🎵Do You Remember🎵 — Lifestyle Therapeutix

I have some friends from college that are more like brothers to me. One of them is a huge fan of Earth, Wind and Fire. Every year around this time you can bet on him making some reference to the Earth, Wind and Fire song September and a lively social media conversation begins. All I know is that my head starts bopping, cause I can hear the song in mind. Does the memory of that song make you want to move? i see your head moving and grooving……and exercising.

I heard last week that lack of exercise, actually - not walking an hour a day - is considered a high risk behavior!!! That’s right, inactivity can increase your risk for a myriad of diseases. Researchers at the London School, Harvard and Stanford compared exercise to pharmaceutical interventions and found that exercise often work just as well as drugs to the prevention of diabetes and the treatment of heart disease and stroke. It is one lifestyle behavior found to significantly extend our lifespan. As a matter of fact, some docs are now calling exercise medicine. (Michael Greger, MD)

Well, what if you don’t like walking or don’t have a safe space or it’s too dark to walk early in the morning and too dark when you get home from work or the weather never seems to cooperate or some other reason that you have…. what about dancing!!!! Yes, dancing. While having the music playing is always good, sometimes just the sound in your mind can get you up and moving.

One study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports discovered that “researchers found that women who frequently danced had a 73% lower chance of becoming disabled during the study period, compared to women who did not. None of the other exercises, including calisthenics, walking and yoga, had such a strong association after adjusting for demographic and health factors”. https://time.com/5484237/dancing-health-benefits/

“In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, the researchers concluded that dancing can boost the connectivity between both cerebral hemispheres, and long-term dance practice positively affects brain activity. All these are linked to neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to form new neural connections to change and adapt.” https://www.news-medical.net/health/Is-Dancing-Good-for-the-Brain.aspx

Dance movement therapy, also known as dance therapy, is the psychotherapeutic use of movement to improve health and well-being. Benefits seen from its use include improvement with anxiety, depression, quality of life, cognition, interpersonal skills, fall prevention, Parkinson’s disease, cancer care, blood pressure and chronic heart failure. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/dance-therapy#tips And, of course we all know that movement can absolutely help with weight management.

But, what if you grew up in religious/faith settings that made dancing taboo. Chile, you betta put you on some Kirk Franklin and dance like David did. “And, David danced before the Lord with all his might.” 2 Samuel 6:14. Cause if you’re honest, “catching the Spirit and doing a Holy Dance” is a real workout. Seriously, I’d love for someone to do a study on blood pressure and black people in worship. Take the blood pressure readings before service…..then praise and worship…..and then take the readings again. I firmly believe that there would be an improvement in the numbers. IJS!!! Who is gonna do a study on that?

As we enter September and the cool temperatures of Fall, let your excuses fall like the leaves off the tree…….and get your dance on!! Open up the windows, turn on your favorite jam and dance until you sweat or get slain in the Spirit!! Just Move!! I promise, you will feel a whole lot better!!!

Do You Remember?!?!? Take Those Shackles off Your Feet!! Let’s Dance!! It’s Wellness Wednesday Yawl!!

I’m Still Shoutin’ Ova Here!!

Donna

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