How dancing helps us with our mental health?

Dancing has become an essential part of our lives since we were little kids, we didn’t even have to learn how to dance to start moving our bodies with the rhythm of any song, we have danced in many occasions and with different purposes, either for fitness ones or just for having fun, we all like to let our steps flow with the music. We have taken advantage of all the benefits that dancing gives us, from being in a good shape to enjoy a party with friends, what is even better about dancing is that it has a huge impact in our brains and mental health.

It reduces the signs of aging

In general physical exercise has an anti-aging effect on the hippocampus region of the brain, an area that controls memory, learning, and balance. Speaking specifically about dancing we can say that it increases activity in our brains, helping us with our cognitive health and improving our concentration and agility. Dancing gives you energy and challenges you to overcome your limits. Besides, dancing in comparison to other physical activities reduces the risk of getting diseases; this takes us to another important perk of dancing!

This dance movement therapy prevents us from diseases

Dancing improves the quality of life of many people, preventing them of suffering illnesses like Parkinson, Alzheimer, Depression, obesity, and Dementia (it reduces 76% of the risk of getting it), this is because dancing requires more than just motor skills, so there is more “thinking” associated with it, which means that it activates our neurons. Many people use dancing as a therapeutic stimulus because it is linked with multiple parts of our brains: the motor cortex is involved in planning, control, and execution of voluntary movement; the somatosensory cortex is responsible for our coordination, and the cerebellum is in charge of developing motor actions. According to multiple researches, dancing is the most beneficial physical activity for our mental health, because it involves mental capacity and social interaction, key factors that reduce the risk of getting sick.

It motivates us and keeps us in a better mood

Dancing is an amazing way to control your emotions and to release any sorrow, because when you dance you forget about everything that gets you anxious. Other than that, it helps you getting involved in a nice environment, as it encourages you to be more confident, allowing you to express yourself and to get personal development. Studies have shown that social dancing gives you better socialization skills and brings you positive feelings by activating hormones like serotonin. Besides that, it improves your sense of well-being, keeping you connected and interested in life.

It plays a key role in memory and learning

Dancing is a multi-tasking activity, which means that when you do simple tasks such as synchronizing your feet with the beats of the music, remembering dance steps, executing turns, leading or following your partner, you activate your motor skills, this allows you to be more attentive and focus and to have more control overall. People who dance frequently tend to have a greater capacity of coordination and location; it is even proved that they could find the exit of a maze faster than a person who doesn’t dance at all. An explanation of this says that people who dance are rapid at making decisions, it relates when you have to react to yours’ partner lead, without even knowing what they are trying to do next, that’s why dancing is an excellent way of enhancing your intelligence and improving your brain functions.
In addition to all the physical and mental benefits, the best thing about dancing is that you have fun! It is practically impossible to dance without smiling. Music gets you to express your feelings and gives you joy, so if after all these benefits you think you should start dancing, we have a perfect StepFlix Samba cardio fitness class that will help you with that, check it out