How Dance Can Be Your Unexpected Form of Meditation?
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I have been dancing since I was about 5 years old—not professionally, but it came naturally to me whenever I heard music. And Chandu, learnt to dance to overcome his stage fright in college, and over the years, he got really good at it.
So we both have had our share of experience when it comes to dancing. Over the years, there are a couple of things we both realised and agreed upon regarding how we view dance!
And one of those realisations is that - Dance is a form of meditation.
why do we think that ?
There are different types of meditation, like mantra-based, sound, and body scan meditations so on. No matter the method, they all focus on directing your mind towards something for a period of time. This process ultimately helps you gain control and become more aware.
So when we thought about dance and the value it has brought to our lives, we realised it’s essentially the same value you get from practicing meditation over time.
1. Mindfulness : When dancing, you need to focus intently on the rhythm of the music to move your body to the beat as intended. This requires strong concentration, much like how in meditation we focus on a mantra or our breath. In dance, we direct our attention to the rhythm of the music and the sensations in our body.
2. Stress Release: Just as a session of meditation can help create good energy for you to get through the day, show me a single person who does not feel good after moving their body to a rhythm! I doubt that!
3. Medium of Expression and Healing: Just like any form of meditation, dance offers us a way to express our emotional states. For us, dancing has been a powerful tool for becoming more self-aware, checking in with our emotions, power of introspection , leading to healing internally.
4. Generate Joy and Feel Blissful: Just like when we meditate and feel uplifted and experience inner peace, dance can bring immense joy and a sense of freedom.
5. Flow State: This is nothing but getting lost in your zone, in layman's terms. It’s where you lose track of time and become fully immersed in the activity, similar to what meditation can also induce.
While writing about this, I came across a practice called Tai Chi, which is a Chinese martial art and also a form of movement-based meditation. Given that, it’s only fitting to say that dance could easily take its place alongside traditional meditation as a real way to find inner peace.