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Belly Dance Your Way to Health!
If someone had told me when I was 20 that I’d become a professional belly dancer, I would have tagged them as nuts. I might have laughed and I would have certainly glared at them or rolled my eyes.
Little did I know that belly dance was the most powerful healing tool I would ever hang on my healing tool belt.
I’m a Reiki master and Shaman and I can tell you stories about healing, so many stories. But unlike other healing modalities, belly dance helped me love my body.
I was a fat baby, chunky kid, chubby teen and I have carried extra weight my entire life. Society teaches women with weight to hate their bodies, to yearn for slimness and feel shame about their heavy hips.
I began to dance on a whim. My neighbor invited me to go to class with her. I was deeply depressed at the time and didn’t really care what I did. She seemed excited about it so I allowed myself to ride her wave.
At the start of the class my teacher did a demo dance for us, and the only way I can describe what happened is that it felt like coming home. I’d never seen a belly dancer or heard the music, but it felt familiar, like it was somehow a part of me.
As I learned the dance, some of the movements felt awkward and some were easy. As it turns out, belly dance is the most complete form of exercise and gives a better spinal workout than yoga. At least that’s what three different yoga teachers have told me after they attended my classes. Not many workouts include head-slides and rib circles.
Belly dancing strengthens your core and tones your muscles. We do hand and arm movements, so our arms are toned. The rib circles develop the intercostals muscles and back and belly muscles. The hip movements also work the back and belly muscles and our stance with knees bent develops the thighs like nothing else.
The dance is a great workout and gets the heart racing, but unlike other forms of exercise, it’s actually fun. I hate typical exercising such as jogging and sit-ups. It bores me and all I can think of is how much my muscles are screaming at me. I can work on the choreography for a dance and two hours later find myself sweaty and never even noticed I was exercising!