Dance away the Blues
09/02/2016
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Feeling the blues? Stressed with life? Well, we may have the answer to brush those blues away and bring a smile and sunshine back to you.
Did you know that dancing can make you happy? Well, you may think that was already obvious and taken as a given. But it’s only recently that through research and studies that confirms there is strong evidence that dancing does make people feel better, positive, happier, and improve mental functioning.
Participants in dancing have shown that it can do the following:
· Releases endorphins, which is the pleasure chemical in the brain. This helps get rid of any boredom, depression and restlessness as the brain and body craves to move, and dancing is great way to keep the body and mind activity, keeping those toes tapping.
· Boost confidence and self-esteem. When you are dancing you start to forget everything and focus on the dance and music. You will lose your inhibitions and feel confident as you get more involved in the rhythms, beats and movement of the dance.
· Dancing can also help with creativity. As you continue to dance more regularly, you start to feel the music, and start thinking about improvising your moves.
Prof Peter Lovett, who is head of the University of Hertfordshire’s Dancing Psychology Lab (it’s always amazing to hear what universities research on. Who’d think there would be a dedicated research lab for Dancing and Psychology), and a former professional dancer has found the link between dance and the ability to problem solve. You can watch his quite interactive TEDx talk here.
Dancing has the ability of frequently stimulating the brain, sharpening cognitive abilities and literally moving your problems away, at any age, as one dance therapist mentioned in an interview with Psychology Today:
“Dance's expressive aspects help people process feelings they may have trouble dealing with in conscious, verbal terms, says Gabrielle Kaufman, a Los Angeles dance therapist…'What a powerful metaphor. Let's move it',"… As the patient did an improvisational dance, turning her emotions into motion, "she started to think, 'Where can I take some control back? How can I build my own vessel, so to speak, the way I want it to be?'"
Johnny Cash, the great American musician, must of also known the benefits of dancing in brushing away your problems and making you feel better, in his wonderful song, Get Rhythm. Just listening to it now, you can’t stop your feet tapping to the beat. And the lyrics is just accurate:
“A jumpy rhythm makes you feel so fine
It'll shake all the trouble from your worried mind
Get rhythm when you get the blues”
It'll shake all the trouble from your worried mind
Get rhythm when you get the blues”
If that doesn’t get you going, then you should read this article from the Telegraph. The article reports a research done by the London School of Economics looking at what activities makes people feel better financially. According to the article dancing not only makes you feel happier, or helps improve problem solving in the brain, it can also make you feel richer. In fact, more so than any other activity. The LSE study has found that people who dance feel like they are worth £1,671 a year richer.
So, in the words of the late David Bowie, put on your red dancing shoes and Let’s Dance!
Club Dance Holidays run a number of dancing holiday trips, whether it is skiing and Jiving in the Alps of Austria, West Coast Swinging in Almeria, Salsa on the beaches of Cuba, or dancing the Tango on the streets of Berlin, we have a variety of dances that will suit you and make you happy.
Check out the website for more info
