Say Hello To The True Love Spin

When I am in an elevator alone, I walk in circles really fast.

I have no idea when I started doing it or why, but it happens almost every morning. I walk into the elevator, step inside, and keep walking in circles until it stops. Then I walk out as if nothing weird ever happened, as if there isn’t a guy watching the footage on a camera somewhere, and as if I didn’t just speed walk my way around a box like it was a competition in the summer Olympics. (Put that on my list of sports: dodgeball, rope swinging, and elevator rotations. How do you like me now you sporty men?)

Anyway, I don’t think I am the only one.

Someone once told me that our thinking processes can get stuck spinning in circles. It’s common (I just trace mine with my feet.) We tend to overlap the same ideas in our heads until they create ruts inside of our brains that are hard to get out of and hard to stop. Over time these fears, doubts, and mistaken beliefs keep us from doing anything outside of our comfort zone. In other words: We overthink to the point of not needing to think because the rut keeps us revolving in the same limited patterns.

We guess, assume, mind-read, and avoid based off of past experience and future predictions that we might get hurt.

Until. The True Love Spin.

Introduced during the 1950’s and 1960’s by Gene Kelly and Julie Andrews, the true love spin was developed to show that when it comes to showing how you really feel, you should throw your body and caution to the wind. The spin also adds momentum to the euphoric feeling of falling in love, whether that be with a guy, a girl, the rain, or being an Austrian nun.

How to Spin

This tutorial is as simple as it gets:

1. Spin counter-clockwise of your monotonous thinking process.
2. Focus your eyes on the sky instead of the floor.
3. Relax your neck
4. Let your hair loose

When you feel small explosions of happiness going off in your body, you will know that you are doing it correctly.

The trend has surprisingly taken form, but gone unnoticed in pop-culture and animated .gifs for a long time. Here are my top 10 True Love Spins and why you should try them.

1. The Conservative True Love Spin

This is a great starter spin. It gives you just enough momentum to feel good about your day or good about the new intern who is attractive.

2. The Tandum True Love Spin

For couples looking to spice things up.

3. New Dress True Love Spin

For when you are sporting new threads for a date. For best results, make sure to have a roommate enthusiastically clap while you do it.

Important Cautionary Note: Me and my roommates used to introduce a guy to his date by having the girl do a spin while we sang KC & JoJo on a Karaoke machine in our living room. I wouldn’t recommend this. There were at least two breakups during that time period that we attributed to introducing the new dress spin too prematurely in a relationship.

4. Whip Mah Hair Spin

Close your eyes and take a deep breath through you nose while letting the wind whip your hair. This spin works best in mountainous settings and in clubs.

5. True Love Flip

Ariel one-upped all the Disney princesses when she proved she would do a flip for true love, sell her vocal chords, and sport a sheet if it meant meeting prince charming. It’s a given, but this spin could come off as desperate.

6. Call Your Girlfriend We Belong Together True Love Spin

Accomplished with high speeds while moving towards a specific destination, this determined spin tells guys, “We belong together, call your girlfriend and break up with her.” It’s a niche spin for a very niche circumstance.

7. True Love Spin with Eye Contact

This true love spin is best served in front of your significant other. By maintaining eye contact throughout the entire spin you ensure that nothing will come between your love. Not even a light shower of rose petals.

8. The Colbchella True Love Spin

Skip to 4:15 for a flawless spin for business professionals.

9. Tandem Roller Skate True Love Spin

I can only assume that these are the only two people in the world that can do this. And that we will never be able to experience true love in this euphoric of a moment on roller skates.

10. Double True Love Spin

For times when one spin isn’t enough.

This seems like a dumb post any blog with more than 5 animated .gifs does. But I sometimes wonder where that feeling went that used to pump our blood, that kept us up at 3 am looking for something that we had to have and couldn’t live without. Something that even in the smallest dose, would have us waking up feeling like Beyonce, dancing barefoot out of our covers, and into the living room in our underwear.

Maybe the true love spin is a dumb tradition advocated by absurdly wide-eyed Disney princesses.

Or maybe it’s exactly what you need to counteract ruts in your head built by fear in its most monotonous repetitive forms.

Whatever it is. It’s worth a shot. It’s just a spin.

True Love Spin featuring John Liu, the greatest .gif-t of all

Speaking of True Love…

I was recently asked by some good friends to help advertise one of San Francisco’s finest bachelors. If you are looking for smart, funny, and incredibly successful spin your mouse on this eye candy: Meet Scotty Clawson.

Image Credits- Julie Andrews: Favim, Carry Grant: GifSoup.com, Conservative Spin: Tumblr, Tandem Spin: Perez Hilton, New Dress Spin: Tumblr, Whip My Hair Spin: Fan Pop, True Love Flip: Sky Rock, Call Your Girlfriend Spin: Tumblr, Eye Contact Spin: ABC.com, Roller Skate Spin: Blogfiles, Double Spin: Starcasm.