lived experiences, polyvagal applications, Self-care

Dance the pain away!

aleksandrastaneva

“Dance the pain away” was a message I received from my grandmother during my latest trance experience under the guidance of my teacher Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estès Reyes.

I won’t share the details of that as they are not only sacred… but impossible to put into words (let alone via the limiting modality of social media) but what I want to focus on is a little reminder for all of us about the power of DANCE and MOVEMENT when it comes to trauma work, women and bodies.

Trauma impacts our bodies. ‘Our issues are indeed in our tissues’.

Emotions, stored and immobilized inside our bodies, can continuously affect not only the physical health of our bodies but our emotional and relational lives as well.

Over the last year I have gone back to one of my most cherished childhood activities-DANCE. When I was little I used to choreograph the neighborhood kids into a rhythmic gymnastics team (inspired by the Bulgarian Golden Girls of gymnastics 🙏🏻) and as a teen I attended daily aerobics classes in my sparkly blue leotard with a bunch of fascinating women, who always shared the most interesting secrets about their bodies in the dressing rooms after class.

I have maintained my love and dedication for movement throughout my life with yoga, daily walks and hiking yet when it comes to dance 💃🏽 I really get to connect with something deeper within me, and OUTSIDE of me.

Dance can serve as a transformative and therapeutic tool in the process of healing from trauma.

Trauma often leaves emotional and psychological scars, and dance provides a unique avenue to address and heal.

Dance allows for a non-verbal expression of emotions.
Because Trauma can disconnect us from our bodies, leading to feelings of dissociation or numbness, Dance encourages a reconnection with the body, fostering a sense of embodiment and empowerment ✊🏼

Dance offers a sense of control and agency over our bodies and movements.

Dance offers a community ⭕️! This sense of belonging can be profoundly healing.

Dance can also serve as a storytelling medium, allowing us to create narratives of transformation.

Dance is pure JOY!

Image-from my participation in the @commonpeopledanceproject at @brisbanefestival last Saturday 💃🏽

Hope you get to dance today! All you need is your favorite song!

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Published by aleksandrastaneva

Aleksandra She, who remembers. I work at the threshold, where psyche speaks in symbols, and the soul remembers. Rooted in Jungian depth psychology and Internal Family Systems, my work invites women and seekers into the quiet, often forgotten places within: the underworlds of grief, the wild terrain of desire, the sacred chambers of the inner child, inner mother, the Shadowlands, and Self. With a background in women’s heath research, in ritual, and in lived experience spaces, I do not offer diagnosis or treatment, I offer devotion to the unfolding Self. On the threshold of becoming- where we always are. Through dreams, parts work, myth, and the body, I walk beside those ready to meet themselves fully, fiercely, and tenderly. This is not fast work. It is sacred work. It is not about fixing, it is about remembering. I do not promise certainty. I promise presence, and a deep trust in the wisdom already within you. My work is rooted in the wild: in the seasons and the body, in the wisdom of the land, and in the deep ecology of the soul. I honour the personal as political, and the psychological as inseparable from the cultural. Feminism, ecopsychology, and embodied awareness are not add-ons here, they are the soil this work grows from. I offer one-on-one soulwork sessions, women’s circles, and immersive psychoeducational experiences that weave together depth psychology, parts work, and embodiment. Some of this work unfolds indoors, some in wild places—always with reverence for the wisdom of nature, the nervous system, and the feminine psyche. Welcome to the HORÓ nest. I think you might just be ready to re-member your Self.

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