How to Dance Through Coronavirus Chaos – 037
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Here’s some treatment for Coronavirus depression: Join the Dancing with Myself Movement, try Belly Dance Chi Gong, and relieve stress by laughing like crazy Laughing Yoga style.
Featuring music from Moontee Sinquah.
Fellow Americans, citizens of the world, now is sure enough a time when we need to feel A Little Lighter. Many of us are alone and scared and feeling trapped in a space and time where the clock is moving in slow motion. With frantic thoughts pumping through the media, even going grocery shopping can feel yucky rather than fun like it could be. And for many of us, money that we thought we had is disappearing really fast.
Things we were looking forward to, canceled or postponed. March 2020 is a month we will all remember.
I was going to release an amazing interview with internationally recognized dance visionary Suhaila Salimpour this episode, but it felt right to share this with you first. If you have already subscribed, that interview will pop right up in your podcast feed. And the episode 32 titled How Dance Enhances Our Essence, Feminine Energy & Happiness will lift you up too.
But this drastic turn of events also gives us the opportunity to do something fantastic. To start new habits of taking care of ourselves.
Let’s consider the possibility of turning drastic into fantastic. That’s what this show is going to be about. Dancing our way through Decimation. Ok, that’s a little extreme. Feeling connected to each other and the earth and our passion even in isolation.
I am so grateful that podcasting is the perfect entertainment for a world on lockdown. We can exchange energy and ideas without exchanging viruses. I can show you love from much farther than 6 feet away. So good. Thank you for tuning in.
Check in with yourself for a moment. What are three words you would use to describe how you feel right now? Do you feel magnetic and light and peaceful? Or frustrated, heavy and chaotic? I have been cycling through the states of order and chaos a lot faster these days. And the heavy chaos often lingers more than I’d like.
I live next to a creek. I was meditating there, and my eyes popped open. My skin electric.
The Dancing with Myself Movement was born.
Not dancing by myself. Dancing with myself. That subtle change in words makes it seem like a choice rather than a punishment or stubborn statement.
So I turned on the song “Dancing with Myself” in the woods under a bridge and danced wildly for the whole song. I didn’t care what it looked like. It was all about the release, and giving others the permission to dance like crazy. People walking by, friends watching it on Facebook live. All of the sudden I was dancing for everyone on the whole planet by just dancing with myself. It was such a rush.
Dancing with Myself can happen when you are all alone, or with family, when you are feeling great or absolutely terrible and lonely. Dancing with Myself is a gift.
And I’ve been doing it every day since Monday March 17 2020. And I’m going to keep doing it until restaurants and bars and schools are open again. Until I can dance and drum with my band in public again. Until we can move freely and talk about something else besides Corona Virus and the impact it is having on our lives.
The Dancing with Myself Movement is a movement for those feeling like they can’t move. When you feel like you really can’t do it, that’s when it’s time to dance.
And it’s for people who can’t stay still. People who regularly seek feedback from others in order to navigate their lives, and people who would be fine if this quarantine period lasted for years.
There’s a rush of energy that is always available deep inside of us. Don’t believe me? That’s just your mind and limiting beliefs talking. For real. People in India stand on one leg in a park for a month. Ultra marathoners keep pushing. Women delirious in the 30 something hour of child birth keep pushing. Warriors starving and freezing heading into battle can still fight with immense strength. Fire fighters run into burning buildings. You can get up and dance right now. If you are in public, it’s even more important that you dance right now. Wake up the people around you. Light them up.
Feeling the freedom we have flowing through our whole body
Protecting ourselves and others while safely fearing nothing
Transforming fear into freedom
So let’s dance now. I’ll be dancing with myself and I hope you are dancing with yourself. Dancing the fear out of our bones. Dancing the happiness back into our blood. Dancing health into our lungs so that when we breathe we are giving medicine to the world.
The first song I am going to play for you by Moontee Sinquah of Arizona. His family dances together at the Grassroots Festival of Music and Dance every year. Moontee is a world champion hoop dancer, and his sons dance with him as well. Watching this man and his family dance brings me peace and wonder. With hoops, they create the forms of birds, earth and coyotes. Just when I think he has too many hoops circling his body, he adds more in handfuls and turns them into magical beings that disappear in a heartbeat as the hoops fall back together. Let’s start here. Move any way you feel. No choreography, no expectations or trying to look good. Let energy surge through you, replacing stagnant energy and contraction with newness and expansion. Giving your ancestors a chance to dance in your body for a moment. They lived through hard times, worse than this. And I’ll bet they danced too.
This music will probably make you want to walk softly but powerfully through the room. Each time our feet touch the earth can be a blessing that emanates from the soles of our feet. Feel it. This virus is important, and it is temporary. Let the music lift you. Move through the space. Feel good again.
The drums are enhancing your heartbeat now. Drums mark the universal heartbeat. We rise.
Now another song played by a Batak family I stayed with in Sumatra in Lake Toba. I don’t know what it is called or who wrote it. They sang it for us one night, and I recorded it because it just feels. We need this now.
Three is a magic number, so let’s keep dancing with myself to a recording from a jam late at night at Pennsic Medieval Festival. It’s another piece of music that just feels good. I want you to move to it.
Check in with yourself again. Do you feel different than you did before you danced? Remember when I asked how you felt? How will you answer that question now? Do you feel lighter? Dance does that. Dance is the ultimate self care. We need it now.
It’s all about energy. So in the second part of this podcast, let’s drink a cocktail of chi gong and belly dance. It is really delicious, and the real payoff comes at the end. This is a video I have just posted on youtube. I am going to play the soundtrack for you here so you can get a feel for it if you are not able to click over to a video right now. If you can watch video now, please go to aliciafree.com, click on podcast, and then click on episode 037 to get the link right at the top of the show notes.
Chi Gong originated in China around 4,000 years ago. Let’s think about that for a moment. These months of caution and fear are a flash. A mere moment in our lives, even if it feels longer. Chi Gong is a practice of syncing breath and movement that is believed to extend our lives and help our energy flow. In these times of contraction and panic, expansion and peace are so important. As Marie Forleo says, “Everything is figureoutable”. Let’s believe and trust that. Dancing and Chi Gong can help us create be the oasis of chill and playfulness that our loved ones and our community really needs especially right now.
Do this outdoors if possible. As distanced from others but still public as possible. This is medicine for us and for anyone who sees it.