Why Movement is Important for Healing
WE WERE BORN TO MOVE
Columbia University neuroscientist posited that synchronizing music and movement—dance, essentially—constitutes a “pleasure double play.” Music stimulates the brain’s reward centers, while dance activates its sensory and motor circuits. - Harvard Mahoney Neuroscience Institute, Harvard Medical School
What's your first memory of dancing?
Were you a baby, being swayed back and forth in the arms of a loved one? Did you jiggle and giggle around as a toddler to your parents music? Did you take dance lessons as a kid? Did you experience the thrill and rush (and potentially awkward anxiety) when walking into the gym for middle and upper school dances after spending hours watching music videos on MTV, BET and VH1 - ready to SEE and BE SEEN for all of the new sexy cool moves you learned?!
Movement, and specifically dance, can be a powerful free wellness tool to call in connection and to let it all go. Yet, modern day living has many of us programmed and stuck in inhibitory movement patterns: crouching at our desks, slinking into the couch, tech neck from hours of typing and texting. Most of our bodies have gotten used to a limited range of motion instructed by the daily grind: wake up, work, eat, work, eat, work, watch TV?, work again?!, sleep.
After almost 2 years of the pandemic, we've spent a lot of time away from our friends, maybe the people we used to get groovy with. Maybe you've seen some of the fun(!) going on with TikTok and the multitude of talented dancers doin' their thing. But have you joined in? Or when's the last time you have you put down your phone, turned the music UP and let everything else fall away? Laugh, cry, scream, hoot and holler.
Consider this your official invitation to throw your hands in the air and shake that ass.
Get lost and find yourself in the joy of movement and release of dance.
Dance can support and inspire us to experience our whole selves, liberating us from physical and emotional tensions and opening us the magic possibilities of an enlivened body.
DANCE AND THE BRAIN:
"…Researchers looked at the effects of 11 different types of physical activity, including cycling, golf, swimming, and tennis, but found that only one of the activities studied—dance—lowered participants’ risk of dementia. According to the researchers, dancing involves both a mental effort and social interaction and that this type of stimulation helped reduce the risk of dementia. In a small study undertaken in 2012, researchers at North Dakota’s Minot State University found that the Latin-style dance program known as Zumba improves mood and certain cognitive skills, such as visual recognition and decision-making. Other studies show that dance helps reduce stress, increases levels of the feel-good hormone serotonin, and helps develop new neural connections, especially in regions involved in executive function, long-term memory, and spatial recognition." - Harvard Mahoney Neuroscience Institute, Harvard Medical School
Resources to GET DOWN with:
Check out the MANY playlists on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube and Spotify and throw a dance party right you wake up, on a mid-day work break, or in the kitchen while you're cooking dinner.
Invite friends over (safely) to hang, watch music videos and reminisce!
KEEP ON DANCIN’ BABY!
This blog was written by Marley Frank. Marley is an artist, transformation consultant and brain health advocate. Her work includes the design and application of systems that teach us how to harness the brain-body connection; leading us to experience enhanced physical vitality, cognitive agility and unbound creativity. Follow her on instagram @marleyfrank