Dance is a universal language. It offers the opportunity to meet new people and to express themselves without having to speak, but also to improve their physical shape.
Last update: February 18, 2022
Physical activity is essential for living a healthy and balanced life. However, most people don't find the time or motivation to hit the gym or run. Well, there are alternatives that are less boring and full of physical and mental benefits, such as dancing. We are about to discover the benefits of dancing.
Dance is a universal language, present in all cultures; it is a different way of communicating with others, as well as a powerful tool to train creativity and to express ourselves.
Dancing is a combination of music and body expression and promotes connection with one's own and others' inner world.
In the following lines we describe the benefits of dancing for physical and mental health. While many of these benefits are closely associated with the well-being of the body, others have to do with mental health. Others, finally, they benefit both physical and mental well-being in equal measure.
The benefits of dancing
The main benefits of this activity are:
- Improve circulation.
- Helps burn excess fat.
- Improve your mood.
- Strengthen social relationships.
- It favors contact with oneself.
1- Improve circulation
The first benefit of the dance concerns the health of the heart and the cardiovascular system, since improves circulation and lung capacity. Since it is an aerobic exercise, while we train the body we reduce the risk of heart attack.
The dance is recommended by the American Hearth Association as aerobic training to calm the risk of cardiovascular diseases.
2- Helps burn calories and eliminate fat
This second benefit offered by dancing is directly associated with the first: since it is an aerobic workout, it not only improves circulation, but it also burns calories and promotes the loss of body fat.
In addition to this, it contributes to the improvement of self-esteem and increases energy levels, useful for dealing with everyday life.
3- The benefits of dancing: it improves the mood
The current scientific evidence on the effects of physical activity on mood is surprising: dancing improves mood.
Thanks to factors such as the release of endorphins and the improvement of your body image, training with dance helps fight problems such as stress or anxiety and makes you happier.
However, dancing can be a relaxing activity or a way to get distracted. In fact, it helps the mind to unplug from negative thoughts and worries. In addition, it stimulates the channeling of adrenaline, strengthens the motivation to make your dreams come true.
As if that weren't enough, dancing is an activity that helps achieve that state we know today as flow. According to a study conducted by Amado, Leo, Sánchez-Miguel, Sánchez-Oliva and GarcÃa-Calvo (2011), those who dance experience a fluidity in which they feel totally absorbed in what they do.
4- Improve personal relationships
Dancing is a social discipline. Although you can practice it alone, several dances offer an opportunity to relate to others.
For example, attending a dance class broadens your circle of friends and improves connection with others, as it requires body coordination and communication only with physical movements. It connects people of all ages and from all over the world. The dance knows no boundaries.
5- The benefits of dancing: it helps you get in touch with yourself
Like any other artistic activity, dancing has a strong emotional component. Practicing this sport helps to maintain contact with our inner world and to express what we feel.
Dancing is cathartic and helps us to express, through movement, that emotional universe that sometimes we don't dare to express differently. In some areas, in fact, dance for therapeutic purposes is starting to be promoted.
Conclusions
The benefits of dancing are numerous for both our physical and mental health. We have only described the most important ones. If you want to discover all that dancing has to offer your life, you just have to try. What are you waiting for?
