The Science Behind Diva Dance
It´s Time to Let Our Mind Know the Wisdom of Our Body
Article by Sherri Richards
In the darkest days of her life, all Western medicine could offer Chris Linnares was talk therapy and antidepressant medication. But this psychologist and best-selling author knew there had to be another way to recapture her happiness.
Linnares had moved with her new husband from her native Brazil to the frozen tundra of Fargo, North Dakota. The transition into this strange land with new people and a foreign language was difficult enough. Then her world seemed to fall apart.
Her father died. Her baby girl, Luiza, spent a week in intensive care after her premature birth. Linnares gained 60 pounds and suffered from postpartum depression. Presented with only a pill bottle or a therapist's couch as options, Linnares craved a cheaper, more natural alternative to treat her depression.
That's when she turned to a power our society has long forgotten – one revered by other cultures, and rooted in tradition and science.
Medicating America
Though such a power exists, many Americans have instead turned to the pharmacy counter for help when they feel depressed – at an increasing rate.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, antidepressants are the most prescribed medication in the U.S., with 118 million prescriptions written during doctor visits in 2005. Adult use of antidepressants almost tripled between the periods of 1988-1994 and 1999-2000. Dr. Ronald Dworkin rails against the over-medicating of America in his 2006 book "Artificial Happiness." He believes doctors have begun prescribing medication to treat everyday unhappiness instead of clinical depression.
"These people live full and busy lives, except that what they get from life doesn't penetrate them very deeply," he writes. "Rather than mine happiness from their daily activities, some of these Happy Americans get it from the medicine cabinet through antidepressants like Prozac and Zoloft."
Discovering the power
Linnares was convinced there had to be another way to mine her happiness. While home for her father's funeral, a dear friend prodded her to think about the time when she was happiest.
She was happy in Brazil. And in Brazil, she danced.
She started to dance around her Fargo home with a rhythmic Brazilian CD playing in the background. She began to feel better and lose weight. She visualized a happier, successful life, and it came to her.
Linnares had tapped into the power – the power of the body.
Many people recognize the power of positive thinking, mind over matter. But as Dr. John Ratey, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of "Spark," shares in his book: "Just as the mind can affect the body, the body can affect the mind."
Exercise has a profound impact on mental health, and is one of the best treatments for most psychiatric problems, Ratey writes. He adds that the many connections between the mind and body suggest any sort of physical activity improves our cognitions.
"By motivating the body to move, you're encouraging the mind to embrace life," he writes. Once Linnares realized how beneficial dance had been for her, she felt compelled to share it. She created Diva Dance, a body and mind experience that allows participants to connect with their inner diva – their soul, dreams and happiness.
Linnares explains that diva means "divine," and divine means "powerful." Power, at its core, is energy – a force able to make change.
"If you want to cause change in your life, you need to know how to increase your energy," Linnares says.
"You need to know how to unleash your power!"
With a generous dose of humor, Linnares encourages women to engage in sexy salsa and samba moves. This helps them listen to their inner voice, and dance their own dance.
Supported by science
While Linnares may have created a modern, fun package of dance therapy, she didn't discover anything new. Science and history support Diva Dance.
As cell biologist Bruce Lipton writes in his 2008 book "Biology of Belief," living organisms are distinguished from non-living entities because they move.
People who are depressed are lethargic, and don't move, Linnares notes. "People that are happy, they have energy," she says.
A Duke University study helps explain why. It found that exercise is as effective as medication in treating depression. This is because exercise increases levels of dopamine, serotonin and norephrine, the same chemicals controlled by antidepressant medications.
Jane Cibel, a licensed clinical social worker and certified personal trainer in Washington, D.C., uses exercise during therapy sessions with clients. She believes positive thoughts triggered by exercise-driven higher levels of brain chemical can help reinforce positive emotions and behaviors.
In her Diva Dance seminars, Linnares also connects positive emotions with movement. This is where psychology comes into the seminar. As women swivel their hips, she prompts them to run their hands along their bodies and proclaim affirmations like "I am sexy!" and "I am hot!" She uses cognitive behavioral techniques, encouraging the women to reflect on their lives and become aware of their emotions.
"Your emotions are in your body, and you can release them through your body," Linnares says. "When you do that with Diva Dance, you increase your energy and have the feeling of well-being." Candace Pert, a well-known author, pharmacologist and scientific researcher, has written several books that espouse the ideals held by Diva Dance: the mind and body are one, energy is tied to emotions, words and music have the ability to heal.
"The cellular level where emotions are instigated is also where unexpressed emotions are stored," Pert writes in "Molecules of Emotions." "When stored or blocked emotions are released through touch or other physical methods, there is a clearing of our internal pathway which we experience as energy."
But why dance?
As scientific studies and medical professionals like Harvard's Ratey have found, exercise is a key factor in improving mental well-being. But dance may hold a special power.
In "Spark," Ratey wrote specifically about studies of dancers. They showed that moving to an irregular rhythm instead of a regular one improves brain plasticity. Learning more complex motor skills – like a dance routine – challenges the brain and creates more complex synaptic connections, which can be used for positive thinking.
Ancient cultures also hold dance in high regard for healing. Next to hunting, dance is the most common activity shown in cave paintings, according to an article at www.firetribehawaii.org. While Western culture may have reduced dance to entertainment and a social activity, its healing, transformational power still exists, the article states.
Shamans have used dance for thousands of years to connect and communicate with the spirit world, and as a method for "dream change" – an inner journey to connect to sources of guidance, activate abilities that allow reinvention, or invite spirit or life force energy to embody and heal.
"The idea of dance as a symbolic language of the psyche that can initiate healing, visionary, and ecstatic experience through rhythm and movement is being explored by increasing numbers of people searching for new levels of health, wholeness and spiritual connection," the article reads.
Dr. Bradford Keeney, a psychotherapist, traveled around the world studying how the oldest cultures use ecstatic movement, which includes dance, to heal their own.
"In villages in Africa, there are people who go to traditional healers whenever they get sick," Keeney writes in his book "Shaking Medicine." "Rather than prescribe rest and relaxation, many of these healers will call the community together, bring out the drums and start dancing around the fire."
Putting the power to use
The power of the body, and dance in particular, is summed up by Helen Payne in her book "Dance Movement Therapy": "The essence of movement is the body. We are alive and we move. Our very cells dance to their own pulsations. Breath, heartbeat, thoughts and emotions are all expressed through the body and have their own patterns and shapes. Dance can be a metaphor for the ways in which we live our lives."
Linnares describes the Diva Dance experience similarly. The way women embrace or shy from the dance routines says a lot about the way they embrace or shy away from life.
"In Diva Dance we use the body and mind together to increase energy and achieve total well-being," Linnares says. "As we dance we use psychotherapy techniques based in cognitive therapy to inspire people to reflect about their lives, be aware of their emotions, thoughts and look for better answers and ways to live their lives."
Armed with this knowledge, Linnares believes Diva Dance can be especially beneficial for new mothers, including those suffering postpartum depression, like she did. Ratey, the Harvard neuroscientist, supports this idea in his writing.
"The worst advice for new mothers who are feeling down is to take it easy," he writes. "Rest is important, but not as important as activity. New mothers need support from their husbands to carve out the time to work on their bodies, and their brains, as soon as possible."
Just as all women need to take the time to move their bodies, heal their minds, and dance their own dance.
