Nearly five years ago, at the beginning of the pandemic, I suggested that we all should dance to raise our spirits. Nowadays, we are not under immediate threat from a killer virus, but we now have daily news reports of wars, political upheaval, and predictions of mayhem to stress us out. In stead of closely following the news, I have decided to lose myself in fiction, some of my own invention and many wonderful stories of my friends. It is a hideout I highly recommend. I check the daily news bulletins - five minutes worth once or twice a day. But otherwise, I have eschewed all the depressing commentary.
To keep my body as well as my spirits healthy, I have reverted to a practice I adopted when locked down at the outset of Covid: Loud music and dancing. Here is the blog I wrote in early 2020 hoping to inveigle you into to joining me. I hope you will. At the very least, I think just playing the songs below will raise your spirits. And I am willing to bet, they will get your toes tapping and very likely get you up and moving to the beat. I promise you will feel better for it.
Worldwide, many many of us are stuck in the house. In some places, we are not even allowed to go outside to jog or to take a walk. But sitting around is not good for your body OR your spirit. I know something that is really good for both: DANCING! This should get you interested:
You should be Dancin’
Whether you think you are good at it or not, I urge you to join me and spend forty-five minutes each day on your feet, moving to the music. Don't worry what it looks like as long as it feels good. (You are not among a hundred wedding guests watching you and making you feel self-conscious.)
Dancing around the house is something I do all the time. Stan Trollip can vouch for this. He once walked into my kitchen and caught Mette and me - who were supposed to be cooking dinner - doing the lindy hop.
I am lucky enough to have a sound system that plays all over my apartment. I have had, since I acquired the thing, a playlist called "Dancing." It has all kinds of music on it, but every song has a beat that makes me want to move. Until the current lock down, I played those songs when I needed to keep moving despite lagging energy. Now I put them on shuffle in mid-morning, set a timer for forty-five minutes, press play, off I go. Here's a screen shot of the playlist I had on when I thought of writing this blog urging you to join me.
These are songs that make it impossible for me to sit still. You should choose your own, but here are some suggestions:
Start by stretching a bit and warming up with Ella Fitzgerald's gentle pean to dancing. Note: the lyrics here are particularly appropriate to these times. eg: "...my bonds and shares may fall down stairs..."
The rest of the choices here (all from my own Dancing playlist) frequently have a dance theme to the lyrics, as in:
So many styles of music offer a great dancing rhythm. Let's try some Zaideco. Allons Dancer:
And Calypso:
Some songs on my playlist, send my energy level back to age 17. Like this one:
A couple of the songs that have been on my Dancing list for years - when they came on randomly in the past couple of days - struck me as black humor. Like this one:
Take the warning in this song seriously, but smile. If you're home and dancing, you are safe:
This one speaks for itself:
Did you hear it? It did say, "We don't have to do it." No night or day fevers for us, PLEASE!
At the end of your dance break, you need to keep moving gently and cool down. I recommend Randy Newman's lyrical theme to the movie "Ragtime."
For your body and your spirit, dance every day.
One more recommendation for how to stay healthy: Stop spending your couch time incessantly watching the news. In fact, I don't watch the news on TV at all. I do keep abreast, but I read it, but not for long periods. And listen to NPR for a limited amount of time each morning and evening.
Instead of concentrating on things that only make you angry or scared, feed your sprit with movies. Why not start with the aforementioned "Ragtime." It's a great flick with wonderful performances and music. In fact wonderful everything.
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