Natalia
7th September 2014, 06:34
(I love her music and also some of her talks as well)
This talk touched upon some of the things that I and other women (and men in their own way) are experiencing/healing in ourselves (even though, unlike Cora and some other women, I have not been sexually abused...).
My own sexual healing and liberation is important to me (but I won't talk about it here, hehe :) )
(btw, I don't agree with everything she sais, but relate to it mostly).
CWLd0KzR6fY
Natalia
22nd September 2014, 20:58
I have found belly dancing healing and fun, many women have, and it's more sensual, than sexual...but of course they can connect as well...
Good article about this:
The Healing Effects of Oriental Dance:
Part 2: Emotional Healing
Introduction
People decide to try Oriental dance (often called belly dancing) for a variety of reasons: seeking new friends, a new hobby, a new way to exercise, a chance to explore their sensuous side, etc. But they often stay for other reasons. And one of the reasons that some people stay with the dance is because it brings them healing. We all occasionally need healing of one kind or another: sometimes it's emotional, sometimes it's physical. Oriental dance is a unique pursuit that can promote a healthier mind and body. This 2-part series explores how it has helped some people:
Part 1 of "The Healing Effects of Oriental Dance", explores how the dance form can help eliminate pain, speed recovery from injuries, and contribute to overall physical health.
This article, Part 2, addresses how Oriental dance can promote emotional healing from such deep-rooted issues as bulimia, breast cancer's psychic scars, and rape or sexual abuse.
It seems obvious, of course: dance is a form of exercise. And health professionals are always telling us that exercise is a Good Thing, for many reasons, both emotional and physical. But sometimes it's not easy to motivate ourselves to do it. And sometimes we're afraid of exercise because we fear it may make our condition worse.
Of course, it is very important to realize that the typical belly dance teacher is not a health care professional! If you have a medical condition or mental health challenge, you should be very careful in how you select a belly dance teacher, and you should ask your doctor for guidance in how to add this new form of exercise to your life.
When a Therapist Suggests Exercise...
There's a limit to what psychiatrists and counselors can do when working with patients who have deep emotional issues. Although drug therapy and talk therapy can be very helpful, these professionals are most effective when they can help patients discover inner tools to heal themselves. A belly dancing class, on its own is certainly not a guaranteed therapy for mental health. However, if a qualified therapist recommends exercise as part of one's recovery, then belly dancing may have a role to play.
Vigorous exercise can help burn away stress, serving as a sort of pressure valve for the psyche. Although most belly dance classes aren't designed to provide a vigorous workout, some "Belly Dance for Exercise" classes may, or perhaps folkloric classes that teach Saidi or debke dance.
Taking a belly dance class in a group with other people offers social contact. Although it's very important to choose a class whose culture is warm and inviting rather than selfish and competitive, the right teacher and class situation can help overcome feelings of isolation and loneliness. By working with the teacher and classmates to create costumes, rehearse for performances, and travel together to out-of-town events, it's possible to form a social circle that can last a lifetime.
The process of learning to belly dance offers an opportunity to set goals and measure progress, which can be helpful to someone who feels that her life is on an aimless path. Achieving this goals can be empowering and help with self-image.
Releasing Tension
Movement, particularly if repetitive, can sometimes help release inner tensions. The zar is an ancient ritual from the Middle East that is used to perform a cathartic sort of emotional healing or "exorcism" on behalf of someone, usually a woman, who has been possessed. Although technically forbidden by Islam, it continues to be an essential part of some cultures. It appears mostly in Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia. In Tunisia, it is called stambali. The musical accompaniment to the zar consists of strong drum rhythms, each being specific to a certain spirit. A critical part of the zar is finding the rhythm required to drive out the particular spirit possessing the individual. Sometimes the zar leader sacrifices a chicken, pigeon, sheep, or other animal as part of the ritual.
Of course, most of us don't have access to zar experts or sacrificial sheep, so we need to seek alternative ways of using movement to heal. Just plain belly dancing can play a role in releasing our barriers to emotional health. Dancers have reported that their art form has helped them to either recover or prevent relapses from emotional struggles tied to:
Breast cancer surgery
Bulimia
Rape and/or sexual abuse
So far as I know, there has not been any academic research on the subject of Oriental dance in particular as a tool for emotional healing, although the counseling profession does recognize dance therapy (not specifically tied to Oriental dance) as a valid area of specialty. Some licensed dance therapists who know Middle Eastern dance have brought Oriental movement into their work with their clients.
Still, despite the lack of formal research, you generally don't have to look very far to hear anecdotal stories about how specific individuals have found healing through Oriental dance.
Real People, Real Benefits
Although dance has played a role in helping many people cope with their psychological issues, it is very important to seek the care of a qualified mental health professional as the primary source of healing. Dance teachers can teach dance, and dance has helped some people. However, dance classes should not be seen as a substitute for a skilled counselor or psychiatrist.
Rape & Sexual Abuse
Lucy Lipschitz, whose web site addresses how belly dancing has helped her emotional recovery from rape and threatened murder, reports, "Over the years, as I have danced, I am slowly getting over basic issues about having a woman’s body." She had been stalked by a man who found her "irresistible", and afterward she was shocked to find she wasn't believed because she was a female. The horror of that experience led her to self-destructive behavior such as drugs and illicit sex.
She initially took up belly dancing when still a teen-ager, and at the same time fell into a wild lifestyle. The dance became her passion, her only reason to live. In fact, she made it through some suicidal episodes by clinging to her classes and the occasional performance opportunity. Life then took her in other directions for a time, but 20 years after wandering away from belly dancing, she came back to it. By then, she had managed to overcome her self-destructive lifestyle through the help of a 12-step program, and was successfully embracing a new life of sobriety. The dance taught her to love her body, and helped her understand that every size is a good size. She now reports, "The more I dance, the more centered I am."
Cheryl (not her real name) was sexually abused as a child. She started belly dancing around age 20. Although she started dancing because she loved dancing, she found it helped her recover from the need to hide her body from attack, from the terrible vulnerability she felt whenever she felt at all attractive.
Bulimia
Mary (not her real name) struggled with bulimia for 4 years as a teen-ager. Although she began doing Oriental dance after her recovery, she has found that the dance has helped her maintain her healthy attitude through a number of ways. She found it eye-opening to see many beautiful, full-figured, over-40 women at home in their curvaceous bodies, and realized the media's standard of beauty isn't the only legitimate one. Dance has put her in touch with what her body wants. It also serves as a meditation for her, exorcising the demons and stress of everyday living. The dance has also helped her discover a social network of women who accept different cultures and possess an inner strength. She summarizes what the dance has done for her as follows: "In short, Middle Eastern dance makes me happy. And when I am happy, engaging in self-destructive behavior is the furthest thing from my mind. I am more content with my body image now than I've ever been in my life. Discovering this dance form has been a true blessing."
A video from Filmakers Library titled Belly: Overcoming Bulimia tells the story of Katherine Bruce Laing's struggle with bulimia. Eventually, she joined a belly dancing class and through watching her classmates discovered that even a full-figured body can be beautiful through the sensuous moves of this dance form. While performing for friends and family in her first belly dance recital, she experienced an epiphany and discovered that she could love her own body.
Coping with Breast Cancer
Carol originally started to belly dance just for recreation. Some years later, she suffered botched reconstructive surgery following a mastectomy for breast cancer. She observed, "Dancing for myself only and listening to and really feeling the music made me feel so much a woman again. The rhythm and the movements are so feminine that they couldn't help but help me heal. I was even able to make my now-ex think of me as sexy once again." Then severe injuries from a bad car accident forced three years of surgeries and inactivity on her. She started belly dancing again for exercise and weight loss. Again, it helped her heal. She said, "It is almost inexplicable - unless to others like you who share the joy and love of the dance and music - how it makes you feel a oneness, a wholeness, almost a completeness that is so therapeutic and so self-healing to both the mind and soul, and therefore also the body."
In the Belly Dancer Breast Cancer Survey on her web site, Diana DeMille reports that 85% of the respondents said yes to the question, "Do you feel belly dancing is healing?" One of the people who responded said, "Belly dancing restores physical, emotional and spiritual health to the cancer survivor. It has great exercise value, gets those 'feel good' endomorphines stirring, enhances the results of the range of motion exercises. It helps you feel better about yourself. In most cases it brings you a special bond with other dancers whether they are cancer survivors or not. And it expresses your joy, gratefulness and celebration that you are alive!"
Inner Strength for Physical Recovery
Natasya suffered a horrible back injury at work. She used yoga to regain her range of motion, but it was her love of dance that gave her a reason to work toward a full recovery. Sometimes she would even lie flat on her back on the floor and practice finger cymbals! Despite her doctor's predictions, she recovered to the point where once again she can perform professionally.
Before Dunya's whiplash injury, she was very athletic. In addition to dancing, she worked out at the gym 4-5 times per week. The injury robbed her of these activities that were an important part of her life. She was still able to play Middle Eastern music with her band, but her activity level was curtailed. A few weeks later, her band played for a troupe performance, then moved on to music for everyone to get up and dance. Dunya reports, "I slipped onto the floor to move a bit, and found myself surrounded by beautiful, undulating women with soft smiles and shining eyes. They were obviously sending me their love and support for my healing. I was very touched by the experience, and I will always remember the fantastic feeling of being in the center of that circle of dancers."
Depression
Gamila in Brazil says, "Last year I was very depressed, went to the hospital, had to take medicines, but dancing was the main thing that made me become healthy again."
Scylla from Oregon emerged from childhood with such low self-esteem that she avoided most social interactions. Eventually depression led her to the brink of suicide. One evening, while doing ceramics at a local art center, she heard wonderful music coming from elsewhere in the building and followed the sound. Upon finding the belly dancing class in progress, she was enthralled by the music, the costumes, and the personalities of the three teachers, all named Judy.
Scylla recalled, "The dance class helped me to explore physically the places in myself my psychologist (another wonderful woman) led me to explore emotionally. In therapy I was learning that I had to love myself, and to listen to my own needs and feelings and value them. In trying to dance I discovered I did not love myself, and much of my pain came from my own anger towards, and dislike for, myself. Slowly, painfully I began to enjoy moving to the music. I allowed myself to move and discovered I could like my body in movement; that it was strong and limber and could "fly" when I did not freeze up with rejection of self. The dance was a place where I had no history to haunt me. It was entirely new, and gave me a chance at beginning all over again to grow up and explore and learn who I was; just like a child just starting out. Dance is a gift that I received from from three women which literally saved my life." For Scylla, the "three Judys" brought to mind the triple goddess of ancient tradition who presided over her initiation into a new and joyous life.
Maintaining Well-Being
Mishaal, a dancer in Japan, reports, "I certainly feel that dancing contributes to my physical, psychological, and spiritual health. At times it's been for healing, but mostly I think of it more as ongoing preventive health care. I can say for certain, when I don't take some time away for myself to dance, I do start to feel sick. I don't mean performing, or even 'practicing'. I mean taking a little time each day to dance for 'me'. It's not that I do it 'for my health', but because it does feel so good! When I'm in need of answers, psychological or spiritual, I dance, and I feel the healthy answers come to me from, I can say, a higher source."
How to Try It for Yourself
First, please remember that belly dancing is not a sufficient substitute for getting professional help from a licensed counselor or psychiatrist! If you have deep issues, please, please seek appropriate assistance from these trained health care professionals!
Assuming you're already under the care of a competent health care professional, here are some suggestions on how to get started exploring whether belly dancing can be helpful to your own journey to emotional health:
Find A Dance Teacher. Dance teachers are like the population as a whole. Some are warm and caring. Others are selfish and spiteful. Some are aware of the importance of dance technique in avoiding physical injury, while others are clueless. A good teacher can help you achieve your goals. A poor one might do more harm than good. See below for suggestions on how to choose the right teacher for you.
Videos Are Not Enough. Many people first try learning from video. Although there are some good videos out there, they can't take the place of a classroom environment. Part of the healing experience can come from interacting with classmates: seeing people of all ages, shapes, and sizes beautifully interpreting the dance, and forming new friendships with them. Getting to know your classmates can expand your support network of people who encourage you on your healing journey.
Find Out Whether There Is A Dance Therapist In Your Community. Dance therapists do not teach belly dancing technique, so they won't teach you the wonderful trademark shimmies, undulations, and hip articulations that you'll get in a belly dance class. But let's assume you've already enrolled in a belly dance class and now you'd like to explore the healing power of dance in more depth. A licensed dance therapist will help guide you in using your movement vocabulary to release your emotional pain and tap your inner strength.
Get To Know Your Teacher and Classmates. It will be easier to stay with your classes if you start forming friendships with the teacher and other students. You'll look forward to the time you spend with them. It's also possible that some of them will have insights on how dance has helped them heal, and you may be able to learn from their experiences.
Source: Shira net
http://www.shira.net/advice/health/heal-emotion1.htm
Natalia
22nd September 2014, 21:24
Now THAT, makes perfect sense and it makes it look good as well, of course I already liked bellys.;)
it's so nice that someone else posted in this thread! hehe :)
I have been going to belly dance classes for 7 years...no way am I that good at it, I am ok...but I have seen and felt how women love it, it is so good for them...and the world, yes, the world...
I remember the last show I went to, I wasn't performing as I usually did (as a student in a group), and it was lovely, every woman looked beautiful to me, truly, I celebrated every woman who got up there...no matter their looks, their skills, their personality type...it's very magical, I love it so much...the healing power of the feminine...
778 neighbour of some guy
22nd September 2014, 21:55
I have been going to belly dance classes for 7 years...no way am I that good at it, I am ok...but I have seen and felt how women love it, it is so good for them...and the world, yes, the world...
Sigh, could you just take the compliment? Its not that hard;)
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