Welcome to Doug’s Newsletter. Every Thursday, I share a theme from my journey to provide you insight along your spiritual path.

Science Says Shake Your Butt More

Last month, a meta-analysis of studies on depression revealed some intriguing results:

My key takeaway?

Dance more!

My partner, Morgan, and I often play music through a speaker in our living room when we’re not doing anything else.

Every once in a while, it turns into a little dance party for a few seconds, before we cringe at our lack of rhythm and revert to whatever we were doing.

However, this changed dramatically four months ago, when our dancing habit took an interesting turn.

During my journey in a Full Moon Celebration (link to join the next one coming soon!), two previously independent fields of thought converged.

Thought Field #1: My hips constantly ache and feel tight. “Antsy” is the right word. Especially after our 1 hour of TV time in the evening. What can I do to help my hips get the movement they desire?

Thought Field #2: I love Morgan. I love being a child with Morgan. How can I create more of this lovely child-like time with her in my day?

Toward the end of the celebration, I found my answer.

As soon as I was back in reality, I would walk to the living room and insist upon a FULL SONG dance sesh.

I did it. We did it. We cried tears from laughing at ourselves.

I decreed it a household “rule” that for every one episode of TV we shalt watch, it must be followed by one song of dancing.

We maybe follow the rule 40% of the time. But it brings hours more dance, laughter, and quality time into our lives, and that’s a huge win.

Ways to bring more dancing into your life

Whether solo or with someone whose company you enjoy, you can try one of these ways to bring more dancing into your life:

1) Schedule it. You can set a daily alarm, put it in your calendar, or tie it to an event you already do (e.g. after TV time or as a way to transition from one activity to another). Even if it only works 1 in 10 times, you’re dancing more than you would have been!

2) Make up your own dance. After dinner each night for 1 week, Morgan and I made up a dance, where one person would add 1 simple move (for both of us to do) to the cumulatively growing routine. When asked for comment on our choreography, Cassie of Dance Life called our routine “Who are you and why did you send me this dance.” We made it months ago, and we still do our post-dinner dance a few times a week.

3) Shake it out. In certain yoga classes, teachers incorporate a few minutes of shaking at the beginning of the practice. I always love those classes, and it’s something I do randomly in the middle of the day sometimes when I feel antsy. Stand relaxed with your feet hips-width distance apart… and just start shaking. As you get looser, follow your intuition to grow your movements and/or incorporate different parts of your body. Stay with your breath the whole time, and eventually, your body will naturally move the way it wants to.

If any of these sound appealing to you, but your mind created a “no” or “not yet” thought — perhaps around fear of your dance skills or judgement about your movements — explore the thought and how you may be able to comfortably explore the edge of your comfort zone. Privacy and/or darkness can be your friend here.

Next time you're feeling a bit stagnant or looking for a quick mood boost, crank up your favorite tune and let loose! And if you need a guaranteed ass-shaker, try Shake by Yoke Lore. It’s my current go-to dance tune.

😄 Funny Business

📊 Community Poll

Results for last week’s question: Do you have a “good knife”? i.e. do you have a favorite kitchen knife you use 95+% of the time, even though you have plenty of others?

Yeah I thought so. Get rid of all those other knives! It’s spring cleaning time.

I’m a “good knife” person, too. Why change it up if you know it gets the job done, right?

On to this week’s question…

“And yet if you look at a society who sings and dances as a regular thing, it’s not that it has an effect on their life–it is their life.” -Gary Snyder