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“Omnia vivunt, omnia inter se conexa.“
“Every­thing is alive; every­thing is inter­con­nected.“
~ Cicero

Do you ever sense how truly con­nected we are to one another?  How our actions, how­ever big or small, how­ever pos­i­tive or negative…in some way, impact others? 

The Lev­ity Project:  Car Danc­ing Micro Movement

I have been work­ing with Katie West and Ina Lukas, of The Lev­ity Project, in cre­at­ing the first Lev­ity Project Micro Movement. 

Car Danc­ing:  A cel­e­bra­tion!  Peo­ple from around the world join­ing together.  In their cor­ner of the world…dancing!  In cars.  Down side­walks.  In homes.  This video is their dance.  It’s much more than that though.  This video is our dance.…for all who watch it. Cel­e­brate!  And let that dance in you, what­ever it is, take new steps into what is possible!

What Does This All Really Mean?
Both Katie and Ina, from here at The Lev­ity Project, played such impor­tant roles in tak­ing this car danc­ing con­cept and envi­sion­ing what it could become.  For me per­son­ally, I know that doing this became much more than just some lit­tle dance in the car at a stop­light on my way through a day. 

So, what has this all meant to Katie and Ina?  Read below, as I take a few min­utes to ask them some of ques­tions on the car danc­ing micro movement.

1.  What were your expec­ta­tions going into this car danc­ing micro-movement?
Katie: My hope was to have fun and to spread the idea that by allow­ing our­selves to be seen hav­ing fun, we give oth­ers the per­mis­sion to do the same.  I also envi­sioned the video and thought about peo­ple watch­ing it together and smil­ing the same way they do when they see some­one danc­ing at a stop­light.  My hope was that it would cre­ate a rip­ple effect of pos­i­tiv­ity that might fill in where moments of neg­a­tiv­ity had been in people’s lives.

Ina: I was hop­ing it would be fun and that peo­ple would have a great time cel­e­brat­ing their day.  I was hop­ing that peo­ple would be inspired by it and get to expe­ri­ence other bystanders be inspired by them.  But what hap­pened as a result of it was far more pro­found than I ever imag­ined.  What I did not real­ize is how far this would take peo­ple out of their com­fort zone.  Nor did I imag­ine the amount of inner change it would cre­ate for many of the par­tic­i­pants.
 
2.  On this jour­ney over the last sev­eral weeks, what have you per­son­ally expe­ri­enced from your own moments of car danc­ing?
Katie: The idea for this micro move­ment came a while ago when I was danc­ing at a stop light.  Usu­ally, I stopped danc­ing when a car pulled up next to me, but that day the music was so great and I was feel­ing so happy, I kept danc­ing.  After a moment or two, I real­ized that the two guys in the car next to me were not only watch­ing me but danc­ing heartily along.  As we drove away, they gave me a thumbs up.  It was so touch­ing and made me feel unex­pect­edly con­nected to the world around me.

What hap­pened after launch­ing the idea of The Lev­ity Project’s Car Danc­ing Micro-Movement was that I started doing it more inten­tion­ally every time I was at a stop­light.  It felt like invit­ing peo­ple to a party that they really wanted to go to but were ner­vous to be the first ones to arrive.  It felt great to be the one kick­ing off a party at each intersection.

Ina: What I’ve found by being freer in my dance, is that it breaks down the walls between peo­ple.  We live in a car soci­ety where every­one is cruis­ing around in their own worlds, dis­con­nected from every­one else.  When you share the joy that comes out of you when you dance, you break through the bar­rier of the car shell, and you touch some­one or make them smile and bring a human con­nec­tion to their day.

The other day I was stopped at a red light next to a guy who had a lit­tle dog in his lap that was look­ing through the win­dow at us.  Because of my new found courage and drop­ping of my walls, I rolled down both win­dows on his side, he rolled down his, and for a long two minute red light, my kids and I had a delight­ful con­ver­sa­tion with the guy and oohed and aaah­hed over his dog.  My kids were thrilled.  He was shin­ing from ear to ear, and then we drove off to the rest of our days.  I will never for­get that moment, and it never would have hap­pened had I not taken part in this event.
 
3.  What feel­ings come up for you as you have watched the video’s that have been shared by oth­ers?
Katie:  As I watch it, what stands out to me is this great feel­ing of inter­con­nect­ed­ness.  And with that, I feel hope.  In a world where we are inter­con­nected, no one is falling through the cracks.  We are there for each other.  We are aware that we are all a part of the same web so if one of us is not shin­ing, the integrity of our whole web is com­pro­mised.  And in this way, it ben­e­fits us all to look out for oth­ers.   Watch­ing this video makes me feel that this inter­con­nect­ed­ness is pos­si­ble on a global level.  This makes me feel a great sense of light-heartedness. 

Ina: The first video that came in from Canada sent goose­bumps up my neck.  It was that moment of, “Oh my good­ness!  Peo­ple are actu­ally doing this!  And, look, they’re really happy!”  It was totally exhil­a­rat­ing.  Instantly I felt the sense of  know­ing that it’s our own inner hap­pi­ness, col­lec­tively cel­e­brated, that has the abil­ity to cre­ate a global shift.  The key for me was in cel­e­brat­ing it with pur­pose, know­ing that all of these other peo­ple were out there danc­ing in their day together.  It made me real­ize the poten­tial power that cre­at­ing this con­cept of a Micro-Movement can have on global scale.  When you take away the time and loca­tion bar­ri­ers, any per­son any where in the world can take action as an agent of social change, and be banded together with the rest of The Lev­ity Project Play­ers as one move­ment immersed in the power and impor­tance of fun.

I love to be inspired, and each per­son that took part in this was an inspi­ra­tion to me.  I was moved by each video because almost every­one that did this stepped out of their com­fort zone.  For some peo­ple it was WAY out of their com­fort zone.    But as you can see by everyone’s hap­pi­ness in the video, they all received some sense of free­dom from doing it.  That’s the mir­a­cle that always hap­pens on the other side of your block.  When you let go of fear and go for it, magic hap­pens that wouldn’t have hap­pened if you didn’t take action with that small leap of faith. 
 
4.  You step out your front door tomor­row morn­ing.  What’s dif­fer­ent, because you have “car danced” in pub­lic?  (i.e. what’s the last­ing effect from doing this)
Katie:  There is this small feel­ing of “I can do that”.  By “car danc­ing”, which can feel like a step out­side our com­fort zone, there is a new feel­ing that maybe there are other things one can try in our life.  And the com­fort zone becomes wider and wider and so does our life.

And I believe that a sense of con­tri­bu­tion comes from it.  Once you see someone’s face light up because they see you car danc­ing and express­ing that lev­ity, it is so evi­dent that you are the one who cre­ated that change for that per­son at the stop­light or wher­ever we are.  And as the observer dri­ves off, they might have a smile on their face or be laugh­ing.  Who knows what hap­pens next?  In a bet­ter mood, do they call some­one they have been think­ing about and share a laugh with them?  Did an argu­ment just end in the car next to you because they started laugh­ing and even danc­ing with you?  What rip­ple effects just hap­pened in the world, because one of us was will­ing to boldly express the joy we have within?

Ina: For me, so much has changed because of this.  When I step out my door in the morn­ing, I am far more aware of the poten­tial for cre­at­ing cel­e­bra­tion in each moment.  At the times when I am dri­ving, spaced out on autopi­lot, lost in some loop­ing thought of what I have to do, or what’s going on in my life, past or future, it sud­denly hits me that, ”Oh, wait!  I’m alive right now in this moment and why am I not danc­ing?” and I crank the tunes and dance.  And I do it boldly (espe­cially at four way stops). 

It’s made me more present to the present moment, real­iz­ing that we all have our things we do on autopi­lot… dri­ving to work, pick­ing up the kids, and we often just lose our­selves in mun­dane thoughts in those moments.  But when you think of how you could have that same ride to work, and instead of just wor­ry­ing about how you’re going to pay your bills, you can make some­one else smile or brighten their day.  You’ve just cre­ated a totally dif­fer­ent jour­ney for your­self.  Same com­mute, but now you’re an agent of social change at the wheel.  Maybe that per­son didn’t know how they were going to pay their bills either, but they saw you danc­ing and they saw you in your free­dom and in that moment, they felt relief.  Or even hap­pi­ness.  Or even the feel­ing that every­thing was going to be OK.  THAT is pow­er­ful stuff!  I am embrac­ing those moments now and my life is becom­ing more deli­ciously rich (and fun!) because of it.

Lance’s Com­men­tary:  You have both touched upon that “some­thing deeper” that draws upon the voice of our soul…that dance that is within each of us.  Per­haps it’s not “car danc­ing” for every­one.  It’s there, though, within all of us…that some­thing which brings that deeper sense of bliss.  And when we are reach­ing that spot within us, we DO change the world around us — in amaz­ing and beau­ti­ful ways!

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