You’re puzzled, right? If you’re not puzzled, then we share a love for Grey’s Anatomy!
It’s funny because I did this before watching Grey’s, but I stole the name for it from the show as I felt it captured what I was doing perfectly. In the show besties, Meredith and Christina in times of stress, anger or just general feelings of despair would have a thirty-second dance party with one another.
What is a thirty-second dance party you ask? Stick on one of your best tunes, a good dance song and simply dance your heart out. You don’t have to be good at dancing, it can be as silly as you like but just dance to the music with as much energy as you can.
It feels slightly odd at first, but it quickly feels great and totally appropriate. Let me give you an example to give some more context. I am sitting at my desk trying to get an introduction to my essay, getting panicky and stressed because it’s not really making sense and I’m not sure what to write. At this point you usually think I need a break, so you get some food or sit and scroll through your Instagram feed. Well… scrap the food and scrap the Instagram feed, put on Flashdance – ‘She’s A Maniac’ and dance your heart out.
You’ve heard before that walking or some exercise, in general, is good for stress, and this rule applies here, but it’s just more fun. Would I rather do some sit-ups or have a dance to my favourite song…definitely the latter. It releases endorphins which combat stress perfectly, furthermore, dancing and music also increase your levels of dopamine and serotonin giving your body that natural high, which makes you feel good. Feel-good music and feel-good hormones; the perfect combo if you ask me.
Personally, it allows me to get out of my own head as it’s pretty hard to think of anything else whilst you are dancing about. It helps release all that anxiety and tension I’ve built up sitting at my desk and just relax. Most impressive of them all, music and dance allow your brain to keep open and build new neural pathways, allowing creativity to flow.
So, next time you’re feeling sad, stressed or maybe just even low in energy, get some music on and
move your body!