Last Night a DJ Saved my Life

I have always loved dancing and although not the most apt to dance in a crowd, I managed to go through my life dancing in countless situations and circumstances. I have a very early memory of the age of 3 when I was dancing in front of the mirror to some 80's jam, as my mom always had music on. But as I was having my session, someone walked in and I immediately stopped due to self awareness and a slight embarrassment. I tend to have been a bit self conscious as a youngster, but as i grew into a teenager and young adult you could not keep me off the dance floor when given the opportunity, or creating a dance floor where ever I could. Luckily I am continuously growing out of the need to look good and care less and less what people think, and have expanded my repertoire to include numerous Latin and African styles of dancing. I love to dance! Through lessons and the necessity to dance daily as a workout, I have grown to adore the way my body can move and make me feel better as I am taken over at times by the spirit of flow.

1. FREEDOM: I love the freedom and expression that comes from the movement of your body as your soul is able to rejoice, release and refresh as needed. Dance is medicine and can be a healing tonic when combined with amazing music. No structure or specific steps. Absolutely no thinking or worrying about looking good. Plain simple un-restricted dancing. An unguarded willingness to become vulnerable to the moment and trust the body to organically and naturally untangle knots, energy blocks, confused emotions and stress.

2. FEELINGS: Most of us are familiar with the great feeling obtained from spending time out on the dance floor. From weddings and holiday parties to aerobic classes or even dance lessons, moving our body often does a lot to lift our mood. It turns out there is a scientific explanation behind those mood-boosting moves, and there are ways we can use dance to improve our mental health.There are many benefits of dance supported by research. Dance improves your heart health, overall muscle strength, balance and coordination, and reduces depression. These benefits have been seen across a variety of ages and demographics.

3. FITNESS: Like most exercises or sports, dancing has physical benefits on our body and overall health. The NHS encourages dancing as a physical activity to help improve fitness and evidence shows that “regular dancing is great for losing weight, maintaining strong bones, improving posture and muscle strength, increasing balance and co-ordination and beating stress

4. DEPRESSION BUSTER: “In many shamanic societies if you came to a medicine person complaining of being disheartened, dispirited, or depressed they would ask one of four questions.

• When did you stop dancing?

• When did you stop singing?

• When did you stop being enchanted by stories?

• When did you stop finding comfort in the sweet territory of silence?

"Where we have stopped dancing, singing, being enchanted by stories, or finding comfort in silence is where we have experienced the loss of soul.

Dancing, singing, storytelling, and silence are the four universal healing salves”

—Gabrielle Roth,

Dance, you need it!