Angry? Sad? Just dance

[1]

Amrit Sadhana [1]

It is said that once when Bertrand Russell was visiting the tribals of Ireland, he saw them dancing with abandon under the starry night and became very sad. He lamented over his own inability to dance like them. It was the price paid for being cultured and civilised.
It’s true that the modern man is too civilised to dance freely and totally. People have become shy of moving their bodies in ecstasy and joy. Because basically there is no ecstasy in their lives.
But dance is an expression of the life-energy. The electrons, protons and neutrons are continually dancing. Existence is made of these dancing particles. Therefore, dance is a natural phenomenon and the body loves to dance. You can forget your worries and tensions, and even transform them into joy through dancing.
How does this happen? The dance movements consume your attention so much that there is a distance from the emotions. The key is not to get caught by emotions. While dancing, watch your breathing, feel your weight on the ground and remember yourself, that’s the key.
Discover your own technique, put your own signature in your dance.
The idiom “dance away your blues” is true, literally. There is a great emotional release in dance. Put the music on, expose yourself to people and jump into the dance. You can dance away anything: Difficulties in a relationship, not finding a way out of a problem, your failure or success, losing a job or getting one. If you dance totally, the inner space changes. If you just dive in the body, you will feel as if it is becoming liquid — it starts flowing. It is no more a heavy burden to carry. The heavy weight in the heart, tightness in the throat, pain in the head, all disappear. It’s like magic.
Dancing can be therapeutic if you approach it with fresh energy.
Before you start dancing take a moment — watch the emotion, feel what emotions are in your heart. If there is anger, dance like a tiger: a mother tiger protecting her cub when someone is attacking her kids. If sadness is there, dive into sadness and you will find there is so much depth in sadness. Let your pain, your tears flow, not only through the eyes, but through every cell of the body. Feel the pain evaporating, like a dewdrop in the morning sun. Your whole body will as if melt into tears.
If it is fear, feel it in your breathing, let it be expressed through your movements and let it transform. Tremble like a rabbit, let the limbs shake without inhibition. If you allow the natural process of transformation, you will find that usually fear becomes anger, anger becomes joy and joy becomes love in a very organic way.
The bio-energy has many different facets, so let it flow. Don’t get stuck. If you find it difficult to transform fear into anger, use music as a tool for it helps you loosen up. The mind wants to protect itself, the mind can lie but the body cannot lie. The body loves to dance, remember!
Osho has used dance in almost all his meditations.
He says, “If people can dance a little more, sing a little more, be a little more crazy, their energy will be flowing more, and their problems will by and by disappear. Hence I insist so much on dance. Dance to orgasm; let the whole energy become dance, and suddenly you will see that you don’t have any head — the stuck energy in the head is moving all around, creating beautiful patterns, pictures, movement”.
Natraj is the supreme dancing form of Shiva which is worshipped by all creative people.

— Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.