Some people take dancing as a profession, some take dancing as a hobby, some take dancing as a way to stay fit, and some take dancing as a means of redemption in life. This statement may seem exaggerated, but it stems from their true feelings when they dance. I have discovered that dancing has a remarkable healing power, its effect being no less than that of a mindfulness meditation.
Recently, I suddenly decided to learn dancing and fell in love with Latin dance. I started with the basic movements and practiced for one hour every day. After a while, I was sweating profusely and felt very comfortable.
It was a very satisfying experience. Compared to my consistent habit of early morning jogging and daily yoga, Latin dance offers a more exhilarating feeling.
People who dance will unconsciously enter a state of flow.
I wonder if any of your friends who don't dance have ever had this experience: you feel like you haven't danced enough, and yet a whole class period passes quickly. After the class is over, you suddenly feel as if you have returned to the real world. In fact, this is because we enter a state of flow when dancing.
Flow is a state of consciousness, where when people fully concentrate on a certain task, they temporarily forget the stress and troubles in their lives. Once a person enters the flow state, they seem to not feel the passage of time. After completing the task, they will experience a sense of happiness.
The conditions for the emergence of the flow state are as follows: the task at hand is challenging, but it is not beyond the ability of the current level of competence. Then, during this process, people can experience pleasure, and after completing the challenge, they will have a sense of achievement, satisfaction, and happiness. At the same time, this engagement can also make us more confident in ourselves.
Even if the work pressure is extremely high, as long as you sweat profusely and dance for a while, you will feel that your energy has returned, and then you will have the courage to continue facing difficulties. The "experience" brought by dancing is not just happiness; it is more like a form of healing.
When it comes to healing, the concept of mindfulness meditation naturally comes to mind.
It encourages us to be aware of our true feelings at the present moment, whether they are pleasant or not, and to accept them with an open mind, rather than criticizing them.
Mindfulness meditation teaches us to "live in the present". It is not only a form of psychological training, but also a way of life.
The common practice of mindfulness meditation is to calm the mind and observe changes in breathing, body, and the environment. This is similar to the body awareness in dance.
When dancing, we can feel the changes in muscles, joints and bones, even the rhythm of breathing and heartbeat. This perception of one's own physical condition is what we call the body awareness in dance.
When a dancer can fully perceive the state of their own body, they can express their inner emotions through subtle changes in their movements, achieving the state of unity between the human and the dance. When we immerse ourselves in music and dance, our body awareness is magnified infinitely, emotions are relieved and released, and we can obtain an experience similar to mindfulness.
The more fully one dances, the stronger the sense of mindfulness becomes.
Whether it is the state of flow or mindfulness meditation, the main purpose is to enable people to focus on their true feelings in the present moment.
Living in the present is not about indulging ourselves in immediate pleasures, nor is it about numbing ourselves to escape from reality.
Instead, it is a way of maintaining our clear-mindedness in life, preventing us from wasting time in anxiety and internal conflicts, and teaching us to cherish everything we have at present.
