The Magic of Dance

Dance and movement are an important part of casting spells in the lore of magic. I recently have learned about the importance of movement for mental health. I am constantly amazed by how wise people were in the olden days. It seems that Dr. David Berceli, among others, believes that PTSD can be effectively treated by exercises he calls 'trembling exercises'. I watched a video about it and some of the people lying on the floor on yoga mats were doing a pretty good shimmy. The theory behind this is that we respond to danger in three ways; fight, flight or freeze. If we freeze or feel helpless a great deal of neural activity is still going on and we can build up chemicals in our body like the stress chemical cortisol. Adequate discharge takes place in the fight or flight situations. But not in the freeze situation. It was noticed that small animals will exhibit a great deal of trembling and shaking once the predator has left the scene and not preyed on them. Humans do not. Therefore they have stored up memory of the trauma that can continue to come up, sometimes at the worst of times, for years and even affect their physical health, causing obesity and heart attacks. I listened to one Iraqi veteran who said the treatment had helped him a great deal. My thinking is: since life gives us all traumas of some degree or another it might be well to see if me could 'shake it out'. They don't call it 'shake,rattle & roll' for nothing. Rocking chairs used to be on every front porch. They weren't used just by little old ladies either, but everyone. Rhythmic, active movement is part of a magical life. Dance with wild abandon as you reach out to the magic that surrounds you. May the spark be with you.