After that I decided i want to take some lessons. Before that i did some latin dance class when i first flew back. So i was a little stiff on the legs cause in latin, your legs has to be straight at all times. It is very technical. While salsa you got to be soft and agile and not so technical at all. Salsa is a social dance unlike latin which is cater for competitions and performances.

Basics, doing the “mambo”

Girls start with her right leg stepping backward and then move back in the middle, left leg forward back to the middle. Guys will start with the opposite. Right leg forward, back to the middle then left leg backward back to the middle. So you would be like walking back and forth together with your partner. In salsa, there are 8 counts and 4 & 8 are silent. I’m going to try to explain this in detail but it might get confusing, but i’ll try my best. So it’s 1,2,3( 4 )5,6,7( 8 ) 1 is when you start 5 is when something happens 8 is when it’s finish. Since salsa is a partner dance, both have their duties. 1 is when it start, 5 is when the guy leads, 8 is when the girl comes back. When the girl steps behind and the guy steps forward on 1, then 2,3 the guy leads which could be a simple turn by the time the girl turns it’s on 5 when she finishes the turn it’s on 8. They are simple leads to follow. It could be a tap or a gentle push on the hip or the shoulder and the most common ones are when the guy raise his left hand means it’s a right turn, left hand means left turn. These actions are leads while dancing. These are the basics of salsa.

As it goes on you will learn more routines but the counts are the same. Before you know it you will be dancing. Most importantly is to have good basics. It takes you a long way and it will affect your dancing, if you want to be good or have a better understanding in the future. A good example is, before you can run, you gotta walk right, if you can’t walk right how do you think you’re gonna run? Know what i mean. Don’t be too anxious and get the basics right.

Shines

After the first lesson of basics and partner work moving along i was introduce to “shines”. What are they? They are a set of steps for individual to dance when the guy lead to a “shine” or you can “shine” by yourself (as in dancing by yourself). Everyone start their shines with the foot forward first, they call it men’s time. Which means you start your step like the guys, moving forward first. A shine can be done by both party facing each other doing their own steps. Which means when you are dancing half way with your partner and he lead u to a shine so that you are able to dance by yourself and he shine by himself. Each set of shines are in counts of 8 and you can combine them together and have a few sets of shines. You will shine until the guy picks u back up which means, while you are dancing by yourself he will come back in the position and bring you back into his arms. This part the girl has disadvantage. If the girl can’t do a lot of shine and the guy keep on dancing by himself, oh god… it can become a awkward situation. That is why the guy should be a gentleman and knows when the girl is done shining or is not comfortable with shines and just pick her up and continue doing partner work. It’s a partner dance, why would you want to leave your partner dancing by herself for so long ;) .

Hm… i hope i make sense cause it’s not easy to break it down into words. Would be easier if i did a video clip. Better than a thousand words.

Till next time…

, ,
Read More