DANCE
Sweet Friday!
If you’re anything like me, every day reading the news this week has been a long, slow crescendo to feeling like recreating the famous scene from the movie, Network, by throwing the windows open, sticking my head outside, and screaming at the top of my lungs, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” If you haven’t seen Network, here’s the scene of which I speak.
I recognize anger is just one of the five stages of grief but I’m knee deep in it. There are 17 less of us today than when I posted on Monday. And while I know I’m a sensitive creature, I can’t imagine someone not being moved by the news this week. Fear not, my goal is not to rehash this tragedy with you, but rather to ask the ongoing question: how do we deal with this in our own bodies? Because as much as I want to take to the streets, that's not what this blog is about. I created Sweat Please! as a home for our common denominator: our bodies. So regardless of what we do in response to any of the news – how do we manage the stress of it?
On Monday I posted about the importance of rolling out our muscles (link HERE); it’s a tremendous way to move stress and tension out of the body and also to reset the bones and muscles to improve athletic performance. If you want to do that with me in person tonight I’ll be at the East Bay Athletic Club in Oakland coaching a posse of bad ass humans to strengthen their back and abs (aka THE CORE) first and then restore with rolling. This is a great practice not just for your muscles, but restorative work also helps to reset the ever-allusive nervous system as well. Real, live, stress management begins at 6:30PM tonight. Maybe I'll see you there?
My personal favorite for grief management, however, is dancing.
Hold up. WHAT? Did you just go from suggesting I should be mad as hell to dancing?
Yes, dear reader, I most certainly did.
The temptation to savasana in the middle of the road this week is strong but that’s not going to help us save lives now is it? Neither is dancing, you might argue, but I beg to differ: dancing can actually make you feel better. It’s good for your brain, it sends happy chemicals coursing through the bod, and the bones and muscles benefit from the new ways of moving. After dancing we can begin a reasonable conversation about our lives. Until then? We are just jangled, over-caffeinated, slaves to our emotions. Don't believe me? Here are FIVE RAD REASONS why you should dance this weekend.
And so this coming week/end I’ll make my way to Hipline, in Oakland, to dance with some bad ass women. If you are in Los Angeles, you can make your way to Swerve to sweat with some of my favorite humans in Southern California, or you can put this video on and shake your ass living room dance party style with Benjamin Allen, creator of Groov3. Hipline, Swerve, Groove3 - all of them are inclusive, come-as-you-are, movement experiences. And if your idea of a great dance party involves LCD Soundsystem and bouncing in your kitchen? Then by all means turn up this jam and LIVE!
Words are powerful tools to freedom, but there comes a point where there is nothing left to say and the only reasonable thing to do, really, is move.
And so we do.
See you on the dance floor, friends.
- P.