This is an invitation to make DLC part of your TLC ritual. It’s free, it makes you feel great, adds meaning and connection to your life and either boosts you or relaxes you depending on what you need. It’s too simple and yet, many I know don’t give them much space, love and care…
Dancing
Laughing
Crying
Dancing
Music moves energy in the body. We hear a music and we are lifted into a happy mood, feel energetic or become tearful. There aren’t many people I know (apart from those who play an instrument or understand the power of listening) that would put time aside to just ‘listen to music’. It’s often played in the background of another activity. We can however use it’s power to find deeper places that haven’t been felt or come alive for a long time (even decades). If I don’t set out to let music move me (both energetically and physically) with the intention to reconnect with and express myself, I am restricted to dancing during social events or a few minutes every blue moon when I hear a nice tune being played. This just wouldn’t be enough to shake up all the mental, emotional, physical cobwebs hidden deep inside. Many culture and spiritual schools (including the Sufi’s famous Sama) have dancing as an integral part of their practice. A way to connect to their essence, the core of their being, their expanded self, the divine (all words that fail it, as it is simply ‘the self’, ‘who we are’ underneath all the stuff of this earthy life,). During a session of ‘Music Induced Movement’ or ‘Dance Meditation’ the whole being is expressed through all sorts of movements that may not look like anything you’ve ever done or seen. The body creates the movement and does what it feels and releases deep held tension. The mind takes a back seat and the emotions find room to come out. Depending on what is going on, the experience can be very cathartic releasing pent up emotions like sadness, anger and even joy.
Laughing and Crying
Both of these seemingly opposite expressions are natural ways for the body to release unnecessary tension or extra charge. They can even charge you up when you are low of necessary tension.. I’m sure you know this but just in case it’s been a while since you’ve had a good belly laugh or a proper cry, I’m sending out a reminder. Both laughing and crying create movement, both give more room for the breath to move, both activate and energize the breathing muscles and respiratory system, both reboot the nervous system, the list goes on and on…Especially when laughing and crying isn’t accompanied by some level of inhibition and are not held back. During a dance meditation, I once cried so deeply that my face was more and more resembling (or it felt like it anyway) that of a child or an infant in agony. It was then that I knew, even when an adult cries, unless intended otherwise, there is a level of control on the face, the breath and the sounds. I knew – as I was crying – how great that release was and surprised at how much my nervous system had held. When I came out of the room, my daughter (Donya) whose used to my ‘alternative’ practices asked: Mum, are you sure you’re not sad about something? I explained to her how I saw it: There is always reasons for sadness whether it be in our personal lives or in the world in general. At the time there was nothing major going on in my personal life but there is war, there is famine, there is pain, there is loss. We witness these, hear about them and yet carry on with our lives as if we’re not affected. We have developed filters that help us not feel and weep each time we hear of such things. I for one am very grateful for such filters. But, it is my experience that when we open ourselves to ourselves as in Dancing for examples that these filters disappear. When they do, we can express the sadness of the whole, reconnect to everything and everyone (on deepest levels) and become integrated in the process.
My experience is that sadness and anger come to the surface more than laughter during such meditation. So laughter can be practiced on its own. Did you know that many stand-up comedian agree that making an audience laugh during the summer is much harder than doing it in the winter? Their theory is that during the summer people are less tense as they are spending more time out and about and are generally more relaxed. There is another story I read once, that someone was diagnosed with cancer so he bought all his favourite comedies, booked himself in a hotel room for a month and laughed and laughed till he was cured…I wasn’t there so can’t confirm but, tend to believe that whatever gets the breath going, is bound to be healing. You probably all know how to bring more laughter into your life but in case you haven’t heard of laughter yoga, give it a shot. If you learn how to make yourself laugh without any props, then you’re really laughing!
I do hope that having read this blog, you’ll bring more DLC in your life. In case you’re not sure which music to play (it’s better if you play music you don’t hear in your social gatherings), you can send me an email: [email protected]. I will share with you a couple of playlists that I have put together and believe to be very powerful for the purpose.