“A negative mind will never give you a positive life.”
_Ziad K. Abdelnour
I was listening to the radio. The conversation revolved around how difficult it is to receive compliments. The talk show host asks about the psychological reasons for this. Before there was any discussion or investigation he then proceeded to say how he hates receiving compliments. And the discussion went downhill from there as more people reinforced this view. And so I mused about this, thinking how the world around us is filled with people and situations that reinforce bad behaviour, negative experiences, and lack of questioning.
Socrates did say that the unexamined life is not worth living.
And yet we persist in holding on to so many things that do not serve us just because we don’t give them a second thought.
So thinking is obviously not the answer for change. Then what is?
Yes, you guessed - DANCE!
The way dance changes life is not by engaging in how it is experience in the everyday. Dance offers us an opportunity to create an environment of positivity in which we experience life as it could be. Possibilities of joy, lightness and well-being are presented to us in subtle and something not so subtle ways in the dance.
No one dances in order to feel bad. We may dance to express and shift negative emotions or stories but ultimately the dance is the experience itself is focused on reinforcing positivity. Dance creates an experience where we engage with our own creativity finding that we have the power and agency to change life. Bathed in a positive environment our brain also lets go of some of the stress it is so accustomed to and, we have insights and sometimes entire vision plans of how to go about making things different. Dance changes our endogenous mood, hopefully for the better! This means the more we dance, the more we reinforce positivity. The more we remain positive, the easier it is to create a life that works for us – sometimes blissful, and sometimes ecstatic.
_Christos Daskalakos
No comments:
Post a Comment