Love Doing Ballet: Positive Habit Or Addiction?

December 2022

Another year has passed. I would like to remember it as a happier, lighter, freer, and more positive year than the two previous ones. And indeed, I felt very joyful when we danced together.

At the same time, we may wonder, is attending many, most, or all the available classes, workshops, and courses healthy? Is doing so a positive habit, or is it an addiction? By writing about this as an adult ballet teacher, would I be pulling the carpet under my feet?

Addiction is by definition a repeated habit despite its negative consequences. Whereas habits that "strengthen us and make our lives more satisfying.” was termed 'positive addiction' by William Glasser (American psychiatrist, 1925-2013).

The magazine Psychology Today further quotes Glasser that they [positive addictions] enable us to "live with more confidence, more creativity, and more happiness, and usually in much better health.” and writes that "Positive addictions, unlike their negative cousins, enhance life."

ballet autumn intensive, Waltz of the Snowflakes, London, 2022

However, Glasser's criteria for positive addictions, which are basically healthy habits, seem rather limited for anyone serious about ballet training.

They are:

1) It is something noncompetitive that you choose to do and you can devote approximately an hour per day;

2) It is possible for you to do it easily and it doesn’t take a good deal of mental effort to do it well;

3) You can do it alone or rarely with others but it does not depend upon others to do it;

4) You believe that it has some value (physical, mental, or spiritual) for you;

5) You believe that if you persist at it you will improve — but this is completely subjective — you need to be the only one who measures the improvement; and

6) The activity must have the quality that you can do it without criticising yourself. If you can’t accept yourself during this time the activity will not be [positively] addicting.

How do you feel about the above?

I find some of the criteria fitting for hobbies like gardening or knitting, but less so for ballet training, especially point 2.

And who stumbles at point 6? We know that ballet training can attract people with perfectionist tendencies. (Read my article Ballet Mindset about this subject).

If you think you have lost some of your original joy because you are over-critical of yourself, or you feel stuck, or you sense that something is holding you back, let's have a chat! I may be able to help in a private ballet lesson or with hypnotherapy.