Staying Happy
"Dancing is not just getting up painlessly, like a leaf blown on the wind; dancing is when you tear your heart out and rise out of your body to hang suspended between the worlds."
—Rumi
Emotional Intelligence
A lot of life revolves around our feelings whether we want to admit it or not. Most of the time we subconsciously spend a lot of energy on avoiding having to deal with our feelings and more precisely to feel them. In fact, all the energy we can spend on maintaining behavioral patterns and strategies, on struggling with thoughts around our feelings and emotions is readily available for other things, when we learn to move through our emotions with more ease, actually learn to feel what we are feeling and take action from a place of balance, awareness or intelligence if you like. Creating balance between our emotional state and the way we actually relate to our environment depends a lot on our ability to shift perspective and eventually what actions we take, when we feel what we feel.
Movement Is the Simplest Way to Move Through Your Emotions
There are many methods to learn to move through our emotions. The simplest is to use physical movement consciously. Many people already do this naturally. If you've had a quarrel with someone, it's common that one person decides to leave to go for a walk to let off some steam. Some times walking isn't enough with particularly stubborn patterns and belief systems. Dancing is one of most efficient ways to get out of your head, into your body and transforming any blocked energy into joy and expression. Hitting the gym and doing complex cardio related exercises can be as effective.
Movement Can Work to the Advantage of the Body and its Chemical Factory
When we move, we don't just move our muscles and bones, we move our breath, which helps move and circulate the blood running through our body and our oxygen levels rise. As a result, our cells, our atoms, our memories, our thoughts, our emotions and anything that might be stuck emotionally or intellectually get to move. When something moves or gets unstuck, its very makeup is altered. Movement is a natural drive in us for a reason. Even the mind, if you sit all still has a tendency to move about unless something is out of balance, such as stress, fear or mental blockages. Stress is, for the most part, a mental thing, when we move, we help release neurochemicals into our body that helps to heal and remove the stress and blockages.
When we move our body, the brain produces neurochemicals that see to it that our physical and emotional experiences in life are as enjoyable as possible. Why not take advantage of this simple biological setup? When you smile, laugh or move your body, you generate all on your own neurochemicals that will make you feel better. When you think about it, it is really a no-brainer. Whatever your mind wants you to believe, you have all the tools needed to get out of any rut, mental, emotional, spiritual or otherwise. Create a procedure with yourself that is allowed to override your mental and emotional state that will tell you, when pertinent, to move your body. And know this too that feelings and emotions come and go, it's in their nature and it's the only thing that is for certain in your life, unless you work really hard on holding onto those feelings and emotions. So make a habit of smiling, laughing and moving more. As you generate all those good neurochemicals, you will also generate new brain cells and will stay youthful and healthy.
Funny video on the history of dance: http://www.ted.com/talks/camille_a_brown_a_visual_history_of_social_dance_in_25_moves
I found this interesting testimonial from an 80 year-old on Facebook:
“I’m different than other people. I’m never sad. I make my life happy through discipline. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, and I eat lots of fiber. Every day I take a walk in the park to think about my balance. I've been a chef, a fashion designer, a painter, and now I’m learning martial arts. I do Tai Chi in the park every morning. It helps give me energy for my painting. I have already learned forty-two moves. I’m ahead of everyone. I’m almost eighty years old, but all the women in my group think I’m in my fifties.”
