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Feel the Rhythm in Your Heart By James H. O'Keefe M.D. "Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass; it's about learning to dance in the rain." I have been impressed by how people seem to derive real health benefits, both physi-cal and mental, from incorporating music into their daily lives, whether it is in the form of dancing, singing, making or even just listening to music. Rhythm comes naturally to us. The first sound that entered your awareness, even before you were born, was the rhythmic "lub-dub…lub-dub" of your mother's heart beat. One hundred thousand times each day your heart drums out the sound track of your life, most of the time only in the background of your consciousness. The average heart beats three billion times before it gives up the ghost; if you treat yours right, it may pump four billion times. Each of us was born with a song in our heart. You don't have to tell young kids to dance when you put on some fun music, they naturally will just move to the beat. In the cold dark winter days when my kids are getting stir crazy, I coax them down to the basement and ask them to put on upbeat music and they will dance and Hula-Hoop themselves into a sweat without any cajoling. Rekindle that song within you; music can lift your spirits, melt stress, and lower blood pressure. Exercise can be fun when it is more like play and less like work; and dancing is all about having fun. Dancing is an ideal form of exercise. If you dance continuously for an hour you will take about 7,000 steps, which means during just 60 minutes of fun, you will have accumulated 70 percent of the recommended goal of 10,000 steps for an entire 24-hour period. Recent research shows that regular dancing improves health on multiple levels, from improved balance and better physical fitness, to more flexibility and a brighter more energetic mood. Dancing with the Stars is currently all the rage among TV viewers, and the celebrities on the show provide some dramatic examples of how dancing can improve fitness from week to week. Marie Osmond lost 31 pounds while participating in the competition; and she fainted during one episode, probably because her blood pressure was getting back down to levels that her cardiovascular system had not seen since she was a teenager. It's easier than ever to learn to dance, whether in a local dance studio or gym, or in the comfort of your own home with the help of online options. Learntodance.com, dancetv.com, and learning2dance.com are Web sites that offer free video dance lessons for everything from ballroom dancing, to the fox trot, to salsa, and even break dancing. YouTube.com is another great online site for learning how to dance. While at YouTube, check out the wildly popular "The Evolution of Dance," a wacky and entertaining video clip by a comedian doing a six-minute dance medley that has been viewed 80 million times. I love music and I find that just listening to songs that I enjoy makes me relaxed and happy. Still I don't dance much in public because I am a terrible dancer-choreographically challenged from birth I guess. A lot of people, including me, are self-conscious about getting up and dancing in front of a crowd. I remember one patient who complained during a visit that he was too shy to square dance. His wife looked over at him and said: "Orville, get over it! Nobody's watchin' you. In fact, you would be shocked to know just how infrequently anyone ever thinks about you. You need to just relax and have fun." Think of dancing as a chance to blow off some steam and to celebrate with a friend. Dancing is like smiling, even if you are in a bad mood, if you force yourself to do it, it's hard not to feel happier. Fitness, balance, rhythm, romance, and fun-dancing can do it all for us, we just have to get over our inhibitions and re-awaken the song in our heart. One of my goals in life is to someday learn how to dance, and Joan and I are planning to take a 'dancing for dummies' class one of these years. In the meantime, I'll just be dancing in the basement with my daughters Kathleen and Caroline while they blare the likes of Hannah Montana over the speakers. Thankfully, they both have a great sense of rhythm that they must have inherited from their Mom. |
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