“Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.”

– Rumi

Happy Sunday, Fam! 💕

Wow, what an epic week of waking up and dancing. In the past few days, Daybreaker community members in Chicago, Paris, Washington D.C., Boulder, LA and San Francisco danced everywhere from rooftops with mountain views⛰, on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center, and within the fantastical walls of our first-ever recreation of “Candy Land.” 🍭

To think that this many glowy, smiling souls made the intentional choice to wake up, happy this week — gives us goosebumps. When we come together to uplift ourselves and our community, that’s what it’s all about. Keep creating these positive micro-moments of connection. It matters, fam. 👯

All right, y’all. Today’s playlist is courtesy of Vic of FDVM.🎶 He’s been flying around on his first-ever Daybreaker tour and is giving us one of the first listens to his new song. Scroll down to check it out (plus a few more goodies) and may it keep you boppin’ through ’til Monday.

With love & mischief,
// Team Daybreaker

  🐾 PROWLING HER WAY TO HER TRUEST SELF 💕

I’m sure you’ve seen me prowling around Daybreaker NYC, always donned in cat ears and a tail. I’m a city kitty, and I like to dance. 😸

I am a musician, but it was not until a few years ago that I was able to really express myself through dance.💃

I never thought I was a good dancer growing up. I took many dance classes in school and I realize now how extremely unaware of my body I was. I was always told to smile, which felt too forced for me, and I would think about smiling instead of the choreography. Technically speaking, I understood the moves, but could not physically manifest them.

Fast forward to adulthood, I found I needed a place to dance freely and learn how my body could move — and smile on my own. Dance classes were too structured, and at most clubs or bars, I honestly did not feel safe dancing how I wanted. I felt it would be perceived as too weird, dramatic or sexy and I would get unwanted attention.

While I loved the nightlife and the people, I was looking for alternatives that weren’t so late and did not involve all the substances. I was invited with my friends at Kostume Kult and we got up at the buttcrack of dawn to dress up in costumes and dance at Daybreaker.🌅 I loved the energy in the room and that people got up that early to sweat it out before the day even started.

Since then, I have loved making magic happen with music, dance and good vibes while the rest of the city is rushing to work. I also have a habit, like a cat does, of finding the highest spaces to dance on, so I have more freedom to move and can see the entire room with everyone dancing. It’s like a giant heart beating. You can feel the love.❤️

It is always a safe space for me to be my best and truest self on the dance floor at Daybreaker. I’m not a very “huggy” person initially, but I’ve learned to open up and connect with people on the dance floor. I’m always inspired by what people are capable of.  Dancing has made me feel powerful, strong and determined to live my dreams.  If you can wake up and dance, you can do anything.😊

With love & mischief,
// Amy

🤔 MORNING NOODLES 🍜

Dr. Barbara Fredrickson is a leading researcher on the study of positive emotions and she’s given reason why the following:

// feeling in-our-bones grateful for our current circumstances

// the lightness of sharing laughter with loved ones

// being inspired by great leaders

// feeling the love and closeness of people we care for

…change how open our visual perspective is and our ability to see our common humanity with others. 👀

AKA, experiencing positive emotions opens us up to life’s bigger picture.🌎

HOW DO WE KNOW? Randomized studies in which participants were given a positive emotion induction — for many of these, it was simply candy wrapped in cellophane — have proven it’s true.

👉Expanding Peripheral Vision

In one study, participants were asked to look at a slide that consisted of baby photos. Researchers monitored their eye gaze by zooming a camera in on the iris of their eye. Participants who were given the cellophane candy gift took in more. They looked at the slide in its entirety, taking in the photos on the edge, while those who were not introduced to the positive emotion prior to the experiment, only took notice of the baby photo in the center of the slide.

👉Expanding our Minds (in the less literal sense)

In the same sort of randomized experiments with the same positive emotion induction (cellophane candy gift 🎁):

// physicians made better medical decisions

// children scored higher on math tests

// individuals were more likely to look past racial and cultural differences

// negotiators were more likely to come to win-win solutions

Soooo… If you’re feeling uninspired, stuck, blocked or dissatisfied, do that thing that gets you in a good-feeling place. Then see how your perspective shifts. You might realize something you just weren’t seeing before. #openyoureyes

👉 SUNDAY PLAYLIST 👈

Home is where the heart is. ❤️

#morningmischief