How does dance relieve stress

How Dancing Help to Relieve Stress

Stress Management

Last Update on July 19, 2021 : Published on December 25, 2020

Dancing is so much more than moving your feet to that rhythm and swaying to the music. It is more than just moving your hips and waving your hands. Dancing is a way to express yourself not only to others but to yourself as well.

By “dancing it out” you’re not only releasing your frustrations and anger but you’re also releasing the stress and worries with every move you do.

“Dancing is surely the most basic and relevant of all forms of expression. Nothing else can so effectively give outward form to an inner experience.” – Lyall Watson

Dancing helps you stay not only physically fit and healthy, it also keeps your mental and emotional health strong. By dancing your worries away, you are not only relieving the tension in your body and mind but you also gain self-esteem, confidence, and a way to express yourself – emotionally.

If you’re not a fan of traditional physical exercises, like me, then you’ll find dancing an amazing and effective alternative to those exercises. But why dancing? It is an activity that works just like any other physical activity would. When we dance, our brain releases endorphins, the happy hormones, that help in reducing stress and makes us feel calm, relaxed, and happy.

For many people dancing is just a hobby. Something they do when they want to unwind. But have you noticed that these people, over time, become happier and relaxed after they dance? This habit of engaging in regular activity can be good for your physical and mental health.

1. Improves Mood & Focus

Dancing regularly can help you enhance your mood and improve your concentration skills. When we dance, our body releases endorphins, which help us feel happy, enhance our pleasure, and reduce pain.

Endorphins are our body’s natural painkillers that help reduce stress and improve our focus. After a good workout, our body feels calm and relaxed – all thanks to endorphins. And who’s to say that dancing isn’t a workout.

2. Provides A Creative Outlet

Too much stress – at work or at home – can make us feel trapped in our bodies. More often than not, this can either lead us to snap at our loved ones or shut ourselves from feeling emotions.

Dancing offers a creative and emotional outlet to help people express themselves without causing harm to themselves or others. With the help of the right music and movement, you can display your emotions in an artistic and productive way.

3. Soothes Muscle & Joint Aches

When our body feels good, our mind feels good too. Any or all forms of dancing from ballet to Kathak help in strengthening and soothing muscle and joint aches in the body.

Stiffness can cause pain and it can be caused by sitting for long periods of time. People who exercise regularly and even athletes can experience stiff muscles. Dancing helps in relieving those aches and pains while also regaining muscle strength and flexibility.

4. Improves Physical Health

From weight loss to building muscles, dancing can help improve physical health. Like mentioned before, dancing is a workout that can help people stay fit and healthy mentally and physically. This activity is helpful for people of all ages. Dancing can also help:

Improve heart and lung health
Increase stamina
Improve balance and coordination
Improve self-confidence and increase self-esteem
Improve mental strength and performance

5. Improves Social Skills

Hanging out with friends and people with like-minded ideas can help increase your emotional health and reduce the levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. Friends, especially, are proven to improve your overall well-being, boost your mood, and reduce stress.

What sounds much better; dancing alone or dancing with your friends? For me, dancing with my friends makes me feel much better and relaxed than dancing alone does.

6. Helps To Unwind

Dancing puts you in a meditative state that can actually feel relaxing and calming than meditating while sitting still. If you’re a person who doesn’t like to sit still for meditation, dancing is a wonderful alternative for you. When you’re dancing, all your focus is on your breathing, movements, and performance.

This process can help you unwind after a rough day. And if you’re dancing with your partner, all the good! What better way to feel connected with your partner and at the same time relax than swaying to the music?

Final Words

Dancing is an activity that requires a person to fully immerse themselves in their movements and music at the moment. Engaging in activities that make you feel happy can help you not only reduce stress, anxiety, and worries but can also provide you with an outlet to express your emotions and feelings in an artistic and productive way.

There are times when life can become overwhelming and stressful making you look for an escape from it all. Some people choose to meditate, some choose to go to the gym, and some people choose to dance. Dancing releases endorphins that can help you feel pleasure and happiness. Dance is a language that helps people express their emotions and get in touch with themselves.

Not only it improves self-esteem and self-confidence, but it also helps in improving the self-image and self-worth of a person. So next time you feel stressed, close your eyes and let those muscles loose while swaying away with the music.

“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.” – Rumi

When in doubt, dance it out!

How Dance Relieves Stress ... Scientifically Speaking!

WEBINAR: Explore the topic of dance as a tool for stress relief in our live webinar with Tamara Fyke of Love In A Big World.

It’s no secret that the COVID-19 crisis has bombarded people around the globe with new kinds of stress that most of us were entirely unprepared for. Dance, as it turns out, can be an extraordinarily powerful antidote, with scientific evidence to back it up.

As we collectively scramble to cope with school closures, social isolation, fear for the health and well-being of loved ones, financial uncertainty, and so much more, we see constant reminders to practice self-care.

Some common themes run through the recommendations around taking care of yourself in these stressful times, including:

Exercise!
Play music
Be creative
Stay connected to the people, places & things you love

These common themes are not coincidental. There is science to support why these recommended forms of self-care really do relieve stress.

Movement Boosts Endorphins

When you exercise, your body releases endorphins, a group of hormones that interact with receptors in the brain to reduce our perception of pain.

Endorphins are known as natural analgesics and can trigger positive feelings in the body. Even those most resistant to exercise are likely to feel some sense of improved mood after a period of movement. Over time, regular exercise can lead to a positive and energizing outlook on life.

Regular exercise has been proven to:

Reduce stress
Mitigate anxiety and feelings of depression
Boost self-esteem
Improve sleep

Music Reduces Cortisol

While movement can boost hormones that make you feel better, music can also have a profound effect on both mind and body.

A number of studies have found that listening to music can lower your body’s level of cortisol, a hormone that contributes to feelings of stress and anxiety. Of course, there are many genres of music and different kinds of music have different benefits. Here are some examples:

Faster music can help with alertness and concentration
Upbeat music can boost the mood and result in a sense of optimism and positive outlook
Slower tempos can help to quiet the mind and relax muscles

Creative Expression Boosts Immunity

Many studies show that the act of creating has profound health benefits. Whether it be through writing, arts and crafts, playing an instrument, or movement, very few things in life bring the satisfaction that comes from making something.

In fact, being creative is shown to increase your CD4+ lymphocyte count, the key to your immune system. That’s right – being creative can actually help you fight off disease and infection! Creative activities are also shown to reduce dementia, improve mental health, and make you smarter.

Social Connection Improves Heart Health

Social isolation stresses the entire cardiovascular system, while social connection, intimacy, and love help the heart and blood vessels thrive.

Many researchers have linked isolation with heart problems. Here are a few examples excerpted from Harvard Health Publishing:

Heart attack survivors scoring high on tests of social isolation and stress were four times more likely to die during the three years after their attacks than those with active social networks and little stress.
Older people with little or no emotional support who were hospitalized with heart failure had triple the risk of having a heart attack or dying in the next year as those with good support. The impact of loneliness was stronger in women than men.
In a survey of 229 Chicagoans, blood pressure averaged 30 points higher among lonely people than among those who weren’t lonely.

Movement + Music + Creativity + Connection = DANCE!

So let’s review. Music reduces cortisol, movement increases endorphins, being creative boosts immunity, and social connection improves heart health. If all of this is true, then it only stands to reason that CREATING MOVEMENT TO MUSIC (sometimes with others) has the potential to be a MIRACLE CURE FOR STRESS!

Taking all of the scientific evidence into account, dance emerges as an extraordinarily effective stress reducer because it combines movement, music, and creative self-expression. On top of that, it often is also a form of communication and basis for human connection. Dance has existed in every culture throughout history, and science proves that it’s likely to keep us healthy in body, mind and spirit as we continue to evolve.

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Dance therapy - the healing effect of dance

There are shortcuts to happiness, and dance is one of them. (Vicki Baum)

Since ancient times, dance has been a means of expressing feelings. In wild tribes, to this day, ritual dances accompany the main events of a person's life - the birth of a child, marriage and death, as well as recovery. Many nations recognize the miraculous power of dance, which helps to gain new strength or relax. For many people, the opportunity to dance is an opportunity to relieve stress, relax, recharge and cheer up.

I propose to consider the effect of dance on health more carefully and consistently . ..

Modern research scientists talk about the healing effect of dance for the body and psyche. Today it is known that dancing relieves stress and helps with the initial stage of hypertension (it occurs as a reaction of the body to stress). It has long been observed that people who dance professionally live longer and maintain clarity of mind. At the same time, according to the research of doctors, each dance has its own medical “specialization”.

Latin dances (rumba, cha-cha-cha, salsa)
Since the pelvis and hips are involved in the dance, this is a training of the hip joints, the prevention of diseases of the lumbar spine. Classes improve the blood supply to the pelvic organs. This type of dance is recommended for reproductive problems and sexual disorders.

Waltz
The dance requires a perfectly straight back. Classes strengthen the muscles of the back and legs, train the vestibular apparatus, unload the nervous system. Suitable for patients with osteochondrosis and spinal hernia, for middle-aged and elderly people.

impromptu dance
Dances in which people move improvised, under the influence of inspiration, to the beat of the music. Perfectly help to cope with the accumulated internal stress. Intuitively relax the centers of accumulated neuropsychic and muscular tension in the body, mentally and physically liberate and renew. An excellent method of dance therapy for people whose lives are filled with responsibility and control.
Improvised dances are always optimally dosed physical activity (a person never dances “through I don’t want to”), and a definite plus is that most people intuitively move correctly, unloading “squeezed” zones and evenly distributing stress throughout the body. It is important to add that physical movements improve the functions of the digestive, respiratory and circulatory systems.

Samba
It is no coincidence that this energetic, incendiary, rhythmic dance is called the “fiery queen of carnivals”. Samba trains the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, improves reaction.
Dance is recommended for metabolic disorders and overweight.

Belly dance
Based on movements natural to the female body. Smooth movements of the hips activate the blood supply to the pelvic organs, relieve tension from the back muscles (pain disappears), improve posture, and strengthen muscle tone.
Belly dancing is an excellent prevention of osteochondrosis, osteoporosis and diseases of the pelvic organs.

Tango
For example, tangotherapy is actively used in medical institutions in Argentina.
Dance helps in the treatment of depression, schizophrenia, headaches, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The need to memorize complex movements and the order in which they are performed exercises the brain well.
Therefore, Tango is an excellent means of preventing and suspending the aging process, as well as a means of developing the brain.

Flamenco
The main thing in the dance is to keep your back and arms. Flamenco well strengthens the muscles of the back, serves as a preventive measure for diseases of the joints.
Tilts, turns and twists strengthen the oblique muscles of the abdomen, the muscular corset, which ensures that the internal organs are maintained in the desired position.
Dance is usually indicated for cervical osteochondrosis and for the prevention of joint diseases.

That's probably all about the healing effect of dance, but remember the main thing - to suppress the need for dance is harmful to health - both soul and body rust.

I invite you to try the healing power of dance in action on my author's weekend program "Women's Club"

Here, through dance, you will be able to immerse yourself in the healing space, archetypal female images. You can afford to be a queen, a witch, a beauty - a multi-faceted beautiful woman. It doesn't matter if you can dance or not. Women's circle, support, inspiration in the best way always contribute to your self-expression ...

How to save yourself from stress: six fun workouts in Tyumen

Sports What to read

Inna Vasilevskaya

March 11, 13:20

Modern people experience stress after stress, it exhausts, does not allow them to work fully and sleep peacefully. To reduce stress, there are many different techniques. Some of them are quite simple, such as movement and sports. Psychologists believe that we need to help ourselves and create opportunities to spend energy, which is released in large quantities in stress. And we offer several types of boring workouts that will help you escape from the harsh reality.

Doga (dog yoga)

The term doga, short for dog yoga, yoga with dogs, originated in the UK. Enthusiasts believe that four-legged friends can be great partners in sports. Training with them will not only not be boring, but will also become much more effective.

In fact, yoga with a four-legged friend is no different from ordinary yoga - just two people are sitting on the mat. And this activity has mutually beneficial bonuses. During training, the dog energetically captures the mental and emotional state of the owner and charges him with his energy.

Classes are held as usual: a person performs hatha yoga asanas, which are somewhat interpreted. For example, small dogs become a burden, which makes training much more difficult, and large dogs can become a support when performing asanas.

Vitalina, 30 years old:

— My dog Mint and I started practicing doga during self-isolation in 2020. Then the puppy constantly got under my feet and strove to lie down on the yoga mat during my futile attempts to tone myself up. I read that you can also train with a dog. Not everything worked out right away, but Mint and I somehow even became close. Of course, it does not repeat my movements, does not fold into “three knots”, but, for example, becomes an additional weighting equipment .

There are no clubs in Tyumen where dogu is officially practiced. But exercise sets can be found on YouTube. For example, here.

Aerial yoga

Probably, since childhood, everyone wanted to learn how to fly. Aerial yoga makes it possible to partially realize this dream. Classes are held in the air using a high-strength hammock. The workout develops flexibility and is ideal for relaxation.

Due to the weight of one's own body, the spine is not compressed, but stretched; this way you get closer to asanas, splits and backbends that you could not do before.

Despite its fragile appearance, the hammock can support up to 200 kg, making it an almost universal exercise machine. The feeling of flying above the ground relieves stress, improves mood. For convenience, it is recommended to wear smooth leggings and a T-shirt that covers the shoulders and armpits.

Zhanna, 28:

— For me, aerial yoga has become an opportunity to work with confidence in the world. Everything here is tied to relaxation: only by fully trusting yourself and the instructor do you get the result - the resistance in the body, breath, mind and consciousness goes away. The level of anxiety and stress is reduced, and this is the best that can be achieved. My favorite shavasana, the relaxation pose, takes on a special meaning in a hammock. But air yoga is contraindicated for people with pressure - due to inverted postures .

Yoga in hammocks is very popular in our city. It seems that you can hang under the ceiling in any corner of the city: both in large gyms and in small studios. Here are a few of them: Ananda yoga center, Daudel Sport fitness club, Hammocks aerial yoga studio, FANCY FITNESS club and others.

@YOGA Project

Bikram Yoga

Another type of yoga in our review. What to do, we love to strain and relax. Only in the case of Bikram yoga, known as hot yoga, is it done in a very warm room.

The class includes hatha yoga exercises that are performed in a room heated to +38-40 degrees. The special climate allows you to relax the joints and improve the elasticity of the muscles for a deeper and safer stretching of the body.

Also, heat leads to increased sweating, removing all waste and toxins from the body. In addition to detox, apologists for this sport claim the effectiveness of losing weight, reducing stress levels and increasing immunity.

Tatyana, 38 years old:

- I was on hot yoga when my back hurt. High humidity and temperature help to make asanas stronger, and stretching easier and deeper. After the first workout, my whole body ached. The most important thing in this story is that I can stand the heat terribly. Therefore, I imagined the practice at elevated temperatures as real torture. A pleasant surprise was that after 20 minutes of practice, asanas were given easily, without causing pain in the injured back. After a workout, I now feel amazing, like I took an internal shower. The body becomes cleaner, the muscles are warm and soft .

We have been looking for options for Bikram Yoga in Tyumen for a long time. And found! This is the YOGA Project studio on the street. Malygin.

Muay Thai (Thai boxing)

The martial art spread around the world from Thailand. The term means "duel of the free" or "free fight". In modern Muay Thai, you can strike with fists, feet, shins, elbows and knees - because of this, Muay Thai is called the "fight of eight limbs."

The first thing to train in Muay Thai is endurance. As a result, the cardiovascular system throughout the workout will resemble a piston pump, so in real life you will always be ready for any stress.

Every workout involves pushing your own physical limits. And here, as they say, you can’t do without pain. After a couple of weeks of training, the attitude towards them changes. Muay Thai strengthens joints and bones, and also minimizes the percentage of subcutaneous fat.

Valeria, 31 years old

- I was looking for a sport for myself, where there would be maximum movement. I do not like to lie quietly in shavasana. In Muay Thai, the emphasis is on endurance and general fitness. But you have to understand that this is a sport where they punch in the face and kick in the liver. And it can hurt. It gets easier after a few months, and then training starts to bring pleasure. The most important plus is a uniform load on all muscle groups and beautiful muscles. And walking the streets at night is not so scary .

You can search for training options for men, women and even children in various sports clubs in the city. For example, in Geo Sport or DRIVE FITNESS. Booty dance, twerk The dance, according to experts, will not only teach you how to twerk, but will pump your plasticity, and at the same time, it will load your abdominal and back muscles quite well.

Followers of twerk boast strong legs and pumped up, strong top, without which it is impossible to make a significant part of the combinations. A pleasant bonus from classes will be a developed respiratory function and endurance.

Classes are suitable for those who are emotionally exhausted, trainers say. Sport is energy, and dancing is triple energy. Dance training instills confidence in girls.

Victoria: 33 years old:

— I always wanted to learn how to twerk: it's very cool to effectively shake a separate part of the body. As it turned out, not only the priest is involved during the dance, but the whole body is pumped: legs, back and even arms. It was these classes that pushed me to love dancing and music again. In general, learning to dance radically changes the style of communication, behavior. Now I know exactly my worth, and I always have something to say and show. Any party where music plays is my dance floor .

An impressive way to shake your butt and get rid of thoughts of evil will be taught in one of the many sports clubs or small studios. For example, in the GENESIS dance studio.

Zumba

Zumba is a fat burning workout for all muscle groups of low to medium intensity with simple and repetitive choreography. In fact, a dance fitness program where the instructor shows the movements and ligaments to the music, and the group repeats.

It is important that the coach and participants communicate continuously with each other, as a result, the training is like a friendly party, where there is a place for wonderful music, communication, support and positive emotions.

Zumba is for people of all ages. The workouts are designed to work out all muscle groups in a relaxed atmosphere. The repetition of the movement gives a qualitative load on the muscles, trains the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

Daria, 42 years old

— When once again the question arose of where to go and what to do if you don’t like fitness clubs, I decided to go dancing. It's useful and fun - who doesn't love to dance? Zumba seemed the most logical solution. The first lesson became difficult: I did not know the movements, I felt like an elephant in a china shop. But they told me: this is not a dance competition, no one puts marks. I continued to walk - everything got better. Now, for an hour of fun dancing, I burn about 600 calories. And every week I go to the disco .

If you've got the idea of moving to Latin American rhythms, try finding the right group at CityFoxFitness, Geo Sport or WellnessFit&Spa. And do not think that dancing for mood and good shape is the prerogative of women.

Photo: Pixabay, pexels, freepik

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