[Applause] [Music] [Applause] have you ever played music around a baby that's not even a year old they can't walk yet but somehow they already know how to move to music they Bob their head they bounce up and down and basically know how to dance at around 5 to 6 months old this technically means that humans before even being able to walk with their own two feet somehow manage to dance you'll even see six-year-olds courageously getting in the middle of dance floors to dance unabashedly they do this like you've seen it they do this thing but
something happens as we get older we stop dancing we stop thinking it's for us or we only think it's for us after three shots of tequila but why I mean if this is something humans innately do before walking doesn't this mean that dance is for everyone I have been teaching dance fitness for a decade and I am fully convinced that dance is for everyone and can be utilized as a tool to change your life I know it sounds dramatic and believe me before I started teaching I probably would have agreed that this is a subjective
Viewpoint and that dance is mainly for those who truly excel at it right the ballerinas the professionals but this mindset is all wrong you see I think most people don't dance because they think in order to gain the benefits of dance they have to look a little bit like this [Music] I but today I'm here to talk to you about how you can still gain infinite benefits from dance while looking a little bit more like [Applause] this legendary dance it is in our Humanity to dance in fact being a good or bad dancer has absolutely
nothing to do with how much we can benefit from it and when I say benefit I don't mean just physically I mean emotionally mentally spiritually socially cognitively the list goes on and on Dance is Primal it is in our DNA to want to move shake and physically release and as I just mentioned it has the ability to tap into into the mind body and spirit all at once and very quickly you see when you let go of dancing to look a certain way and instead focus on the internal release of it man something cathartic happens
you see dance has this very keen ability to immediately draw you into the present moment and this is exactly why dance is so vital to our well-being and why I believe we all need it more than ever right now in our society today we are subjected to constant demands from our job our family our friends a 24-hour news cycle and an overwhelming amount of Technology we hustle at our jobs we Crush our workouts in the gym and we even party hard but when do we really find time to take the pressure off and reconnect with
ourselves and I mean take the pressure off without numbing ourselves through social media escapism drugs and business The Ugly Truth is that ignoring our emotional and mental well-being is leading to a collective decline in our health and causing chronic distress we've lost touch with our Primal selves and it's taking a toll depression is on the rise stress is showing up more than ever in our youth in our addiction to technology is only making all of this worse sorry to be such a bummer right now but I I promise I promise I'm going somewhere hopeful with
this because I know that dance can be a tool no a treatment to consistently awaken your body and calm your mind you see dance will take you from living your life from the neck up all in your head to the neck down dance will teach you not to fear the uncertainty in life dance teaches us an important lesson in embracing every part of ourselves and most importantly we can use dance to release stagnant emotions and Trauma and stress that gets stored in our bodies I will never ever forget the moment I realized just how powerful
dancing could be for human beings I received a message from a woman who had been coming to my class every week for three months the message read thank you through attending your classes and listening to your messages I finally gained the courage to leave my physically abusive relationship now I give this woman all credit for having The Bravery to leave but what's important to note here is that for her it was the dancing that shifted everything it changed her it helped her find her power and embrace her truth now I always knew that I loveed
to dance and I always felt that it was this inexplicable form of therapy for me but I had no idea that dance could be so helpful and so transformational to others until this very moment and over the years I continue to see the evolution that occurs in individuals when they start dancing weekly I've seen dance help people grieve their loved ones I've witnessed dance decreased people's depression I've seen dance help with body image and selfworth one woman even told me that our classes helped her cope when she had ovarian cancer like I said the list
goes on and on and this conversation wouldn't really be complete without my own experience being a dance teacher for so long there was an 8-year streak of my career where I taught Dance Fitness three times a week that means no matter what the heck was going on in my life good or bad I showed up to dance every week I had no idea that this would be the most powerful experiment I accidentally did on myself so I want to share two of my biggest takeaways from dancing eight years straight every week one no matter how
I felt before class dance left me feeling better than when I found it always even on my worst day days two it instantly grounded me in my body which translated into me being less stressed less anxious and less reactive to my external world and I know some of you in here are probably thinking okay this is a bit woo woo whatever but the truth is it's not in fact what I've been preaching about my classes for years about how dance can help cope with depression and anxiety and help us embrace our dark Ness has now
been proven by a study a new Australian research came out saying that dance Beyond other forms of physical activity helps in aiding with emotional well-being depression and motivation this is huge news but it doesn't really surprise me at all now before I leave here today I want to get really specific on what I mean when I say the term dance okay don't mean that you need to learn how to do pirouettes across your living room I really want to make this a tool that's accessible for everyone right so let me give you a little beginner's
guide to dancing to heal okay you'll start wherever you feel safe and you'll put on your favorite song it can be anything from Mozart juvenile to Taylor Swift whatever floats your boat and you'll just start by simply stomping your feet that's an example you can also step side to side and if you feel like you're feeling a little bit an ious you can shake out your hands you can jump up and down you can clap make it simple find what works for you but these are all examples of dancing to heal now I know that
this is a tedex talk and we're all about the science and the research behind everything and we want to see the data the studies we all love Andrew huberman I certainly do but I'm not here to extensively go through the science with you I'm not a data scientist in fact I'm not even really here just to talk to you about the power of dance you see at my core I'm a facilitator and I'm a teacher so I'm really here to show you the power of dance so I'm going to ask everybody in the audience to
stand up with me for just two minutes uh oh don't get mad at me okay and space out the best you can you might bump into each other but for a quick second remember we are not doing this to focus on what we look like we are focused on the internal release modify it the best you can but um let's have some fun and also we're going to do something to shake out our nerves you're just going to follow me the best you can all right and on the count of three we're all going to
scream together okay so that you can't hear your inner thoughts all right are we ready to go on the count of three We Ready 1 2 3 scream [Applause] yes okay okay you're going to follow me okay you're going to jump you're going to jump jump yes jump come on come on jump jump yes you're going to step step step oh y'all look good let me hear [Music] [Applause] y'all okay now clap with me say say okay you're going to [Music] tap now jump jump tap it out with me come [Music] on okay come on
clap with me I want to hear y'all how you feeling are youall live [Music] yes come on keep it going I see you up there yes all right Grand Finale let's go bring your arms up and bring it down yes yes oh y'all look beautiful yes I see those Smiles woo all right give yourselves a round of [Applause] applause that was amazing by the way I don't know did somebody hire professional dancers what what's going on are y'all punking me okay that was beautiful now I want everybody in this room to take a look around
and think about if you notice anything different within the room within yourself and if you did this at home what did you feel what did you experience it's really important to take note and scan your body because it's truly incredible how quickly dance will activate the body to feel something dance urges you to step out of your comfort zone and into the present moment and dance teaches us this important Lon lesson in life to let go of our attachment to control and the more we dance the more this lesson ripples into different areas of our
lives and activates something truly powerful within us because dance isn't just an art form reserved for professionals it's a transformative tool a tool to honor The Duality of Life the grief the sorrow the loss but also the magic the the Beauty and the silly fun so if you are looking for a new way to get out of your rut that actually feels fun it is officially time to start dancing and I want to reiterate you do not have to be good at it not even a little bit we have to reframe the way we approach
dancing forget about trying to be good at it and just focus on the release let it be a practice like meditation dance is liberating effective and the best part is you only need two minutes to do it it doesn't need to be structured it doesn't need to be complicated it doesn't even need to be coordinated the key is to keep it simple and start with a Basics just like babies do thank you
