Who are you not to do it?
Have you ever used dance to help you process your emotions?
I initially learned about this technique when conversing with Katie, @katieholland8. Originally from England and currently based in Egypt, Katie has lived and danced around the world since 2006. She has successfully expanded her business whilst performing for celebrities and studying with masters of cold cultural dances, tantra, shamanism, yoga, Dynamic Meditation, and healing techniques.
Katie offers two-to-one online personal development, mentoring webinars, workshops, and retreats for training worldwide. She explained to me what she does with her clients and the reasons she thinks dancing is one of the most crucial components of being more in tune with our bodies.
If this idea got you thinking, scroll down below as I share with you Katies’ story and how she went from being a professional dancer in Bollywood to an entrepreneur.
Taking that leap
Katie experienced a soul awakening at age seven and her first kundalini awakening at age 27, which activated her life mission.
Taking that leap of faith and following your calling includes changing the way of life you’re used to. It involves going out there into the unknown with nothing but just a clear message of doing something according to your purpose.
The leap of faith wasn’t easy for Katie. She left India and went to Bali to follow the path she’s been called to do. When Katie decided to take on another career path, she realized how much of her identity was tied up to “Katie the Belly Dancer in India”.
Despite all the temptations, Katie didn’t falter. Realizing the message that dancing can be a form of art that leads to healing, Katie stepped away fully from performing.
She stepped away from her dream to create a dream that fulfills her, despite the difficulty.
As a professional belly dancer, Katie knew that although belly dancers look very sensual and very feminine, to work in that world, you have to be very masculine and aggressive.
Katie went from that aggressive and masculine world to this very feminine, also very beautiful, and empowered belly dance.
It gave Katie a beautiful balance in her life and she spent eight years evolving “awaken belly dancing”.
Sanity through dancing
Katie always found sanity through belly dancing. Many of us have not dabbled in this practice, but it could be very helpful in terms of reconnecting with ourselves.
It’s a movement that focuses on the center of your body. For women, it focuses so much on the womb, hips, and heart. Looking at it on the physical side first, it is an effective workout for pregnant women, during pregnancy and after childbirth.
It’s a whole-body movement.
Katie started grasping and feeling the effects of healing through belly dancing at the young age of three. She felt really happy after doing it. The “feel good” was the basis of why belly dancing relaxes your mind and also emotions.
You can do really simple things for yourself with or without music to take out an emotion, fear, or worry. It could be in the form of belly dancing or any movement.
For example:
You can ask yourself, how does this fear of lack of money move me? How can I express this? It is not even required to look like a dance. It can be any kind of movement at all! Don’t let any thoughts stop you from doing it. It doesn't have to make sense or look aesthetically pleasing because it's not for performance.
The more you can surrender to that movement and trust your body's intelligence, the freer you can become.
Bottomline
It's so surprising how much stuff we are bound by. These things aren't even ours, to begin with.
Humans as we are, we get bound by a lot of conditioning, beliefs, and collectives from tradition, religion, culture, and lineage. We are also bound by the trends and the expectations of everyone around us.
Allowing our body to move is like practicing ourselves to move freely. It’s a way of unlocking us.
Go, do it! Unlock yourself from the stuff that’s not yours, and move freely. Whatever that movement might be, you have all the right to just do it.