DANCE (aka shaking, raging, tapping each body part, feeling your body)

Often when I am feeling trapped in my body or in my emotions, one of the ways I move through it is with dance…

what is it to be “trapped” in your body or in your emotions?

For me, feeling trapped might feel like being in a “mood” and not being able to get out of it.  Or like I want to take a bigger breath but my body won’t allow it; Maybe it feels like heavy energy after being around a lot of people or conversations;  Or hamster wheel brain: when the same ideas are circling around your brain over and over and you can’t seem to shake them. 

It can feel like sadness. Like I just want to go back to bed and sleep.  (Napping can be therapeutic in its own right, so I don’t want to discount it, but often if you are tired due to being emotionally tired, try dancing first and then napping, which actually helps you move through the emotions and then allow your brain to integrate the new cell movement via sleeping.)

You might feel pure anger or rage.  Being so angry at another person, or situation that you can’t think straight. I like to call that raging vs dancing.

It can look like playing music while you are doing something else (cooking, cleaning, gardening) but when that song comes on, allow yourself to close your eyes and just move with the music, wherever it takes you.

Music get’s you completely PRESENT in the NOW.

Very often, trapped energy is trauma. 

Trauma from our past that we have buried deep within us to keep ourselves safe and is scary to revisit. Trauma can be made up of little-T’s and BIG-T’s (I won’t define what a little vs. big trauma might be, as my little-T might be your BIG-T and vice versa. Only our bodies keep the score.

Out in the wild as animals are being chased down from someone higher up in the food chain, once they get away, they allow themselves to shake out all the chemicals and energy needed to escape from their predator in order to calmly go on with their day.

Unfortunately for humans, we take that same shaking to be a trauma response that needs to be minimized or stopped – via blankets or weight to calm the body, medications, breathing exercises, just relaaaaax….. As opposed to letting our body do what it’s meant to do – shake out all the trauma, the energy, the endorphins, the cortisol.  Allow it to move through you so that you can fully release the experience.  

Because if you don’t, that is how trauma get’s trapped.  

I use dance to release trauma and/or energy as an active form of meditation when I want movement instead of stillness and “going inward” on a mat just isn’t going to cut it.

I personally don’t use dance daily - more so when I need it, which may be 1x per week or 1x per month, when the mood strikes, I often know.

To get you started, here is my spotify playlist that I made of favorite songs to dance to or that tell a story for me: shake it out  I suggest, starting your own playlist of favorite songs, adding songs to it as you go as all of mine might not resonate with you. 

Then dance.  

Dance like nobody's watching and HOPEFULLY no one is, because trust me, this isn’t cute dancing. You know the dance that you always do when you are at a wedding or on the dance floor and you're out there doing your thing and looking cute? This is not that.

This is ugly dancing.  

It can look like 80’s aerobics, or kickboxing, or weird twitchy yoga, or just shaking out each limb.  It could look like jumping, twirling, walking like a crab, vogueing or chorus line high kicks.

I know, because I’ve done all the above. 

And if you are a person who never dances.  Who sits and watches others - this is especially true for you.  We are meant to dance. To sing. To yell. To laugh. To cry.  Somewhere along the line you were taught that you couldn’t, that you looked stupid, that others would judge you or that you judged yourself against others.  So practice in the privacy of your space and if you find yourself judging your movements, or your body, remember: you are practicing, you are safe, it is fine.  

Close your eyes, don’t judge your body or look in a mirror and just let the rhythm and the words move you.  And if you can’t relate to the words, imagine that the words are talking straight to your soul, or to future generations, or past, or that angry gremlin inside of your head that likes to have control over you…

Then let the emotions come.  Dance can bring out soul wrenching crying, or laughing, or anger. Happiness, sadness, creativity, ideas, decisions.

Allow whatever comes through you, to move through you.  

Just continue to move to the music, moving each body part, getting all of your cells singing and dancing and moving within your body.  Moving out trauma, moving our sadness, moving out anger – allowing freedom, joy and peace.

 

Once I am exhausted and tired and complete.  I like to slowly sway or sit and put on a This is Beautiful Chorus playlist and allow their music to wash through me as I find my breath. 

I personally like to use the shuffle feature on both the above play lists so that I don’t know what’s coming - and allow what’s meant for me, to play for me.  Added bonus: I often wake up the next morning with sore muscles as well.  A workout for the mental and the body, that is seamless and fun.  What more can you want? 

If you try it, let me know how you like it!

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