Skip to main content

Dancing

D is for Dancing



Zulu Dancer


So, what can you do for free, that lifts your mood by elevating endorphin levels that also helps your fitness level?
Dance!
As a girl, I was blessed with a unique opportunity. My mother had danced in her youth and wanted to share that experience with me. Through her encouragement, I grew to love my dance lessons and ended up studying dance about 4 nights a week and then performing on the weekends.

One of my favorite activities was dancing outside. I enjoyed practicing my turns outdoors (poor grass!). So, I’d put our large speakers outside the door and then turn and turn, and turn some more, using the trees across the lake as a spotting tool. In case you’re unfamiliar spotting is a place you focus your eyes so that you don’t become dizzy.

Now, some of you reading this will think this sounds crazy. Others are living in a place wherein doing something like this is not possible. I’m not suggesting you twirl outside, but hey, if you can, go for it! I’m just using my teenage experiences as an example of how dancing liberated me, and fed my senses and spirit, leading to creativity.

What anyone reading this can do, especially those feeling bogged down by a creative block, is dance. Pandora, Google, Spotify, whatever app or tool you need—try dancing. It has so many benefits, I don’t know what all to list.

·        What I can say for sure is that dancing makes you lighter. You feel lighter and can indeed shed a few pounds.

·        Creative blocks can make you down in the dumps. It's an inner heavy feeling. Creatively you are constipated—unable to push out your creative flow. But you can play the music of your choice and quite quickly feel the flow return.

Comments

  1. Beautiful and inspiring post, Stephanie! My mother taught us to Jitterbug and Twist as kids (she was raised in the 50s!). We had a lot of fun with that.
    Best Wishes!
    Lori

    My A2Zs @ As the Fates Would Have It & Promptly Written
    Follow Me (Ravyne) Twitter|Facebook

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jitterbug sounds and looks so cool! I did do the twist in my day and it is still a freeing and fun dance.

      Delete
  2. Blessed you are to cultivate dance as an art form, Stephanie. I have a wrong foot and I make for a horrible dancer. Wouldn't mind shaking the body, tough!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just do it, like no one is looking and have fun!

      Delete
  3. When I was young the twist hadn't been invented!!! It was tangos, waltzes,foxtrots, etc. However, I used to love to dance and have done so up until recent years when the body starts to let one down

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have always loved dancing. But in the last twenty years, it is mostly in spirit. I've always enjoyed walking and exercising which are kindred activities. But it does open the mind. Pushing a lawnmower helps me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd do lawnmower to music! Then you're dancing too, just in a different way.

      Delete
  5. My yoga teacher is a former dancer who often points out how many things have changed in dance instruction as we learn more about our bodies. I still remember my junior high lunch time dances.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes!!!

    Beth Lapin
    Activities for a Good Life
    https://bethlapinsatozblog.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete
  7. Lovely post Stephanie thank you! I'm gonna give that a try! Have made a note in CAPS on piece of pater ... I feel energised just reading it thank yoiu!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Go ahead. Make my day by leaving a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

Gran Bwa

Gran Bwa is a lwa that helps you connect to ancestral roots or the spiritual home of Vodou. A friend of mine, who is an expert on Haitian Vodou, who has spent a lot of time in Haiti with the artists there, told me I had painted Gran Bwa when I made this spontaneous work out of walnut ink and sumi-ink on handmade paper. I had considered this painting a self-portrait. She now holds this piece in her private collection: Quite a few people are afraid of Vodou but it is an awe-inspiring tradition of bringing together plant energy with divinity, spiritual and personal energy. My friend who is very involved with Vodou, especially the art that surrounds it, is from European ancestry. She is light in spirit and bubbly, with a close relationship to nature and her garden.  Vodou affirms the relationships between cycles of life, trees of knowledge and spirit.  The Vodou vision of lwa , understands them as the intelligence of energy present in humans, nature and thoughts.  Mysteries ca

Xochitl--Flower

                                     (Winter Poinsettia by Stephanie Rose Bird, oil on wood) One of my Facebook friends does daily posts and shares called "I love Flowers." I love flowers too, in real life, in my garden, in paintings and as they are related to the gods and goddesses, in healing, as well as their use in folklore like Hoodoo. Not long ago I posted about Xochipelli (Sho-CHEE-pee-lee) prince of flowers and Xochiquetzal (Sho-CHEE-ket-zul) goddess of flowers in anticipation of April's blooming season.  The Goddess and Prince of Flowers post  is here. Today, I want to focus in on the root word of their names and it's symbolism. This word is Xochitl (Show-CHEE-tul) in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs. This word means flower.                                            ( Frida Kahlo "Self Portrait Dedicated to Dr. Eloesser) In many different belief systems there are nature gods and goddesses connected with flowers. Flowers possess symbolism,

Follow Fest Interview and Sharing

When I first became a blogger it was difficult to know if I had readers and visitors coming to my blog. I’d post and be met by the sounds of crickets. Then, I branched out into the world of the blogosphere, a world I  didn't  know really existed. From my ventures, I met a lot of interesting bloggers.  I've  started following and commenting on numerous blogs, for you see, prior to my outings, I too was out among the crickets. Lurking about but seldom saying anything. A fellow blogger  I've  met through my journeys around the blogosphere is Melissa Maygrove . She had the brilliant idea to have a Follow Fest , where we share about who we are, what we do and most importantly, how you can connect with us further. It is my intention through joining Follow Fest, that I’ll connect with many more readers and people interested enough in what I do to want to learn more by following. So, here goes my entry for the fest. Name:   Stephanie Rose Bird Fiction or