365 Days to Uplift: Choosing Joy as a Daily Practice and a New Foundation for Life and your West Coast Swing

Joy as a Daily Practice: Relearning Joy, One Day at a Time

In 2026, I am launching something deeply personal, intentional, and transformational: 365 Days to Uplift.

This isn’t a challenge.

It isn’t a content series just for the sake of consistency.

And it definitely isn’t about perfection.

365 Days to Uplift is a daily devotion to joy, connection, presence, and embodied living.

It is designed to support both your personal growth and your West Coast Swing journey, because the truth is, they are deeply connected.

How we move through life is how we move on the dance floor.

How safe we feel in our bodies affects how we connect in partnership.

And how we relate to joy, timing, trust, and expression off the floor shows up every time we step into a dance.

This year-long practice is about learning how to live and dance from a place of uplift instead of survival.

When Healing Is Hard and Why I Understand That Deeply

I want to say this clearly, because I know how important it is to be honest here:

Healing is not easy.

There were long seasons of my life where healing felt overwhelming, exhausting, and confusing. I didn’t grow up with a foundation of safety, trust, or connection. The foundation that was created for me early on was rooted in fear, mistrust, disconnection, and spiritual distortion.

Joy and fun were not modeled for me.

Ease did not feel safe.

Presence felt unfamiliar.

So when people talked about “choosing joy,” I didn’t even know what that meant. I didn’t know what joy felt like in my body. I didn’t know what it looked like in real life.

And that mattered because you cannot choose something you have never experienced.

Before I could live through joy, I had to learn it.

Changing My Foundation: Learning What Joy Felt Like First

What shifted everything for me wasn’t a single breakthrough moment it was a slow, daily re-patterning.

I began to understand that if I wanted my life to change, I couldn’t just hope for joy to arrive. I had to change my daily practices, my configured thoughts, and where I placed my energy.

But before I could change those things, I had to answer a much more basic question:

So I started small.

Choosing joy as a daily practice.

Each day, my only focus was to find one moment of joy.

Not happiness.

Not positivity.

Just one moment that felt lighter, safer, or more alive.

Over time, my nervous system began to recognize joy as something safe instead of something foreign. And once that happened, everything started to shift.

The Teachers Who Helped Me Rewire My Inner World

I didn’t walk this path alone. Along the way, I found teachers whose words and frameworks helped me understand joy not as bypassing but as reprogramming.

Three voices in particular shaped this journey:

• Gabrielle Bernstein, whose teachings helped me learn how to choose love over fear and gently interrupt old mental patterns→ You can explore her work at: https://gabbybernstein.com

• Abraham Hicks, whose teachings helped me understand emotional frequency and how our focus shapes our experience

• Marianne Williamson, whose words reminded me that returning to love is not weakness, it is spiritual courage

  
  

These teachings didn’t erase my past.

They gave me choice in the present.

And that is what 365 Days to Uplift is rooted in:

daily choice, daily grounding, daily return to what lifts us.

Why Personal Growth and West Coast Swing Growth Are Inseparable

One of the greatest lessons West Coast Swing has taught me is this:

The dance always reflects what’s happening inside of you.

If you don’t trust yourself, it shows in your partnership.

If you’re disconnected from your body, it shows in your movement.

If you struggle with joy, it shows in how you express.

But the opposite is also true.

When you learn how to:

• breathe through discomfort,

• ground into your body,

• trust timing instead of forcing,

• and allow joy to move through you,

  
  

Both your life and your dancing transform together.

365 Days to Uplift is designed to support:

• grounding on the dance floor,

• more ease and connection in partnership,

• stronger nervous system regulation for social and competitive dancing,

• learning to show up with confidence and authenticity,

• and a more joyful, expressive relationship with movement and life.

  
  

This is not about dancing better.

It’s about living better so your dancing naturally evolves.

The Weekly Rhythm of 365 Days to Uplift

Each day of the week carries a theme, creating a rhythm that supports both personal growth and West Coast Swing development.

Storytelling Sunday

Your journey holds lessons meant to lift you.

Theme: Vulnerability, authenticity, real stories, healing through dance

Content Focus: Your dance journey, healing stories, student wins, and breakthroughs

Movement Monday

Strong foundations create effortless movement.

Theme: Beginner foundations, grounding, posture, frame, connection, basic technique

Content Focus: Basic patterns, rhythm and timing, weight transfer, beginner wins, partnership

Time to Breathe Tuesday

Your breath is your anchor—come home to it.

Theme: Calm, grounding, nervous system resets, breath-led movement

Content Focus: Breathwork demos, a new weekly breathwork practice, somatic tools

Wellness Wednesday

A connected body creates a connected life.

Theme: Somatic education, relationship tools, emotional connection, safety

Content Focus: Nervous system insights, couples reconnection, neotantra principles, healing tools

Timing Thursday

Everything expands when your timing does.

Theme: Rhythm, musicality, microtiming, stretch, anchors that breathe, transitions

Content Focus: Timing drills, rhythm variations, musical interpretation, timing in life

Flow Friday

Where the way you move and live becomes art.

Theme: Fluidity, body freedom, creative partnering, breath-led movement

Content Focus: Movement flow, relaxation, momentum, co-creation, joy, and fun

Styling Saturday

Unleash the artistry already living inside you.

Theme: Movement, find your voice, musicality, confidence

Content Focus: Styling drills, arm pathways, fluidity, self-expression, body isolations

Each day is an invitation, not an obligation, to reconnect with yourself.

Why I’m Choosing to Do This in 2026

Because joy changed my life.

Because I know how heavy healing can feel when you don’t have tools or language for what you’re experiencing.

Because once I learned how to live through joy, not avoid pain, not bypass reality, but actually live through joy, everything began to shift.

365 Days to Uplift is my way of sharing what sustained me.

It’s a reminder that:

• Joy is a practice.

• Presence is a skill.

• Healing happens in small, consistent moments.

  
  

And that you don’t need to wait until you’re “healed enough” to feel uplifted.

How to Join and Where to Find the Daily Uplift

You can engage with 365 Days to Uplift in the way that feels most supportive for you.

• Daily posts will live on my website at www.dancetouplift.com/groups, where you can join the community and receive them consistently.

• You can also find the daily posts shared inside the Dance to Uplift Facebook page.

• Around once a week, you’ll see a reflection from that week shared on Instagram, as a post or in stories.

No pressure.

No perfection.

Just a place to return to what uplifts you.

A Final Invitation

You don’t have to do this every day.

You don’t have to do it perfectly.

You just have to be willing to return.

Return to your body.

Return to your breath.

Return to your joy.

That is what 365 Days to Uplift is really about.

And I would love to walk this year with you.

Live in Love. Move with Meaning. Play Passionately.

Shalay