The Medicine of Flow Sacred Scholarship

As part of the inaugural, 2020 NeuroSomatic Flow™ Teacher Training, students were required to submit a scholarly paper & video presentations based on their learnings from the course.

In addition, some students choose to teach a public NSF class.

One of those submittals is featured below . . . .

Cultivate Authenticity Through Dance

By Resham Pursani

16 September 2020

Sacred Scholarship Paper & Video Presentation

2020 NeuroSomatic Flow™ Teacher Training Program

We live in a world that rewards flawless masks. In the “rat-race” of life, people are continually struggling and competing to be better, earn more and rely on other people or even technology to feel loved and affirmed. One of the reasons why there is so much disharmony and mental illness in the world is because people look to their external life to feel complete and whole.

The truth is, if we are not able to love and accept ourselves for who we are, we will continue to seek validation from the outside. This gives away our power to something or someone else. In return, we compromise our happiness and forget our true essence. In order to break these layers of conditioning and limited beliefs, we must practice authenticity. When we are authentic, we feel free to make our own choices and decisions. We are able to acknowledge our weaknesses and face our fears with no judgement. We experience happiness and present conscious awareness. Lastly, we are able to release self-sabotaging behaviours and protect our self-worth.

This paper explores how to tap into our individual authenticity through dance. We will look at how dance can affect our emotions, induce a state of flow and balance both hemispheres of our brains.

Dance originated way before verbal language and was the way indigenous tribes used to communicate with the Gods, the Divine and Mother Earth. Dance was sacred and used in initiation, healing and connection. It is a powerful tool bring us back home to our essence and to our true genuine self. It is a way for us to express our inner world in physical form, inviting a deeper layer of being to surface. 

It is important to note that we are more than just physical beings. Everything you see is made out of matter and matter at its tiniest observable level is a bunch of atoms vibrating and emitting a certain frequency. Hence we are also vibrational beings. This explains why we can sense discomfort when we’re in a room with an angry person. Our feelings broadcast like radio waves. (image: Dr. David R Hawkins developed a system called ‘The Scale of Consciousness’ that measured the frequency of certain emotions) Therefore, your emotional state determines the way you experience life.

Carl Rogers, one of the originators of humanistic psychology, “proposed that authenticity was the foundation stone of an emotionally mature life.” (8) Dance can be used as a means to increase our vibrations and thus our emotional experience allowing us to be more mindful and aware. A dance intervention program in Sweden conducted a trial with 112 girls aged 13 to 18 with stress-related somatic symptoms and emotional distress. It found that girls who were assigned to take dance classes twice a week for 8 months all improved their Self-rated Health more than those in the control group. The effects remained for four to eight months after the intervention had ended. This research shows how dance can result in high adherence and positive experiences (1). Another study assessed the psychological health and changes in neurohormones of 40 middle school seniors with mild depression. After 12 weeks of dance movement therapy, all subscale scores of psychological distress decreased significantly and increased serotonin and dopamine concentrations. It can be used to stabilise the sympathetic nervous or ‘fight flight or freeze system’ (2). Therefore, the more we incorporate dance into our diets, the less stress we feel. When we feel less stressed, we eliminate self-sabotaging behaviours such as procrastination and substance abuse because we are at peace with our surroundings. By regularly dancing, we can cultivate more positive frequency emotions such as willingness, reason and neutrality. That way we are able to deal with obstacles and difficulties in life with more grace and ease.

Part of being authentic is feeling comfortable in our bodies, the physical vessels we are born in. Many women disassociate from their bodies due to shame however, through the practice of doing things that induce pleasure we are telling the Universe that we are worthy of enjoyment and deserve to feel good. Therefore the feeling of pleasure is empowering. When we radiate and emit feelings of openness and acceptance of self it allows us to explore and experience embodiment. Embodiment is subjective observation and awareness. When one is in embodiment, it feels very grounded, safe and rooted in identity.

Deep embodiment is a doorway to experience and induce the state of Flow. Flow as defined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is, “a state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter” (3). It is a sense of total absorption, present awareness and timelessness. One way we can access embodiment, is through feeling connected and inviting pleasure in movement. In Montreal, Canada a group of researchers studied 40 participants with “no prior dance training while they freely danced or refrained from movement. Participants were also tested while imitating their own dance movements but in the absence of music as a control condition. Emotional ratings and cardio-respiratory measures were collected following each condition. Dance movements were recorded using motion capture (4).  The study revealed that spontaneously dancing to groovy music produced a state of heightened pleasure, subjective and physiological arousal in comparison to just listening. The results demonstrated a High Frequency Heart Rate Variability (HRV) which activates the parasympathetic “rest and digest” response. When this part of the nervous system is activated, it results to better health, better resilience and positive emotions. It is also important to note that this study was not measured in a dance class with a teacher-student setting and allowed for independent, free and honest movement.

Through the findings, we can see that through moving the body as a means of expression, we can create loving caring environments through non-verbal communication. The way we move expresses our attitude and can be used as a way to enhance and regulate emotions as much as it amplifies the emotional response to music. Lastly, the combination of embodied movement with music can induce a state of flow that brings us closer to our true authentic self- full of joy, play and love.

Dance has also proven to affect the way we see the world. How? Our brains have a right and left hemisphere. Each side perceives the world in a different way. The reason we experience conflict in life is because both sides of the brain are not equally expressed. The left hemisphere represents the Yang or masculine side. Our society is structured in a way that follows order, organisation and control through systems like the economy, school and paying rent. What we are missing, is the balance of the the right, Yin, or feminine side of the brain. When we focus on being, feeling and creating we can cultivate more wisdom, mindfulness and holism. Dance can be implemented to invite whole brain synchronisation. 

A 2017 research study, “examined the effects of a specially designed dance training program requiring constant learning of new choreographies compared to a conventional sportive fitness training with mainly repetitive exercises on brain structure and function in healthy seniors.” There were many benefits and increase in grey matter areas that had to do with memory and attention. “The most outstanding was the enlargement of the corpus callosum, which  carries the largest part of the commissure fibers and connects nearly all parts of the hemispheres. Hence, the corpus callosum ensures the communication between both cerebral hemispheres.” (5) Neuroscientist Dr. Daniel J. Siegel and parenting expert Dr. Tina Payne Bryson write, “The brain has two sides for a reason: with each side having specialised functions, we can achieve more complex goals and carry out more intricate, sophisticated tasks. Significant problems arise when the two sides of our brain are not integrated and we end up coming at our experiences primarily from one side or the other.”(6)

In addition, each hemisphere contains sensory and motor controls that activate the opposite side of the body. By moving both sides at the same time through cross-lateral movement or even movements that cross the midline of the body, cognitive function is heightened (7).  This shows how dancing serves to stimulate both sides of the brain and in return allows our mind to be more in sync with each other. Similarly, when we are being genuine and authentic, our thoughts, feelings and actions are aligned with our core values and beliefs. As our intelligence and cognitive performance is enhanced, we understand our needs and motivations more and develop a sense of competence.

In conclusion, research suggests dancing creates so much possibility to rewire our brain to create a positive sense of well-being. Regular practice of dancing may suggest taking more direction in our lives in order to bring more high frequency emotions.

Dance combined with music allows us to be transported so that we are out of the head, and travel into our hearts so we can experience deep embodiment and flow. By inducing high states of pleasure, it calms our body and releases it from survival mode. Through moving spontaneously and freely, we establish that mind-body connection allows us to take space and show up for who we truly are and who we can be. There are many research studies on the neuroscience of dance however, I believe more scientific research needs to be conducted on a larger scale in order to present well founded evidence. Overall, dance is a powerful tool to shift our mental and emotional states as a means to cultivate understanding and acceptance of self. The findings above suggest that authenticity and dance both invite us to begin to know ourselves deeply in all layers of our existence. When we understand ourselves, we feel free and confident to follow our own path in life.

References 

1.) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0300060520902610

The effects of a dance intervention on somatic symptoms and emotional distress in adolescent girls: A randomized controlled trial

February 4, 2020

2) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00207450590958574?src=recsys

DANCE MOVEMENT THERAPY IMPROVES EMOTIONAL RESPONSES AND MODULATES NEUROHORMONES IN ADOLESCENTS WITH MILD DEPRESSION

December 8, 2004

3) Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, 1990

4) https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00572/full#B88- pleasure during spontaneous dance

Enhancement of Pleasure during Spontaneous Dance

November 29, 2019 

5)https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324978712_Dance_training_is_superior_to_repetitive_physical_exercise_in_inducing_brain_plasticity_in_the_elderly 

Dance Training is Superior to repetitive physical exercise in inducing brain plasticity in the elderly

June 2018

6) The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson, 2011

7) https://sequencewiz.org/2014/08/13/integrating-right-and-left-brain/

How to integrate your right and left brain through movement

Aug 13, 2014

8) https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/what-doesnt-kill-us/202007/are-authentic-people-more-mindful by Stephen Joseph Ph.D

July 20, 2020

Image Source: https://www.moonstonechakra.com/post/vibrate-higher

resham’s public nSF class

Discover the growing practice of NeuroSomatic Flow™, one of the newest healing modalities combining Neuroscience, soul, and flow movement, by taking a free, online class led by one of our graduates.

The purpose of this NeuroSomatic Flow™ Teacher Training program is to train and educate professionals to teach and share the “medicine of flow” in any environment, from clinical to corporate, or even at home with their children.

To learn more, click here: https://naiasainstitute.earth/2021-neurosomatic-flow-teaching-training

About this class:

Would you like to experience a new way to connect to the divine in you?

Would you like to discover what is really holding you back from being your true authentic self?

Through guided free movement we will spark a conversation with ourselves and in return receive msgs, experience bliss, and deepen connections. - Discover what is holding you back - Experience Emotional & Physical Release - Align to your True Self

About Your Teacher:

Resham Pursani is a professional dancer who has danced her whole life and trained in many disciplines from Ballet & contemporary to HipHop and Commercial
dance. From dancing for notable artists onstage to teaching dance at underprivileged schools in Indonesia.

Everywhere she travels - whether its Nepal, Africa or India - she is always giving back.

Today, her mission is to re-connect people to the intelligence of the body through opening the heart and inviting the energy of Flow in order to live more authentically.

Resham lives in Jakarta, Indonesia.