91. Dance

Find a time and a place where you won’t be disturbed for thirty to forty minutes, or even longer. Wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothes. Put on some music you truly connect with. It can be classical, rock, jazz, drums, whatever. Turn it up as loud as you dare, but not so loud you invade someone else’s peace and quiet.

Stand in the middle of the room, close your eyes, and start to feel the music. Let it move through your entire body. Breathe with it. Move your head and arms and your upper body with it. Bend at the waist with it. Still standing in one place, move your feet with it, keeping your eyes closed, sway and gyrate with it, totally absorbing the music into your being.

Slowly open your eyes and start moving around the room with the music. Create your own dance. Whirl and twirl or rock and stomp. Do whatever you need to do to become one with the music. Be totally uninhibited, spontaneous, and ecstatic. It may take you a time or two before you can really let yourself go. Keep at it until that happens.

When the music ends, fall to the floor and lie on your back. Keep your eyes open and gradually, slowly, and with total awareness bring your consciousness back into your body. Stay there absorbing the silence until your breathing returns to normal. Then slowly stand up, and give a slight bow of gratitude to the music and the universe.

Do this every day for a couple of weeks and you will begin to feel incredibly uplifted, lighthearted, and joyous.

If you do this in a group, each person should dance on their own, aware of the others, but not dancing with anyone else. A shorter version of this dance is an incredibly enlivening way to begin your inner support group meeting. Or, every now and then, use the entire meeting time to dance.