Dancing Is Good For Your Mental Health
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Dancing is an ancient practice, a way to celebrate all the various facets of life through movement. Dance is an expression of human emotion as well as the human experience. As an alternative therapy for drug and alcohol addiction, dance therapy can be an enjoyable way to experience emotional experiences as well as release emotional energy without having to engage in more traditional practices of therapy.
Emotions are energy which live in the body and can get stuck. Alternative therapies mostly target this energy and try to create space for the emotional energy to flow naturally. All matters of holistic therapy focus on releasing the emotional energy which can get stuck. When emotional energy gets stuck, it can be difficult to regulate emotion in a healthy way. People are generally unaware of the emotions they have pent up inside of them. It can take a moving therapy like dancing to target the energy and release it, allowing a patient to experience the energy and move through it.
Dance therapy can involve many different forms of dance movements. Patients might learn a new style of dance, do interpretive dance, have a silent dance party, try an aerobic style of dance like Zumba, or participate in specific dance therapy activities. Patients might be asked to try and express, through dance, how they are feeling in that day or what they are going through in their personal therapy process. They might try to find ways to move their emotional energy and create movement-symbols for themes in recovery. Talk therapy can become stale and not reach the stuffed physical emotional energy which sits inside the body. Dance therapy is therapeutic because it releases energy, confronts emotions, and creates applicable life skills for recovery.
Scientifically, dancing has been linked to better brain function and health. Some studies have found that regular dancing can reduce the symptoms of depression. Other studies have discovered that dancing can reduce the risk of dementia and brain deterioration. Dancing helps the brain focus and learn, which creates new neural pathways and aids in the recovery process. Creating meaning, expelling emotional energy, and fostering insight, dancing is a way to let it all out.
Everyone is capable of changing in recovery because everyone is capable of recovering. We know that coming to terms with your addiction is hard. You are not a failure. There is hope and freedom in recovery. Let the programs at Design For Change show you the way. Our options for treatment can meet everyone’s needs to get the treatment they deserve to heal. For information, call us today at (877) 267-3646.
