“When the music starts, my mind goes empty"
In a village on the east coast of China, a farming couple and their “rural-style shuffle dance” has gone viral. Their dancing is joyful and upbeat and it has been therapeutic, helping the husband to cope with a depression that followed a severe car accident.
Their videos are a testament to the power of dancing to heal and improve mental health regardless of style or setting.
Feeling Good on the Dance Floor
Dancing—and its requisite movement and aerobic activity—is obviously good for your physical health, but it’s good for your mental health, too.
The science shows that dance helps alleviate symptoms of anxiety and depression.
In one survey of non-professional dancers, mood improvement was their main motivation for dancing, followed by socializing and escapism.
The Democracy of Dance
One of the more appealing aspects of dance is that its mood-lifting properties apply to many different demographics, including more vulnerable populations that are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
For patients with psychiatric disorders like anxiety or depression, dancing helps reduce their clinical symptoms like feelings of distress, anxiety, or the blues.
And for the elderly, senior dancers had superior sensory, movement, and cognitive capabilities compared with non-dancers, suggesting that regular dancing could slow the declines that come with aging.
Moving the Body Moves the Mind
Dancing is a non-verbal artform, which helps us uniquely express our emotions through our bodies. By forming this link between the body and mind, dancing may help us become more embodied—increasing awareness of our body’s sensations and how emotions relate to those sensations.
Double the Pleasure, Double the Fun
The power of dance also lies in its synergistic combination of aerobic exercise and music, both of which are known to activate different brain circuits involved in emotion, reward and memory.
How to Get Started with Dancing at Home
Dancing feels good and is good for you regardless of your skill level and whether you do it by yourself or with loved ones.
Learn more about how you can take advantage of the health benefits of dance here.