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“Consciousness expresses itself through creation. This world we live in is the dance of the creator. Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye but the dance lives on. On many an occasion when I am dancing, I have felt touched by something sacred. In those moments, I felt my spirit soar and become one with everything that exists.”
Michael Jackson

There are so many dance styles that can you follow if you want to meditate at the same. Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi, and Qi Gong exercises can be easily combined when you are practicing dance meditation. Dance and meditation have potentials in improving physical fitness, cognitive functioning, social functioning and self-confidence according to a study.

In a similar study, this research shows that dance can also improve our physical performance. Surprisingly, even the lightest and easiest dance moves combined with meditation are proven to defy age and prevent diseases and illnesses.

In a recent study, dance training would be in line with the theoretical framework of increasing motor and neural reserve to optimize performance and postpone age- or disease-related declines in function.

US National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health

These health-related benefits are just a few of many good things that dance and meditation can promise you. Dance meditation has potentials in improving health and well-being, including:

1. Helps to meditate more actively
2. Promotes active and healthy lifestyle
3. Alleviates stress and depression
4. Boosts moods and happiness
5. Prevents heart and bone diseases
6. Improves confidence
7. Develops social skills
8. Aids weight loss
9. Improves brain functions
10. May help to prevent cancer and serious illnesses

Exercises for Dance Meditation

The idea of dance meditation is to combine meditation with relatively slow body movement. There are exercises that you can combine with your dance meditation, including:

1. Tai Chi
2. Qi Gong
3. Pilates
4. Dance with Nature
5. Bhagvati
6. Yoga Dance on Beach
7. Dakini Dance
8. Osho No-Dimension Dance
9. Bhagvati Dance
10. Kundalini Dance

Regular exercise training such as dance and yoga programs is very popular and effective for preventing and treating chronic disease 

US National Library of Medicine
National Institutes of Health

These exercises are associated with light and slow body movements while practicing meditation. This kind of movement meditation is known to improve our overall health and well-being. Surprisingly, dance meditation is also proven to increase life’s expectancy. Want to live more? Dance and meditate more for free.

Tai Chi

Tai Chi is our first movement meditation that we are going to exploit. Originally, tai chi is not only practiced for its defense training, but also for its health benefits and meditation. Most people in the West usually practice this exercise as a kind of meditation. Tai chi is practiced worldwide with lots of variations. This kind of exercise is especially known for being practiced with relatively slow movements. Many health conscious also tend to apply this exercise for its potential to promote health and mindfulness.

This short video is ideal for beginners who love to mix some Chinese martial arts with their meditation.

Qi Gong

This is yet one of the most powerful moving meditation for its potential benefits in preventing and treating many diseases including hypertension and cancer. This is one of the oldest form of exercise which involves coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing and meditation.

Traditionally, “qi” is translated as “life energy.” This is a centuries-old exercise used for the purposes of health and Chinese martial-arts training. Qigong normally involves movement meditation, coordination slow-flowing movement, deep rhythmic breathing and a peaceful meditate state of mind.

Let’s join this group as they practice moving meditation through the healing power of Qi Gong.

Pilates

Pilate is a form modern yoga which is a mind-and-body discipline. This exercise was made in order to alleviate health-related diseases such as hypertension or lower back pain. Pilates are widely practiced worldwide to promote balance, wellness and meditation. Most essentially, by practicing this moving meditation you can also help to condition muscles and strengthen your core.

Pilates have 9 basic principles, including:

1. Breathing
2. Concentration
3. Control
4. Centering
5. Flow
6. Postural alignment
7. Precision
8. Relaxation
9. Stamina

Dance with Nature

Dance with nature is another kind of moving meditation. The main idea here is simple: “dance with nature.” Ideally, practitioners practice this exercise closed or in the nature to feel its meditative elements. Your relatively-slow moving meditation usually mimic the movements of trees, river, wind and things that surround the nature.

This nature dance by Maya Mandala is a good example on how you can make it work.

Dakini Dance

Daikini has its historical origin from Buddhism which is believed to awaken our inner wisdom and peace through moving meditation. This is a kind of dance which is graceful yet calm is associates with heart opening exercises, rituals and meditation. Practitioners have to physically and mentally aware while awakening their soul through dakini dance. This exercise also promotes relatively slow-movement style, deep rhythmic breathing and a peaceful meditate state of mind.

“The process of awakening or enlightenment is nothing but to empty yourself from inside, and make you encounter with the real being, where you absolutely relax yourself and feel rejuvenated to experience life again.”
― Roshan Sharma

To see it better, watch Maya Mandala as she shows us how.

Yoga Dance on Beach

Yoga is practiced worldwide following different forms and styles. Yoga dance on beach is one of the best yoga experience I have ever had. While the movements are typically the same when you do the yoga movements in a studio. The element of nature has a more powerful effect in our breathing, sensation and meditation. When your feet touch those refined and soothing sand it gives your body sensation and this sensation sends some positive signs to your neurons to follow your body flow. The sound of the waves and natural light from the sun also adds to the meditative effect.

“Yoga? Well, we learn those complex movements and flows, so we can perfectly synchronize our breath. It’s a way of training one’s body and mind in unison. It’s a moving meditation. Just like meditation, you focus on your breath, connect to the feeling of your body, and aim to clear your mind.”
― Natasha Potter

Watch Master Praveen as he takes his class on the beach.

Shakti Dance

Shakti dance is the art of healing body and mind. They believed that shakti dance is a way of awakening of energy through connected subtle movements. This moving meditation aims to reach body-mind connections and reach a calm meditative state. This dance is a revelation of oneself in fresh, new and creative forms by following the natural rhythmic of your body flow, breath and awareness.

This Shakti dance is a way of awakening your energy and soul. Try to do it by following this video below.

Osho No-Dimension Meditation Dance

“Enlightenment is not an experience. It is the state where you are left absolutely alone, nothing to know. No object, however beautiful, is present. Only in that moment does your consciousness, unobstructed by any object, take a turn and move back to the source.” ― Osho, Meditation: The First and Last Freedom 

Osho is an advocate that meditation can only happen if you let yourself be unoccupied. For him and his followers being in the state of being unoccupied means spontaneous meditation as you cannot do anything. He also compared meditation to a flower. This dance is inspired by this belief by dancing by freeing yourselves from any thoughts and focusing more on your deep rhythmic breathing and body flow.

Bhagvati Dance

The dance can reveal everything mysterious that is hidden in music, and it has the additional merit of being human and palpable. Dancing is poetry with arms and legs.” – Charles Baudelair

This dance is another form of moving meditation with a sequence of slow body movement and deep breathing. This dance which is usually accompanied accompanied with different phases of relatively slow-movements.

Watch this short video as they practice this Bhagvati 4 Directions Meditation.

Kundalini Dance

“Because many people are confused by Kundalini’s real nature, we must do more to define it accurately, starting with what it is not. For example, it isn’t devil worship or a supernatural cult. Neither is it a religion nor a sect. It’s a biological process. You can’t be converted to Kundalini any more than you can be converted to a heart attack or an orgasm; they just happen. That’s the nature of biological processes: They just happen.”
― JJ Semple, The Biology of Consciousness: Case Studies in Kundalini 

As some of these dance exercises are quite confusing for many as they linked them to some religious beliefs, JJ Semple is right that they are biological processes which means that we are simply freeing our mind our consciousness and awareness and letting ourselves be unoccupied while letting our natural body flow dance with a series of slow and calm music.

With these 10 exercises that promote moving meditation, you can pick up the best movements and styles that suit your meditation needs. Keeping a daily meditation journal is a good way to keep records of your meditation experiences. Combining these movements with other elements of meditation. All of these meditation can be done from the comfort of your home.

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