Feeling Sad? You Should Dance it Off
How moving your body can inject Joy straight into your system.
Spending some time dancing on your own can have much more beneficial effects on your mood than you think.
And yes, even if you’re sober (in case you were wondering).
But just like dancing, any other activity we perform with our body is a gate to so much hidden goodness.
Hormones related to different “moods”
Research shows that exercising in the morning alone decreases the levels of cortisol (the main hormone responsible for depression and stress-related diseases) of about 25% and increases drastically the levels of serotonin, known as the “feel-good hormone”, endorphins and norepinephrine which are depression relievers.
It’s not a myth and we all tend to overlook this fundamental aspect and tool we have at our disposal.
Using our body is probably the most effective and fastest method to change the way we feel.
Why?
Because our body is an extension of our mind. Meaning that whatever we do with our limbs, bones and muscles will directly create a butterfly-effect on our mind and, therefore, on our emotions.
Shake it off — the body-mind chemistry
It is well known that our mind has a technical advantage over us. In other words, it knows our deepest fears, self-doubts and also what’s in our subconscious.
This meaning that in times of struggles or when we’re facing an extremely challenging situation and we’re feeling at our lowest, we are often drawn to put physical movement off just because the mind perceives action as endangering. And what we all tend to do is to slow everything down and let the overwhelm take over for we believe feeling weak.
This happens because in such moments our mind’s duty is that to keep us away from annihilation. And reacting to a challenging situation, according to the mind, implies the risk of being let down again.
Yet, like in any other life-challenging circumstance, what we don’t feel like doing is always what we should be doing instead.
Using our body — aka mind extension — to trigger the mind to start thinking differently is the smartest way to create a change in our habitual thinking patterns, whether that might involve getting over a break up, dealing with unpleasant and stressful situations at work or coping with inner conflicts.
A change of the chemistry in our body results in a change of our thoughts too. And you know what thoughts are? The very root-cause of all emotions.
Allow me to emphasise.
Each and every single thought we think is the root of any given emotion we feel.
In fact science tells us that the average human being thinks about 60.000 thoughts on a daily basis and, out of those, 85/90% are thoughts we have already thought the day before.
This means that, due to the preservative nature of our brain (and mind), we are more accustomed to think in the past rather than the present.
Does this mean anything at all? YES.
Because facing any tough circumstance life throws at us requires an extremely present mind, so that we can act effectively over the given issue.
On the contrary, if we keep on using thoughts of the past to act on the present, it’s very unlikely that we manage to transcend the ongoing problem and find a solution. It is like sewing an old patch of cloth onto a new garment. It doesn’t fix anything, really.
Don’t get it twisted, though. This doesn’t mean that using our past experiences or wisdom is useless. Absolutely not! What I’m suggesting instead is that recreating a negative thinking pattern from the past to deal with our present circumstance won’t get us anywhere near such things as growth, healing or breakthroughs. Not at all.
Snapping out of past thinking
It goes without saying that whoever knows how to use their body for their benefit, they also manage to gain that technical advantage back over the same preservative mind that wants us to be safe and sound, locked up in our bubble of comfortable known past thoughts.
Exercising, walking, dancing or any other activity that involves an intense-paced use of our body with a drastic change in our “mood” remains the fastest way to snap out of any negative thinking pattern and reboot the internal biochemistry in order to start building up on that instead of old, shrunk and poisoned thoughts and habits.
Think about this…
Have you ever woken up feeling absolutely dreadful and broken in pieces? But then you slowly crawl to the bathroom with your eyes half closed and after taking a shower you instantly feel like a different human being.
Ever wondered why?
You just changed your internal biochemistry with the aid of water on your body. Different biochemistry that caused your mood to change too.
And now you feel okay with being alive again.
Well, the very same law applies with any other situation in which we are drowning in our thoughts, feeling lost and overwhelmed, not knowing what to do to or what to think in order to better.
Changing the internal biochemistry through movement is like taking a shower in the morning. It awakens us.
Final thoughts
The human body is essentially a bunch of chemical reactions happening simultaneously that create the awesome machine that we are.
When we manage to understand how to exploit some of these chemical reactions and pivot them toward our chosen perspective in order to create the emotions and, eventually, the life we desire, it then becomes much more pleasant to simply be ourselves and go through life at ease, instead of having to constantly struggle to avoid feeling the way we do most of the time in circumstances that challenge our mental and emotional health.
Thanks for reading.
Interested in learning more about how to deal with overwhelming emotions and the easy-to-apply tools to feel better instantly besides using our body? Then take a look at what my free webinar full of helpful and juicy content will offer you. It’s happening soon!
