What do you notice when you're in the midst of much stress? What do you experience in your body? Does your breath change? And what about your mind and mood? How does that shift?
When you're experiencing stress, your body is in the sympathetic nervous system, its "fight or flight" state. It's beneficial if a tiger is chasing you, but not so much in non-threatening situations.
There's another possibility that your body and mind might experience, known as the freeze response. You might experience this during times of overwhelm or anxiety.
You might read this and think, "Oh no! Stress mode is so bad for me?!" but not all activation is "bad" and while you can't decide how your body and mind will react during times of stress, you can equip yourself with tools that will help you to recognize when you're in it and how to navigate stabilizing after these experiences.
Playful movement, like dance, etc, trains our bodies and minds to stay with the feeling of engagement in a safe and sometimes even enjoyable way. We can explore this in practice with more lateral and circular movement so please join me today to learn more!
Please bring a chair (we'll use it for some of the postures) and wear clothes you're comfortable moving in.