“Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free”
Whenever I face challenges in life, I turn to the healing power of dance. It is one of the most powerful and freeing spiritual practices that I have under my belt, and is my go-to meditation.
Dance, in my opinion, is underrated. It is the oldest form of prayer and practice in healing rituals. There are many examples of this; One being the native american ghost dance; Those who practiced the dance believed that it would connect them with spirits of the dead and bring prosperity, unity, and peace.
The dancing form of Shiva - Nataraja; meaning “the lord of dance” represents dancing in order to release yourself from the trap of illusion. It also represents the dance with the universe. What really resonates with me, is that the point where the dance takes place in this depiction of Shiva is in the heart centre. Dance is a practice that for me, blows my heart wide open.
Dance takes us on an internal journey
As humans, we spend so much time in our external surroundings. When do we take the time to really dive inside? The dance gives us access to what is really happening within us right now. We all have a yearning to connect with something much bigger than ourselves, to explore those mysterious and unknown places inside and to discover much more about who we really are.
What I’ve witnessed at the retreats I host is that when we hold our dance sessions; guests generally begin shy and a little introverted and are soon really losing themselves in the music. It often ends with some strong energies being realised. I'm lucky enough to have manifested a best friend, Caroline who also loves to dance. She is also my retreat co-host so dance meditation is naturally one of our favourite sessions on retreat.
As well as releasing energy, we also create energy when we dance and we can use that energy to manifest. Once in a trance like state during your dance; feel the energy rising in your body, visualise it, set your intentions and hold them in your mind, picture what it is that you want to manifest, send that energy and intention out into the universe and then let go of any outcome and expectation.
Dancing in the spirit
I often dance alone. Music on loud, eyes closed. Feeling nothing but the music and immense universal love. I dive deeply into myself until I lose sense of the physical and I feel universal connectedness. I don’t only dance when I am happy or in the mood though; I dance when I am sad, angry, frustrated, tired & cannot be bothered. I have to drag myself into the dance sometimes but I always benefit in the end and I always learn something. If I am tired, I dance tired. If I am sad, I dance sad.
Gone (almost) are my days of dancing in nightclubs at 4am. Though that was my first true introduction to universal oneness and love.
Surrendering to the now
Dance takes us into a trance state. It helps us to let go of tension in the body, free the mind and it connects us straight with god/source/creation. There is an ecstasy to be felt in truly surrendering to each moment when we dance. We begin to discover that the medicine we need is within; that we are powerful beings. We can transcend the physical and the restrictions of our consciousness and become one with our spirits. A divine unity.
We can be totally swept away in the dance if we allow ourselves to be. As we head deeper and deeper into the music, the movements, the now. Our vibrations raising. Skin shedding. Reaching the ecstatic places within.
Why not try dancing your way to freedom? Dance for peace. Dance for change. Dance for love.