“Thank you DANCE, for the little things I can’t seem to put into words.”
How can we embody GRATITUDE?
Many of the self-help gurus out there invite and urge us to espouse gratitude, for a number of reasons. However, the mistake many well-intentioned teachers make when it comes to feelings is that they assume it is easily done top-down. In other words, our beautiful minds and brains can send instructions down to the heart to start pumping our feelings. And although this does work in a minority of instances, the truth is that feeling is a bottom-up process.
Our emotions originate through physiological changes in our bodies. They are felt experiences, not abstract ideas, or imaginings. Emotion is deeply visceral. It is only after we have physically felt an emotional change in our body, that we ascribe an interpretation and say, “I feel this, or I feel that.” Many visceral changes can be similar for various emotions. The quickening of the heart is present, in anger, excitement, and love!
If we would like to induce feelings, what better way to connect than through the body? And of course, dance is extremely good at this. The combination of music, designed to evoke emotion, and the expressive movements that accompany these, are the key to creating a feeling. Coming back to gratitude; if I would like to experience this, what better way than to connect with the miracle that is my body, the pleasure that resides in the movement, and the magic it evokes when I lose myself in the dance?
As we dance our way to the end of the year – the humble invitation is to connect and embody GRATITUDE – by dancing!
_Christos Daskalakos
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