5 Ways Dance Promotes Mental Health and Emotional Healing
Dance allows individuals to recover from stress and navigate mental illnesses
More than a historically important part of culture, dancing provides a lot of health benefits for dancers. Hidden in our fox trots, jetés and jazz squares are essential elements for positive mental health. By causing both physical and mental changes in dancers, dance allows individuals to recover from stress and navigate mental illnesses.
Good Mental Health Needs To Be Nurtured
The importance of mental health has been on the rise over the last decade. But the weight of this issue has skyrocketed since the pandemic began. Results of a survey done by the Census Bureau in May 2020 found that ⅓ of Americans showed signs of clinical anxiety or depression.
Early signs of mental health decline can be subtle. It is a normal and healthy part of life to experience negative emotions and stress. But when negative feelings and chronic stress endure for prolonged periods of time, our mental health can quickly deteriorate.
Maintaining good mental health is important for our wellbeing. Without it, individuals may struggle with motivation, apathy, hopelessness, mood swings, irritability, poor appetite, and more. Nurturing our mental health requires an array of lifestyle modifications. Some of these important habits include movement, positive emotional outlets, emotional regulation, resilience, and connection. All of which can be fostered through dance.
1: Movement Improves Mood
Moving our bodies provides a lot of physical health benefits. But movement contributes to our mental health as well, specifically by boosting mood.
Moving your body regularly and rigorously has been shown to increase the body’s production of hormones such as dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins. These hormones work together to regulate your mood and decrease feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression.
When we engage in consistent and regular movement, such as dancing, there are many physical benefits that also indirectly improve our mood. Increased fitness from dancing can improve dancers’ self-esteem and confidence. Movement increases energy levels, allowing dancers to function better throughout the day. Regular movement has also been shown to improve sleep, which can help dancers feel refreshed each morning they wake up. Dancers can also experience improved concentration, academic and work achievements, and increased creativity.
All these benefits of movement work together to improve mood and nurture good mental health.
2: Dance Is A Healthy Emotional Outlet
When navigating overwhelming and powerful feelings, engaging in healthy outlets is crucial for good mental health. Without positive emotional outlets, individuals may turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as substance abuse, violence, promiscuity, emotional eating, binge watching television or binge scrolling through social media. These unhealthy coping mechanisms numb feelings and keep individuals dissociated from their struggles and the world around them. In contrast, healthy emotional outlets help individuals process their overwhelming feelings and start their healing journey.
Dance is a healthy and important emotional outlet. Whether learning a piece of choreography or creating something new on your own, dance gives words to feelings you cannot verbalize.
The Hopi Indians have a saying that illustrates this point, “To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak.” Dance is a great form of nonverbal emotional expression. When individuals move their bodies through dance, it can help them communicate their complex feelings.
Bruce Perry, M.D., Ph.D, explains this phenomenon: “We tend to be a very verbal society — written and spoken words are important — but the majority of communication is actually nonverbal.”
If the majority of communication is nonverbal, it’s no wonder that big feelings can quickly become stuck in our hearts. Even if we are surrounded by the best support and resources, words can still be insufficient when communicating feelings.
Dancing allows individuals to speak through their bodies when words fall short. This outlet gives voice to dancers’ feelings. It provides a space for them to work through their emotions and start the healing process.
3: Rhythm Is Regulating
An important part of caring for your mental health is emotional regulation. Emotional regulation helps you manage your overwhelming feelings so you can navigate new or upsetting situations.
In order to stay calm in distressing circumstances, we use self-soothing techniques. We have been practicing these techniques since we were little, starting with sucking our thumbs or hugging our teddy bears.
Many important self-soothing techniques include rhythm, like going for a jog when you’re angry or bouncing your leg up and down when you’re nervous. When discussing emotional regulation, Dr. Perry explains that, “Everyone has their go-to options when they feel out of sync, anxious, or frustrated. The common element is rhythm. Rhythm is regulating.”
Rhythm has shaped our lives since the womb. We spent nine months hearing our mother’s heart beats and feeling the rhythmic pressure of it pumping blood around us. When we were infants, our parents rocked us to sleep or bounced us when we cried.
Rhythm in dance works much the same way. Whether it’s frappés, turns, leaps, or jazz hands, rhythm is essential for emotional regulation and creates a healthy body and mind.
4: Dance Training Builds Resilience
We face a variety of challenges each day. Some can be minor, like spilling our food or getting a paper cut. Others can be more disorienting, like tragic news or big life transitions. Managing life’s downturns in healthy ways requires resilience.
Resilience is the flexibility and strength needed to navigate challenges without breaking down. It is built on four key beliefs: (1) we have control over our lives; (2) we can learn from failure; (3) we matter; and (4) we have strengths and talents. Dance training cultivates these beliefs in dancers and helps build the resilience they need for good mental health and emotional healing.
1: We Have Control Over Our Life: Dance training deepens an individual’s sense of control by providing them structure and predictability. There are specific rules and guidelines in dance technique and dance classes. Dance instructors establish consistent class schedules and class routines. Even though dance is challenging and can be stressful at times, the structure and predictability of dance training contributes to more resilience in dancers.
2: We Can Learn From Failure: Resilience in the face of challenges stems from knowing that you can grow and learn from failure. Mistakes are more manageable when you know you can try again and improve. The repetition required to master new technique or choreography in dance gives way to this belief. Dancers are often given feedback from instructors and artistic directors for the sole purpose of helping them learn and grow. This correction and encouragement helps dancers build resilience because they are consistently taught to keep trying and keep improving.
3: We Matter: Dance training provides individuals with a sense of purpose. Whether performing a solo or dancing in a group number, every dancer on stage matters. This sense of purpose combats low self-esteem, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Individuals who feel like they matter can face challenges with more resilience because they know they can reach out and ask for help.
4: We Have Unique Strengths And Talents: Resilient individuals can rely on and share their unique strengths and talents with others. Dance training provides dancers with resilience by helping them explore interests and talents in practice. It also gives them a place to share those talents with their fellow dancers and audience members while performing on stage.
5: Dance Promotes Connection
One of the many side effects of stress, depression, and anxiety is disconnection. In order to cope with intense struggles and trauma, many individuals escape their realities by engaging in activities that isolate them from their bodies, family and friends, and spirituality. However, dance provides a safe space for these individuals to maintain these important connections.
1: Connection With The Body: Being in tune with our bodies and feelings is important for our overall well-being. However, sometimes our emotions can be overwhelming. And instead of facing them, it is easier to dissociate and ignore or numb them.
However, disconnection from our body can leave us with feelings of aimlessness, apathy, and dullness. To avoid these feelings and maintain good mental health, we need to remain connected with our bodies.
We nurture our connection with our bodies by being present and mindful. And dancing helps us do just that.
By combining the efforts of mind and body to create movement, we can bridge the gap of disconnection. When we dance, especially in a class or on stage, it requires focus. Balancing on one leg or leaping into the air forces us to be aware of our bodies and the space around us. This helps us remain present and mindful, keeping us connected to our bodies.
2: Connection With Others: Dance creates a lot of connection with those around us. Its relational elements require dancers to connect with choreographers when mimicking and learning choreography, partners when performing a duet or moving in sync, and the audience as they use their bodies to convey a message on stage. Dance, whether at a party or in the studio, is a very social activity and helps us feel more connected to others.
3: Connection With A Higher Power: Dance has consistently been used in religious ceremonies and celebrations throughout time. These rituals can inspire feelings of connection with a higher power. Additionally, the presence and mindfulness that dance creates also leads to increased connection with our spirituality.
Conclusion: Dance Leads To Emotional Healing
As we’ve explored above, dance can be an important part of nurturing our mental health. It can also be an important method of emotional healing.
Dance movement therapy has been shown to decrease clinical symptoms of depression and anxiety. As we move, we improve our mood. If we experience overwhelming feelings, dance can be a healthy outlet of emotional expression. When feeling dysregulated, the rhythmic elements of dance can recenter us. If life is chaotic, dance training provides the structure and predictability needed to feel in control. When we feel all alone in the world, dance connects us to ourselves and those around us. These important elements of dance can promote powerful healing in our lives.
Brené Brown, Ph.D, LMSW, explains this best, “Laughter, song, and dance create emotional and spiritual connection; they remind us of the one thing that truly matters when we are searching for comfort, celebration, inspiration, or healing: We are not alone.”
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