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…