A recent study done by The Conversation has drawn the same conclusion that music lovers have known for years: Dancing with others is good for your health. People are drawn to music for many different reasons. Whether it be spiritual, emotional, physical, or cultural, music has been a part of the human experience for thousands of years. The innate desire to move to a beat is a quality that we are all born with. Seriously, even babies do it.
While dancing can be taught and practiced to perfection, every single human has a natural ability to synchronize to a beat. It is one of the building blocks of humanity that continues to evolve just as humans do. As The Conversation notes in their study, “it turns out that when you synchronise even a small movement, like the tapping of your finger in time with someone else, you feel closer and more trusting of that person than if you had tapped out of time.”
The rave community is well-versed in this simple scientific fact. People love good music and love a good show, but what really makes the EDM genre truly powerful is the community that accepts everyone and anyone. When you dance with others, whether it be moving to the same beat or dancing in synchronicity, the individual merges into a collective whole. “When we watch someone else do the same thing at the same time as us, our brain ends up with a merged sense of us and them. It feels like we ‘become one,” the study concludes.
The Conversation took things one step further to test additional benefits of dancing in synchronicity with others. The study took place in Brazil, where 264 young people participated in various dancing activities that were synchronized versus non synchronized and high-exertion versus low-exertion. The study measured pain tolerance and feelings of closeness before, during, and after the dancing activities.

“Not surprisingly, those who did full-bodied exertive dancing had higher pain thresholds compared to those…in the low-exertion groups….we also found that synchronisation led to higher pain thresholds, even if the synchronised movements were not exertive. So long as people saw that others were doing the same movement at the same time, their pain thresholds went up.”

So basically, dancing in any synchronization with others increases your pain tolerance and helps you to connect with others. Music literally is group therapy – a concept that EDM champions Above & Beyond is quite familiar with. Moral of the story? Tap into those primal desires and dance!

It’s good for you.

(source)

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

Because I am an insomniac and know many other insomniacs, and, know not all of it is because they are more creative at night. Because many times that insomnia is due to stress, and hopeless feelings. Because Thursday September 18th was my dad's birthday. Because Wednesday September 10th was Suicide Prevention Day and that week was National Suicide Prevention Week.  Because someone out there up tonight might need this.

"...my suffering through this whole thing has taught me a very great deal."

~Damien Echols

The Ankle Chronicles - post 6 of who the fuck knows

I am sitting alone in my room, eating chocolate and feeling sorry for myself. It is 7:11pm and I am trying to figure out what to do with my evening. I have been trying to figure it out for over an hour. This makes me feel even sorrier for myself and then I feel pathetic. Feeling pathetic about myself makes me feel, pathetic.

I had my 3rd X-ray on my ankle yesterday. It has been 4 weeks since the doctor's appointment where we discussed my MRI and I was told they had messed up, I have a fractured talus bone and should never have been walking. I should have stayed off it for 3 months they said...so, here we are 4 weeks later and doctor enters the room and tells me my x-rays look good. I stopped in the middle of taking off the huge walking boot and looked at him stunned. "They do?!" Yeah, he replies and then realizes I think he means like, Really good and quickly tells me that though I am healing, the fracture line is still present. There appears to be less of a gap in the fracture than before, everything is going very well and I am making progress. However, the fracture line is still there and he recommends 4-6 more weeks on crutches.

WHAT?!

He can see me tear-up. When I ask what else I can do to speed things up he asks me if I am taking calcium and magnesium supplements and I tell him I am and spinach shakes...I trail off and he lightly puts his hand on my knee and this is where I know I look quiet visibly upset and he tells me I am doing all I can do and to just rest and stay off the ankle. He'll see me in 4 weeks. I ask him for a prescription for the knee scooter/big tricycle I rented and he said I could pick it up at check-out. I go schedule my appointment for 4 weeks from now, December 9th...and we head home. I cry.

The rest of the day yesterday was actually quiet pleasant, I got a lot of sleep, then made quinoa and a pumpkin cranberry bundt cake. I got to spend the afternoon with my honey. I felt energetic, and positive. I wasn't going to let it get me down...I was bummed out, but I have mostly gotten used to the crutches, walker, wheel chair and the new rented tricycle.

I had actually totally prepared myself for this outcome since he said I should have been on crutches for at least 3 months to begin with and I had in fact only been on them for 4-ish weeks. So, though through meditation and positive self-talk for the last 4 weeks I had convinced myself I was in fact healed, I needed to make sure I was ready for the bad news too. And, here's the part where I ALWAYS drive myself crazy...Was I prepping myself for this bad news because I knew in my heart of hearts I was not quite so healed, or was I not quite so healed because I let myself doubt?

So, I now await December 9th...and try to figure out how I am gonna pull through it...I am gonna need to figure out how to car shop because that is dangerously close to my partner switching jobs to one further away. Close to me annoying the crap out of the lady who has been generous enough to take me to and from work. Close to Christmas and shopping and me just plain ol' needing my freedom and alone time in the car before work. So, today I just kinda accepted it...It didn't affect my mood as much as I thought, or feared...I did cry some yesterday morning, but I expected this to really piss me off. It hasn't. It wore me back out for a bit...

So, why feel sorry for myself now? What's the point? Where's my hobby...?

"Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity."

~Hippocrates