20 Self-Love Songs (for dancers) – #movetolove2019

February is supposed to be about love, but the most important kind of love for girls ages 8 – 17 is not romantic. We believe girls need more self-love. And we believe a key ingredient of self-love (& happiness) is doing what you love. The world needs strong & inspired girls doing more of what they love!

Today is day 6 of our #movetolove2019 series, where we’ll spotlight Friday Night Show performances from our dance camps. We’ve chosen 20 self-love songs with lyrics that echo our dance camp mission: to empower girls to move to love.

What exactly do we mean by “move to love”?

MOVE – to pass from one place or position to another.

LOVE – to access the part of our mind that is connected to Spirit; the source of peace, joy, happiness and a whole bunch of other “positive” emotions.

So move to love means to move to a new place (or state of mind) – the state of mind connected to your Spirit (peace, joy, happiness…all that positive stuff). Please share your inspirational dance videos on Instagram this month! #movetolove2019 @danceadtc

Song #6: “Heaven is a Place on Earth” By Belinda Carlisle (covered by Katie Thompson)

“In this world we’re just beginning to understand the miracle of living. Baby, I was afraid before but I’m not afraid anymore. Ooh, baby, do you know what that’s worth? Ooh, heaven is a place on earth. They say in heaven love comes first.

We’ll make heaven a place on earth.”

Performed at our MD Dance Camp

Performed at our CA Dance Camp

Performed at our IL Dance Camp

The Self-Love Lesson from “Heaven is a Place on Earth” by Belinda Carlisle

We believe “Heaven is a Place on Earth” is about gratitude. As Melodie Beatty writes in Gratitude: Affirming the Good Things in Life, “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough.”

Our society lives in an abundance paradox: we’re accustomed to abundance, so we feel disappointed when we don’t get what we think we want. Gratitude is the opposite of entitlement and essential to any self-love practice. It can literally change the ways we’ve grown accustomed to thinking.

Gratitude has been shown to improve health, happiness, relationships and overall satisfaction with life. Consciously & deliberately practicing gratitude turns our mental focus to the present and the positive – to what we have now, rather than what we want tomorrow.

And practicing gratitude compensates for our brain’s natural tendency to focus on threats, worries, and negativity. Gratitude creates positive emotions like joy, love and contentment, which research shows can help loosen the grip of negative emotions like anxiety.

So try adding gratitude to your self-love practice this month – for inspiration, we highly recommend checking out 365grateful.com.

More About Our Dance Camp Mission

American Dance Training Camps is a company inspired by and created for strong girls. Doing what we love enables us to embody, model & teach our sixteen character values, or “movement manifesto.”

The ADTC Movement Manifesto is one way we promote our values within our dance camp community. It is an ever-evolving collection of bold thoughts that allow for some real conversations to take place at camp and throughout the year.

Learn more about ADTC’s mission & manifesto here!