Moment of Mind January 2021

Image of Shaking Sisters: Five Days of Dance offering from the When Women Speak Network. Rely to this email if you want to join the free group on Facebook.

Moment of Mind

I love dancing.
When I was in my 20s my friends knew the only way to get me to stay up past 10pm was to put on dance music. If the body took over and started moving then you’d keep me engaged into the early morning hours. Otherwise it was sleep: no Tia for you.
Movement is one way the body releases tension. More on some of the science behind this in the section below.
Somehow I stopped dancing regularly in my 30s and early 40s except for the occasional concert or home dance party with the hubby (still a favorite). I could analyze that but nah… the bottom line is that there was a lot of tightness and constriction that took over and the body stopped moving in the kind of free expression that dance is to me. The mind believed all this constriction too, believed that tightness was the way. I’m not knocking walking, running, swimming, hiking, work out dance classes (shout out to hula hooping and hip hop at my local community college) or any other ways we can move the body – that’s all part of expression.
And tightness/constriction falls away with liberated motion.
Dancing to just move, without anything scripted, without motions that you’re “supposed” to have, without trying to “look good” or perform, without needing to comply with a set of instructions, or fit into someone else’s mold, is not the same thing. The way children move freely because the body can’t help it – that’s what I’m talking about. Like laughter, like crying, like shouting….free dancing is release. It’s life expression. It’s also support for the nervous system.
When was the last time you let your body move freely like that?  When did you let yourself turn the music up loud and shimmy or shake, swing your hips, flap your arms or toss your head? The body can move anywhere. If standing or mobility are a challenge – when have you let the body dance while seated, or gyrate on the floor, couch, or bed? When have you let an undulation of music move like a wave through your torso into your arms or legs?
When was the last time you slow danced with yourself, hugging and loving on that beautiful body? 
Yes, I called you beautiful. I don’t have to see you to know this to be true. Mindfulness is beyond personal. It’s oh so intimate and universal. Alive awareness is the core you that you are. 
In the past couple of weeks nearly every weekday I’ve been joining an online group of womxn-identifying people for 10 minutes in the morning called “Shaking Sisters”, hosted by the When Women Speak global network (you can reply to this email and if you’re on facebook I can invite you to join). They do this twice a day, once in the morning and afternoon for the folks over in the GMT time zones, and which is middle of the night and morning for PST time zones.
The first five minutes is a fast paced beat and the second five is a slow rhythm.  It’s a space designed to honor the body, honor our beautiful differences, and our collective shared beauty, and let the body feel the freedom to move, to make sounds, to release emotions. Most mornings I cry in the first half – not the hard sobbing when the brain-body just needs to shudder, it’s a crying the way the body yawns. The constriction or sadness or grief or pain bubbles up and out. Sometimes I don’t even realize that it was there. Our society serves up constriction like the ocean delivers grains of sand at the beach. Some mornings there’s lightness and joy that fizzes up with the tears. Sometimes it’s a mix. Sometimes there’s frustration and anger that emerge. It’s a cocktail of emotional flavors and it’s different every time.
All of it is honored. All of it is held. All of it is embraced. All of it belongs. All of it is supported in that dancing of the body: The head and neck release as they toss around. The hair flings out like electricity discharged. The arms go free as they fling into the air. The fingers flick and wrists wiggle. The hips shake and wobble, bumping to the beat. The torso undulates….reminding me that everyone dances.  Dancing is as old as we are. As old as the birds flying. As old as fish swimming.
The legs pick the feet up and hop them this way and that as though kicking out the blech. Sounds emerge from the throat – sighs, grunts, groans or yells sometimes even a yip as the diaphragm pushes air and vibration out freely on each bounce.
Then the music slows and my hands come up to gently hug and massage on the head, the neck, the chest, the throat, the heart, the back, the sides, the hips, the belly, the bottom, the legs, the feet, the ankles, then the arms and gentle caressing of each other.  Over and over the hands gently sweep or press into the body to say hello, you’re here, you’re alive, feel it.
Feel this aliveness in motion.
I appreciate the physical support of the movement, the sensory support of the touch from my own hands, and the emotional support of the community space.
In my opinion, the dominant society of the U.S. attempts to control and contain the body. Everything is buttoned down. Emotions aren’t supposed to be shown, much less felt as the life experience they are, it seems. If skin is shown it’s judged, as is body shape. And movement? The freedom of the limbs is rarely recognized.
I invite you this week to move that body, whether it’s solo or with a friend or a family member. Move in your seat, in the car, at your desk, on the couch, on the floor, on your bed, outside or inside – just let it move whether it’s for one minute or ten.
Honor what emerges, and give that body some love for me.
I’d love to hear what you notice.

Love for your Inner Science Activist Nerd

There are many ways and reasons that dancing supports the nervous system. Today I’ll give you some highlights with links rather than examining a single research study.

• Physical activity – We all roll our eyes with the “I know, I know” adage of getting more exercise regularly for better health outcomes (except for the mega-doses among endurance athletes who may end up with bodily injury). Recent research indicates that the highest health benefits are seen among those who are least active increasing their movement at even small – 5-10 minutes – amounts (Warburton et al, 2006). Any movement you actually like doing more than once a day, like a dance break, that gets your heart rate up can decrease multiple chronic disease health risks. In fact, the first 15 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity had the most benefits – up to a 22% reduction in premature mortality risk (Hupin et al 2015). Researchers recommend moving more and sitting less. A dance break will do ya.
• Vagus nerve stimulation/toning – As the hubby says, have you vagal’d yourself lately? The vagus nerve is the longest, least appreciated nerve coming out of your brain in my opinion. It is part of the parasympathetic branch of your autonomic nervous system – or what I call life living you. It’s how your organs talk to your brain and the brain talks to the organs. It communicates much of the sensory information from your body (called “affect”) to your central nervous system like taste, hunger, cramps, your gut sense, etc. The vagus nerve is a major player in settling the nervous system for relaxation after your stress response is kicked on by other nerves. Your vagus nerve has a role in regulating digestion, peristalsis (bowel movements), nutrient absorption, heart rate, respiration rate, inflammation, immune response, insulin and blood sugar levels, some types of orgasms (the non-clitoral/non-penile kind – it runs along the colon, inside the vagina and uterus), various neurotransmitters, hormones and more I don’t have space to cover in this teensy newsletter. Deep breathing, singing, humming, making sounds, splashing cold water on your face, and dancing can tone the vagus nerve – basically strengthening it for better communication signaling between the body and brain and all that fun regulation stuff. 
• Oxygen circulation/heart rate – When you increase your heart rate through dancing or other forms of exercise this increases blood circulation through 60,000 miles of blood vessels which helps carry oxygen and nutrients to all cells of your body, and remove toxins from them. Every moment of movement helps your circulatory system expand and become more flexible. Your circulatory system LOVES it when you move.
• Physical touch – Gentle to moderate pressure hand hugs or sweeping the hands along the limbs in self massage can settle the nervous system (older research linked to oxytocin, yet newer research is showing that many of the older hug studies were flawed and that this neurotransmitter can increase insecurity, sorry folks, the research on massage is holding steady with decreases in cortisol and increases in dopamine and serotonin).
• Mood supports – Move more, sit less applies to mental health as well as physical. Dance is cross-cultural and when combined with music has been shown to affect endorphins and neurotransmitters. Dancing releases serotonin and dopamine while also toning the vagus nerve that supports mood regulation are two brief examples.

Mindfulness in Action

Finding Mindful Now is about reclaiming emotional capacity through mindfulness while extending presence through action.  I invite you to support organizations and events like those below that merge the healing power of dance with justice.

Rejoice! Diaspora Dance Theater  – seeks to diversify the contemporary dance landscape with untold stories and under-told perspectives from communities of color. Grounded in values from the African Diaspora and using our art as activism. Rejoice! celebrates and cultivates community through artistic engagement, performances, and dialogue, weaving our stories of hardship and triumph.

Momentum Workshops – Momentum is an annual event that highlights phenomenal women and non-binary movers in Portland, Oregon. 100% of proceeds from the event go to Rose Haven, a day shelter for non-binary folks, women, and children.

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