The Dance Alternative
Source: (photo3idea_studio), flaticon.com

The Dance Alternative

Yesterday I rediscovered dancing!

The pandemic had put an end to my yoga classes and evening walks. I enjoyed going for yoga to an actual class because going to a class adds an interpersonal element to it. My evening walks were often in the company of a friend or in nature. Doing these things alone are, for me, a huge bore and therefore quite a challenge. This resulted in months and months of procrastination and inactivity. I started to note that my sedentary, laptop-led life and lack of physical activity had caused a return of neck pain, shoulder pain etcetera.

Physiotherapy, like at-home yoga, is also solo and sedate, so that wasn't appealing either. I needed something that suited me. Something more active, more fast-paced, more extroverted!

Then I remembered how jazz makes me want to groove. So yesterday, after weeks of thinking about dancing as a form of exercise, a little after 6 PM, I put on some jazz and started to move.

With each beat, my shoulders would go up and down, up and down. Then I'd switch to a new step that involved moving the shoulders back and front. Slowly my head started to go from side to side and then up and down in tune with the music. My legs moved, my arms swung and I shook my hands out to the groovy jazz tunes emanating from my laptop.

I glanced in the mirror and noticed that my face was beaming. I was grinning from ear to ear and suddenly I sensed the elation I used to feel when I was in a disco with friends. I realised what I've been missing in my life. Movement, connection, abandon, joy!

I don't know whether crowded discos exist in our future but I'm certainly hoping that socially-distanced, appropriately-masked beach parties will. That similarly organised, open-air gyms will spring up. So people like me can rediscover excitement in our lives.

What concepts such as discipline, vision and goals could not do; what months of trying, urging and self-criticism could not achieve, 25 minutes of dancing did.

As a human development practitioner, I am repeatedly arriving at this realisation: Trying to implement what has worked for others is good, but ultimately each individual has to discover what works for them and what doesn't.

Reminder to self: "DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU".


Hemant Manglani

Enterprise Account Management @ Signdesk | SAAS

3 年

I really loved it... I always wondered it definitely had some secret. thanks bro. Me going to start free-style dancing..

venkatarao VEDULA

Counsellor : Foreign Trade and Logistics

3 年

Dancing is natural as the expression ‘danced with joy’!

Malcolm Cawood

Business Architecture Modelling, specialist in Sparx EA

3 年

As it happens, I was reading about the science of dance only last night – see https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg25033350-400-how-the-way-you-move-can-change-the-way-you-think-and-feel/ - a subscription is required, but here's some key points: "the feel-good factor [produced by dance] is because our?brains work as prediction machines?that constantly make guesses about what is likely to happen next. In this view, a regular beat is satisfying because it makes it easy to predict what is coming. Each time we are correct, we get a small hit of dopamine, a neurotransmitter involved in feelings of pleasure… " "Following the beat with your body provides a second dopamine hit, and may also create the illusion that our movements are producing the beat in the first place… which makes us feel powerful and in control. As such, moving to music when we are alone can make us happy. Doing it in a room with others takes things to the next level, adding the pleasure of social bonding into the mix, too." Richard Claydon - you might be interested as you mentioned the brain as prediction machine recently at Drinking Dialogues.

Sudhi Sinha Varshney

Strategic HR Leader Driving Organizational Excellence | Transforming Talent Management & Culture for Growth

3 年

My favourite workout routine has to be dancing...I don’t think I’d ever miss a class if I signed up for one.

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