dancing at the CENTER

 

“There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.”

_Vicki Baum

How often do we become distracted by life? Not LIFE but the everyday goings on around us. We get drawn into the details which sometimes turn out not to have been as important as we thought. We usually treat our issues and problems in a similar way – that is we blow them out of proportion; they dominate our emotions and thoughts and often lead to paralysis – a freeze on life. That is because we can’t always know the answers and as much as we try very often it is simply impossible to figure things out in a rational and logical way. When we engage in that kind of thinking we are really using linear thinking which is comparable to computer programming. If we haven’t fed the data in, it’s not going to appear miraculously.

BUT, luckily for us there is a way to access deeper intelligence and knowledge. The wealth of knowledge held in our subconscious based on a lifetime of experience. And, the wealth of knowledge we have access to in our world, but which for whatever reason, we don’t seem to notice.

To gain access, we need to stop the mind. We need to shift our focus from the periphery of life and dance towards the core of our being. When we dance at the centre, we bypass the logical and rational parts of our mind. What that means is that we are able to disconnect from any beliefs we may hold, memories of the past, or old and reliable habits. Dance brings us into the present moment where our mind, body and heart are interacting with our experience in the here and now. Our reaction to what is required in the moment of the dance is based on real time creativity. Moment by moment as we move we sense what comes next without directing or planning the dance. This capacity we have allows us to release new possibilities for life. And sometimes in the moment, we have an AHA! We gain insight, and we can approach life differently. Often these insights come from deep understanding and allow us to relook at the issues and problems around us in a new way. And sometimes they even just go away as we connect with joy and ecstasy in the dance.

_Christos Daskalakos