By Von-der By
A child's world is a colorful spacious playground of endless possibilities where reason is not necessarily needed. It is a space to experiment, to create, and to discover. To a child's mind, this metaphor may not make sense, but for Megan, whose priority is to always put her inner-child first, this is the lifestyle that paved way to loving herself even more.
Megan, a Scottish-Australian native, is not that different in comparison to any of us. Familiar with the struggles of achieving genuine and authentic self-love while growing up, she had then gained, felt, and defined the true, raw, and passionate meaning of what self-love really is through dancing. While most people wake up day-by-day having to follow a wholesome routine, Megan believes that, like a child, one should deliberately live their life on their own terms without being restricted by pressures of any forms. This is what she feels when dancing.
"When I am dancing, I feel like my body is an open channel. I'm not the one doing the dancing, I'm being danced by the Divine ... I am all connected in one ... It is nature expressing herself through me."
To her, this passion served as a gateway for her to attain freedom, which made her experience deep and authentic self-love. Just like everyone else, this young, beautiful, talented woman went through seeking self-validation and self-love through other people. "I was never enough. I needed to be more. I was always seeking for outside self-validation," Megan exclaimed when asked about how she used to feel about being able to truly experience what self-love means. Leaving her life from her native country, she then fulfilled her childhood dream of living in an island by coming to the Philippines. This life-changing shift and choice she pursued also made her discover ecstatic dancing. More than any other kind of dance, it is in ecstatic dance where she felt the real essence of the art of movement. It is more than just the act of moving rhythmically to a music; it is moving in accordance to what you feel at the exact moment, regardless of the music, choreography, technique, etc.
"Ecstatic dance asks us ... 'Who are you without all of that (music, choreography, rules, etc)?" Ecstatic dance is a conversation with your spirit. It is a gateway to freedom. It is breaking constructs that you might have about yourself. It is a whole journey to a different soundscape."
Growing up in the strict world of dance together with its societal expectations, Meg always finds herself not fitting into the "rules". She said her favorite part of going home after a dance rehearsal or competition is the letting go of the music and choreography and just expressing herself genuinely like a free child. This, to her, is the core of ecstatic dancing—having no guidelines of how you look like. It is not just dance, it is a spiritual experience.
Through the different changes and adjustments she had overcome and made in her journey, ecstatic dance became a pillar for her to achieve her real definition of self-love. With the rise of different influences brought by social media, we have come across different people giving their own perspective about what loving yourself really means. For some, it might be, taking time for yourself everyday after a hard day's work. It might be good Sunday reset routine, or even wearing whatever clothing that suits your style and expression, but Megan reminded us that self-love is beyond all of these. Self-love is loving every aspect of you—the good, the bad, the in-betweens... All of it. It is embracing everything within and beneath who you are skin deep.
Societal norms and expectations sometimes set us apart from where we want to be, what we really are, and who we really are. These expectations often set us back from fulfilling our dreams and desires to attain our real purpose of what living really means. But Megan otherwise reminds us that there is no greater love than being able to do what sets your mind, spirit, and soul free. Through her talent and love for dancing, she has continuously inspired others to move their bodies as if they are one with nature. To her, dance is her biggest teacher and medicine.
Living in the island for several years now and having experienced different kinds of hardships (including the catastrophic typhoon last 2021), Megan has become more uprooted to her journey in life in Siargao. To this day, she remains steadfast to her purpose of being able to inspire others to move their bodies freely and to make their little inner child happy in order to attain freedom without the fear of judgement and to love their most authentic selves.
Photography by JerHena
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