FREEDOM MONTH: DAY 2: “When you dance with the Africans, unless it is a ritual dance like a wedding or harvest or rain dance, there’s no right or wrong way to dance. There’s only movement. And the more you express your feelings as you move, the better you feel when you’re done…When I dance the African Way, I show my feelings with my body instead of hiding them in my heart. When I dance, I know I’m alive here and now. My body and soul are in harmony.”― Maria Nhambu
I love this quote!! I am a big fan of dancing…with or without music, but usually with music. When I dance, I let all the stress and tension drain from my body. I am not a great dancer, but I dance with love and don’t really care about form.
When I am upset or hurt or angry or scared or too serious, dancing relieves all of it. I teach my sponsees to dance when we get to work that holds high emotional STUFF for them. We dance that right out of the body.
Our muscles hold all the memories of everything we have ever done, been, seen and felt. If we have not processed this stuff, we are going to be tense in those muscles and harm our bodies in that way. We hold them tight and do not let them be resilient and flexible the way they should. The same goes with body building and muscle building. It creates tension in the tissue that needs to be released. Dancing can do that, as do yoga, tai chi, and other forms of some martial arts. It is okay to build muscle if we also build resilience, because otherwise we become to muscle bound to move. Happens. Not good.
Freedom is something we can express with our bodies, our minds, our souls. We need that expression to not just live, but to thrive. I am all about the thriving…in fact, I insist on it.
Dolphin Hug 