Looking for the Inner Dork

Every human contains an inner dork within. It is up to each of us to discover & embrace that part of who we are. Our inner dork is the freest part of our inner child: existing separately from the concerns & illnesses of the mind. 

The inner dork exists in his or her own full authenticity without care & attempt because it does not know judgment. The inner dork lives in a state of authentic presence consumed by its higher intelligence to observe, wonder & respond. 

Our inner dork is most visible at our youngest of ages. We came into this world without any particular skill other than the intuition to survive; the intuition to deeply connect. It was this intuition to connect with our nearby caregivers – the trust that we gave them out of need – that ultimately gave us the grounding we needed to safely stumble.  Not knowing how to go to the bathroom, how to feed ourselves, or how to talk & walk – our inner dorks engaged in the growth process without embarrassment. As we leveled up in human skills, we gained a sense of newfound self-sufficiency & pride. Our intuition to survive (through connection & trust) was all that we needed in order to grow from infants to adults. 

Unfortunately, as we grew into adults we grew increasingly consumed by concerns of the ego, many of us abandoning our inner dork & losing an essential beauty of who we are. This, too, was lost out of our same intuition to survive. Many of us learned that the inherent vulnerability of our inner dork no longer worked for us. The inner dork was ignorant to the dangers of reality. 

Thanks to early experiences of pain, the growth process allowed the wisdom of fear to protect us. Instead of leaning into love out of necessity – take a step back into fear, informed. As adults, we navigate our fears with varying levels of success. Many of us do this awkwardly, like grownup dorks, carrying little sense of direction; stumbling into unproductive inner conflict. 

After losing our innocence, we became guilty and learned the shield of shame fueled by negative false beliefs of being wrong. The burden of shame creates conditions for dangerous self-sabotage. The challenge is to accept the innate humanity within ourselves (the inner dork that knows nothing but full authenticity). Then we can achieve an incredible capacity for compassion.

The shackles of shame have shut us off to life’s most powerful & beautiful emotions: joy, creativity, belonging, and love. We need to rediscover our inner dorks to allow the overprotective, ashamed adult to get out of its own way and once again tap into the proud intuition of the inner child. Underneath every adult is only a kid that craves to play & live freely with others. We need to learn to trust & connect again. 

It’s life’s game to practice love over fear. We need the wisdom of love. We need healing, and incredible healing cannot be done alone in isolation. Humans have achieved incredible success because of our unique ability to work together.

Let's dance together for this shared mental health cause – putting concerns of the ego aside for something higher. My hope is Dork Dancing can lead us in a good direction, allowing us to come closer in shared safety & collective joy.

I’m on my own personal journey of learning to listen to my own advice. I’m a grownup dork, navigating my fears awkwardly. I carry aspirational values — and still am human, falling short of where I want to be, but right where I need to be. My name is Ethan and I am #dorkdancing for mental health.