What is Dance? It could mean to shake, gyrate, rage, tingle, flow, express and feel your body.

I have found through life, there are many times I have felt stuck in my thoughts and emotions. Many dancers call this “trapped in your body.” It is easy to go down a spiral in life’s twists and turns and store various emotions you go through inside your body.

Trapped Energy can be stress, un-wellness and trauma. It is scary to resist that trauma but having it buried can seem like it is safe down there.

This might feel like a “mood” that you are not able to get out of. Maybe it is a heavy energy after being surrounded by lots of people or conversation. Or, when your brain is going around in circles and does not want to shut off.

It can feel like a sadness, or being emotionally tired. You can feel anger or rage that you can’t think straight. You may feel in a funk creatively or not sure what direction to take next.

One way to move through it is with dance.

By playing music while you are doing something else (like cooking, cleaning, walking) and allowing yourself to close your eyes and move with the music, and feel wherever it takes you.

Music can help you be Present and in the NOW.

A rabbit being watched or chased down by someone higher up in the food change are on high alert. They could either be in a “freeze” or “flee” state in this high alertness to the trauma. Once the rabbit gets away, it shakes out all the chemicals and energy needed to escape from their predator in order to calmly go on with the day.

For humans, we take that same shaking to be a trauma response that needs to be stopped or minimized. We may take drugs or alcohol to numbed the effect, we may use heavy blankets to weigh and calm to body, medications, breathing exercises. All the things opposite to what our body wants to do – which is to shake out all the trauma, the energy, the endorphins and cortisol.

Like a horse doing “horse lips”, dancing or shaking can allow the emotion, the trauma, the stress to move through you so you can fully release the experience.

As much as I love yoga and meditation, sometimes I just need a good dance to release the pent up energy or emotion I am dealing with to go forward. Being still sometimes just doesn’t cut it for me in that situation.

Shake it Out. You will be glad you did. Make a playlist of songs that make you want to get up and dance.

Then dance like nobody is watching. It is not meant to look cute.  It can be simply shaking out each limb, jumping, twirling, chorus line kicks, kickboxing, 80s aerobics. It can be raw and raging. It can sweet and flowing.

And if you are a person who never dances.  Who sits and watches others – this is especially true for you.  We are meant to dance. To sing. To yell. To laugh. To cry.  Somewhere along the line you were taught that you couldn’t, that you looked stupid, that others would judge you or that you judged yourself against others.

So practice in the privacy of your space and if you find yourself judging your movements, or your body, remember: you are practicing, you are safe, it is fine.

Close your eyes, don’t judge your body or look in a mirror and just let the rhythm and the words move you.  And if you can’t relate to the words, imagine that the words are talking straight to your soul, or to future generations, or to the past, or that monkey inside of your head that likes to have control over you…

Then let the emotions come.  Dance can bring out soul wrenching crying, or laughing, or anger. Happiness, sadness, creativity, ideas, and decisions.

Allow whatever comes through you, to move through you and let it go.

Continue to move to the music. Move each body part. Get all of your cells singing and moving within your body.  By moving out trauma, sadness and anger, you can allow freedom, joy and peace.

Welcome a dance practice that is seamless and fun as well as beneficial for mental, physical and emotional health.