BURST

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Welcome to Episode 165 of the Salsa Kings LIVE podcast

We have been featured as #1 in “Top 10 Salsa Podcasts” on FeedSpot.

Hey familia, how’s it going? I hope you’re having an amazing start to your week. I want to share a story that really moved me and made me reflect on something we often take for granted—our ability to move. The story is about two men, one full of energy and the other paralyzed, and how dancing brought so much joy, even to someone who couldn’t physically participate.

Key Points

A group of wealthy people have a gathering. One of the men is wheelchair-bound, unable to move from the neck down. The other man, full of excitement, tries to get everyone in the mood to celebrate, but they all seem a bit stiff and reserved. Then, this man puts on some music, and something magical happens. He starts dancing, not in a polished or practiced way, but with pure joy. His movements are wild, his smile is big, and he’s just letting loose. He’s moving his whole body—neck, shoulders, hips, legs, everything—just because he can.

The camera keeps cutting back to the man in the wheelchair. At first, he’s just watching, but soon, a small smile creeps up on his face. Even though he can’t move, he’s clearly feeling the energy and joy in the room. The people around them, who were so stiff before, start to relax. They begin to snap their fingers and bob their heads along with the music. It’s like the joy of dancing is contagious, spreading to everyone, even those who thought they couldn’t be moved.

This scene really hit me because it reminded me of how lucky we are to be able to move our bodies. We often take it for granted, not realizing that there could come a day when we can’t dance, walk, or even lift an arm. It made me think back to a time when I was in the hospital for a hernia surgery. I spent two weeks there, and all I wanted was to go outside and feel the fresh air. Being stuck inside made me appreciate things like sunlight and a cool breeze—things I hadn’t even thought about before.

When it comes to dance, it’s about more than just moving to the music. It’s about feeling yourself in your own body, appreciating every little movement, and expressing yourself freely. Sports are great, but they’re more about winning and losing. Dance, on the other hand, is about expressing what’s inside, without any goals or rules. You don’t need to be a great dancer to enjoy it; you just need to let go and move with gratitude.

Closing Thoughts

I hope this story inspires you to dance more, not just for fun, but as a way to connect with your body and appreciate what it can do. Remember, there’s no right or wrong way to dance. It’s all about feeling good and being grateful for the ability to move. Even if you don’t know the perfect steps, just let yourself go. The joy you feel will come through in your movements, and that’s what really matters.

So, I challenge you to take a moment to just shake your body, even if it’s for no reason at all. Do it for yourself, and for those who can’t. Let’s dance for the world, with gratitude for the amazing gift of movement.

Thank you for being a part of this journey with me. I’m excited to see you all on the dance floor soon, especially at the upcoming Miami Salsa Cruise. It’s going to be eight days and seven nights of incredible fun, and I can’t wait to share it with you. Keep dancing, stay grateful, and I’ll see you next time.

Transcript

What is up familia, how we doing? I hope you are enjoying the beginning of this amazing week. This episode is inspired by a video that I saw that almost brought me to tears. And go figure, extremely dance related.

So I want you to imagine I guess you can say wealthy folk, if you would. And there is two men, one of which is, I guess you can say, excited for a get together that they’re going to be doing. And another one that’s wheelchair bound.

And you can tell that he’s pretty much, all he can do is speak. So he’s paralyzed, I guess you can say, from the neck down. And so the other man is trying to hype everyone up and it seems everyone seems so stuffy or whatever the case is.

And he ends up putting on a little boom box. And this man just starts dancing. In every sense of the word, dancing.

His spirit is just lighting up. There is no rhyme or reason or almost even rhythm. It looks good simply because he’s got a really big smile on his face and he is just letting loose.

And one of the things that I saw that I noticed was that there was no limitation, I guess you could say, to the movement in his body. And they keep flashing back to the man in the wheelchair. And of course, he’s just paralyzed.

He’s just in a wheelchair watching. And you can see the little corner of his mouth rising, smiling. You know? But meanwhile, this other man is like, you got moonwalking, you got almost even like cartwheel energy, like moving neck, shoulders, back, hips, swinging legs, feet, just everything is going everywhere.

And just in this energy of just pure excitement. And then again, back again to this paralyzed man who just can’t move. And I guess you could tell, not a sense of envy, but a sense of wanting to move as well, I guess you could say.

There’s other people in the room as well that’s watching the man that’s dancing, particularly women. They’re smiling and they’re bobbing their heads along with him. And again, this is a wealthier crowd.

At least the vibe they’re going for is that they’re a little bit more stuffy. To get them to move at all is a big deal. But this man’s energy is so contagious that everyone starts snapping their fingers and kind of going along with it.

And again, and this other man is just frozen. And at that moment, it just made me flooded with gratitude simply by the ability of being able to move my body, period. And I think that’s one of the huge blessings of dance is to really feel ourselves, to be able to feel ourselves within our body.

If we were to take our left arm right now, extend it out and just do some arm circles and to eventually feel our shoulder get a little bit of a burn, not in a bad way, but just to be able to have the blessing of being able to feel that, to move our neck around and to actually embrace that feeling and to feel ourselves inside our own body. And then if we want to actually burst out into like this man did and just go ahead and start to move everything all over the place, no rhyme, no reason, perhaps inspired by some music, but to move our body just for the sake of moving our body because like this man that’s paralyzed from the neck down, we don’t know if and when that could ever happen. And all we could ever possibly want would be just to move our body for no reason other than to just move our body.

And there’s a lot of granted, a lot of expression, a lot of energy that is released when that happens. It’s not possible if we’re wheelchair bound, right? It reminds me of the one time that I was actually overnighted in the hospital. I actually had a hernia.

I was like about 10 years ago now. And I was in a hospital for about two weeks, just waiting for the recovery process. And it’s just so interesting that of course, you don’t know what you got until it’s gone.

All I ever, all I wanted while I was inside the hospital was to just go outside. That’s all I wanted. I remember.

I remember crying. I remember crying because all I wanted was some fresh air. I felt like I was locked in prison inside of this hospital.

Of course, I was extremely grateful they were taking care of me. But like sunlight, I didn’t realize how much I just wanted some sunlight, how much I wanted to feel a breeze. It’s wild.

It’s insane how that happens. And bringing this back to dance, it’s beautiful to be able to move without an objective. And an objection would be possibly like, okay, well, I don’t really dance.

I do sports, let’s say, for example. And again, I go back to the moving without an objective. Sports, yes, absolutely.

You’re able to feel your body. There’s no doubt about it. And I’m a sports fan myself.

And I love playing sports. But it’s very intentional, right? Dance is a lot more expressive, whereas there is no right or wrong way. And to have that sense of freedom or that sense of liberty can truly be a spiritual experience if you allow it to be.

Another objection can be with regards to dance, you know, okay, well, this man that you saw in the video, clearly, you know, he knew how to dance. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be dancing like that all crazy. And yes, yes, it definitely looked good.

But the looking good came from gratitude being the inspirational source. And this was huge for me because, you know, as we’ve talked about in the show, you know, the music being the inspiration. I think that having gratitude mixed in there can definitely bring an uplifting feeling to your dance as well.

Simply because again, all everything that you feel you’re able to transmit if you would as well and have others feel it also, if that feeling is strong enough, it’s going to come through in your movement. And I think there’s always a place that it’s never gratitude is never unwelcomed. And so being able to kind of upload that in your dance as well, as moving and dancing as if tomorrow you couldn’t anymore.

I think I think that’s a very, that can be very inspirational. It may may have come from a you know, a fear of loss, possibly definitely don’t want this to be, you know, a dark session by any stretch of the imagination. But more so as a realization of how truly blessed we are that that we can that we can move our bodies and that we have ears that can that can hear this beautiful music that was crafted by other beautiful human beings, creative human beings.

I genuinely feel that we are much more in tune with our feelings than than a lot of us think, especially for those of us that dance less, or those that don’t dance at all. And, and I guess you could say the analogy or the comparison that I would bring it to is you know, when we have, let’s say a headache, or a cold or a fever, even right? We’re very in tune to when we don’t feel well. Right.

But there’s so much more to feeling other than good and bad. There’s so many levels of bad. I think we can all agree there.

I mean, we’re definitely much more forced to pay attention to our feelings when we feel bad. But I challenge you to do the same when we’re feeling well. You’re much more able to duplicate feelings that feel good when you’re paying attention to them, versus taking advantage of those feelings to get the to do list done.

And I’m certainly guilty of this as well. You know, taking advantage of the health, if you would, to do what needs to get done. And sometimes I feel what needs to get done is a little rain dance.

If I may, you know, just a little appreciation, a little two minutes, a little three minutes. And I’m not even saying daily, I’m talking about maybe it’s the first time in your life that you just are grateful for your body, that you can feel yourself inside of your body, and not in a negative way, right? That you know, that we have a headache or, or that our stomach hurts. And you know, we’re, we’re bed bound.

And, you know, we need to take medication so that we can then feel better again. For what feel better again for what so that we can just ignore ourselves again? What if our body is making us ill, so that we can pay attention to it? Right? Hey, my stomach continues to hurt. Well, maybe there is something that’s a representation of that there’s something in your stomach that is manifesting that is a representation of something else happening on the exterior.

Same thing with headaches. You know, I used to get migraines really bad. And you know, I found out that it was simply just a lack of taking care of myself.

Particularly when it comes to eating, I would work so much that I would, quote unquote, forget to eat. And I know that a lot of us on the younger side. Look at me, I’m 30.

I’m 36 years old talking about I’m on the younger side. That’s great. Sorry, personal, personal feeling there personal unload there.

But anyways, and so the, the ability to be able to appreciate what’s going on and to move forward in your day. And to pay attention to all not my stomach hurts, my head hurts, but wow, what a beautiful day. Wow, you know, I didn’t realize how tall I was, or, wow, I, I didn’t I didn’t realize how fun dancing was, or, oh, wow, this, this food that my, you know, that my significant other makes, I didn’t realize how delicious it was.

You know, there’s just so many things that we can be grateful for, or that note to notice that, that we can burst out in that expression. And, and dance can definitely be one of those things. And, and feeling ourselves in our body, I definitely feel is, I definitely believe is a blessing.

As everything comes from that, right? We’re, we’re walking around, we’re breathing, we’re seeing, we’re hearing, we’re tasting all of the senses. Certainly, truly, truly a blessing. It kind of goes to another video that I saw, actually, that was, that was also really inspiring.

And the person that I was watching with, shout out to Erica, she goes, there was a man in a wheelchair, who seemed like he was paralyzed from the waist down, was at a con, was on, on top of a Congress stage, dancing with one of the stars in a wheelchair, right? And she was like, the next time, because she’s an instructor as well, you know, the next time somebody tells me, you know, that they don’t know what steps to do, right? That she’s going to show them that video. And we just go back to, you know, we can get so caught up in, in the, in the specifics and the technique, and I am not against technique. Let me, I always, I’m always erring on the side of, you know, just the feeling good and the dance for the sake of the dance.

Don’t get me wrong. As you learn more technique, you’re actually be able to embody the feeling even more. However, don’t get, don’t, don’t get caught up on the technique at the expense of feeling good, right? There’s a, there is a priority to this, there is an order to this.

We definitely want to study the technique so that we can then feel it more. But don’t make it, don’t limit yourself to not feeling anything because you’re trying to go for more. That is definitely a trap, dare I say it, of the enemy, right? That we, you know, that, that we don’t allow ourselves to feel any kind of good until we feel really, really, really good.

And then we’ll realize that that trap never ends. Because at the end of the day, we always want more and there always is more. So to be able to embrace what we have in the moment right now, if anything, that would be the inspiration to, to want more.

And that’s if you even really want to, right? If you’re inspired to, because there’s certainly a lot of us that want more, that definitely want to, that strive to be able to feel even better. That, oh my gosh, this feels so good. Can I get more? Right? And there’s nothing, there’s nothing wrong with that as long as you’re enjoying the present moment.

In the meantime, a lot of us, also another objection that I get to is, you know, I don’t know what to do. Okay. Yeah.

Okay. I feel, I feel gratitude and I want to dance and I like dancing, but I just don’t know what to do. I kind of get keep getting caught up in my head.

And, uh, and, and the response that I have for that is if, if, and okay. A lot of you seen like a lot of these, a lot of these videos that are on, um, on social media with animals, right? And they’re so funny because you could see the expression coming through on them. Like, like if, for those of you that have dogs that have cats, if your pet can express themselves without any words, you can do so without any moves.

Right. And, and again, I just think that it’s coming from, in order to do that, we just got to come from a different angle. Right.

And, and as I started the, this episode off, if it comes from at the very minimum, if it comes from a place of gratitude, then by default, you’re, you’re, you’re going to be inspired. You’re going to have something to do because you’re so grateful that you will begin to move. And whatever comes out, it doesn’t matter because the intention or the feeling behind it is beautiful.

And we’re not even talking about per se with it, having to do with even anybody else. There’s nothing that there’s nothing that you could do. That’s going to offend anybody else.

If you’re coming from a place of gratitude or having fun, same thing. Like if the intention is to have fun and the, and, and if we’re social dancing, the other person’s intention is to have fun as well, then you will, you can find as long as we’re being mindful of the other person as well. Right.

You’re not going to have fun ripping somebody’s arm out of their socket. Right. As long as we’re mindful of who they are as well, and you can share, I repeat, share that space together, then you will have success regardless.

Dare I say it, if your steps are not on the right time, right? I just, I do, I do let you know as, as an instructor that if you feel in any way, shape, form or fashion, enjoying yourself there with a little bit of training, it can feel even better because you will be dancing along with another set of inspirations. Be it the music, your partner, et cetera. Guys, I hope this helps.

Um, I want, I inspire you to, to burst, to burst and express yourself in any way. Be it silly, be it fun, be it inspired, be it grateful, be it, you name it. Uh, allow yourself to shake your body.

When was the last time you just shook your body for the sake of shaking your body? Um, because at the end of the day, we don’t know. Um, if for whatever reason that just may end for the sake of all of those that cannot move their body and all of those that cannot dance, let’s do it for them. Let’s channel them and let’s do it for them.

Let’s dance for the world. Um, in our, in our, in our space of gratitude that we have are blessed with the ability to do so. Um, thank you guys for your continued loyalty.

Episode one 65 burst. I hope to see you guys on Miami salsa cruise coming up late February, early March. Specific dates are February 23rd to March 2nd, eight days, seven nights of absolute Epic fun live salsa music every single night.

We already have the largest group that we’ve ever had, and we’re excited to share it with you on the dance floor. Thank you guys so much. That’s Fernandez burst signing up.

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