By Bianca

I’ve been dancing for pleasure for years and find it a vital form of movement for both my creativity and for health, wellness and happiness.  I’ve used other means of creativity in the past but just recently decided I also wanted to try painting. I got started because I find that it’s a form of downtime or relaxation and it’s both an emotional and physical therapy.

I love that I can express my emotions in colour and I’m always looking to expand the ways in which I create and connect to my emotions. I like that it is time out to be with my emotions and feelings when I paint.
Dance gives me a rewarding release in expressing myself through movement. We are so restricted and restrained around how we move through life and dance for me is a physical expression of emotion and helps me vent frustration, anger, and happiness when I dance.

Both dance and painting have been challenging sometimes. Letting go of how something should be and just allowing it to take on its own forms as it happens — that’s a great lesson in life as well. To see the beauty and accept whatever comes out, all of it!

When I find I’m struggling, I walk through the emotions that come with it all instead of avoiding it or stopping or starting again. It’s a huge lesson in patience and acceptance. I work the muscle at accepting the good, the ugly, the uncomfortable and everything that comes up around it! I look what’s the underlying feelings or emotions that it triggers and reshape how I react to it.

Getting involved in dance has been confronting because it’s a very feminine activity and not having hair has been challenging when I look in the mirror. Its also been a way to grow and accept myself. I see myself a little differently when I dance now but that’s not a bad thing at all. In fact, its been a very deep level of self-love and acceptance that I’ve learnt through dance. I’ve learnt to see the beauty in my movement and the emotions that drive that rather than just looking at myself as the outside package.

There are always highlights, with light there is always dark but the light I see from this has been the level of vulnerability it’s taken and from the terribly hard emotion comes the greatest growth and love.

I think creativity and creative outlets are vital to a balanced life. You don’t need to be able to dance or paint you just need to be willing and the ability to accept and be with what comes out will be immense and a valuable lesson to apply everywhere in your life. I would highly recommend you find a creative outlet and die doing it.

The benefits are numerous: Self-love, acceptance, vulnerability, growth. It balances your life and your emotions and teaches you many things around walking lightly and being gentle and spending the time to stop, slow down and listen to yourself.

Healthy Alopecia means to live a balanced life which includes looking at the harder emotions around living with this condition and accepting all part of who you are. Life is incredibly short and any time not being your true self and hiding is a day, a moment wasted.

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AAAF’s Sponsorship Program is now accepting applications for our second round of funding. This Program is able to provide sponsorships up to $4000 to support people with Alopecia Areata to reach their goals in sport of the arts. To find out more, visit our website at https://aaaf.org.au/sponsorship-program/