Dancing is good for you. It is exercise, helps keep your weight under control and just makes you feel good. Why?

When you dance for long periods, or "dance until you sweat, you can actually change your relationship with yourself. It can increase your self-esteem, your self-confidence, how you view your body, even how you move. When you change your relationship with your body, everything begins to change. You become more comfortable with who you are. And since dance is a form of exercise, it can lift depression or help when you are having a "bad" day.

Any form of dance is wonderful. But to receive the full benefits of dance, it needs to be freestyle, not structured. That means just turn on some music and dance anyway you want to. Emotional healing can occur when this is the way you dance. It helps to express emotions, to let them go with the movements of the dance. You open up to your own repressed energies, anger or hurt that you have stuffed down and not dealt with. And you then release them in a safe place in a safe way.

Some people have even healed eating disorders through dance. The movement allows you to get in touch with your body and you become more accepting of what it is, how it looks and how it moves. You begin to love it more and your body responds to that.

How long do you need to dance each day to receive full benefit? Well, how long do you have? The more you dance, the better. Ideally an hour a day would be great. But twenty minutes would be very helpful. Dance until you feel your heart rate rise, you sweat, and become out of breath. Try it. I guarantee that you will feel better immediately!

According to Gabrielle Roth in Sweat Your Prayers, there are three levels of spiritual dancing. You need to use freestyle dancing so you can "dance until you get over yourself!" When you learn to do this comfortabling, true spiritual transformation can occur.

Levels of Spiritual Dancing: 1. Unconscious: This is the wallflower stage. You are unconscious of your body, not connected and fearful to move.
2. Self-conscious: There are actually two layers of this level. A) You are worried everyone is watching you and you want to hide; B) You are worried that everyone is NOT watching you!.
3. Conscious of Self: This is when you make up the dance as you go and you don't care if anyone is watching you. This is the level of intuitive dancing. It is here where true spiritual transformation can occur.

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