KAJAMA.COM NEWSLETTER

by Yasmin Henkesh

(Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal.)

Sad? Depressed? Anxious? Stressed? Not feeling good enough—not the right height, the right shape, the right whatever? Wish you could click your ruby red slippers and forever banish self doubt? If so, push back the couch and make a little room—I have something I want you to try.

Did you know you can dance your way to happiness?

For the same reason many of us have "chased that disco ball around" after a relationship ended, dancing makes us feel better. In her article "Four Powerful Ways to Live a Joyful Life Today," Amy Leigh Mercree recommended regular exercise to increase happiness in your life. She wrote, "exercise doesn't just make you happy on a physical level, but also on a spiritual one" because it "releases endorphins … causing an analgesic effect [and] a feeling of happiness." What she didn't mention is that exercise also releases serotonin, a neurotransmitter often deficient in people with depression.

Depression is sadness and self-doubt amplified out of proportion; a bottomless pit, a black hole in a world of brilliant color, an all absorbing, inescapable pit of quicksand. In the developed world doctors usually treat depression with talk therapy (how to avoid excessive discouragement and self-blame through a positive attitude) and behavior modification (daily sunlight exposure, moderate aerobic exercise, and a consistent sleep schedule). In the developing world, however, people with mental illnesses are not so fortunate. Hospitals, let alone psychiatrists, are few and far between—which is why for millennia women in Africa and the Middle East have turned to trance dancing to cure their ills.

Besides causing the brain to secrete endorphins and serotonin, exercise also causes the electrical impulses generated by the brain's billions of nerve cells (brainwaves) to slow from the higher frequencies of waking consciousness (beta) to the subconscious' lower levels (theta). And when music is added into the mix during dance, the effects are even more powerful. First of all, rhythm and melody become external metronomes for brainwaves to synchronize with. They also tether the awake mind to the physical world, the here and now, while it descends into theta's murky realm of unfiltered impressions and unacknowledged or suppressed emotions. Far more potent than the nebulous images and disjointed story lines of dreams, conscious exploration of your "underworld" frees submerged feelings from their emotional wreckage and allows them to float to the surface. It also disrupts ingrained mental loops by exposing them for what they are—habits adopted as coping mechanisms, which may no longer be necessary or relevant (and in extreme cases might even be harmful). Monsters lurking in the dark are far more scary than when seen in broad daylight. Shine the sun on them and they shrivel. Acknowledge the origin of a problem and the symptoms of its repression will fade away.

Yet not all forms of dance promote cathartic relief. The key ingredient is improvisation—spontaneous expression. This is because remembering choreography or planning movements activates the self critical functions of the prefrontal cortex, the part of our brain that makes us "human." This region monitors learned behavior, or what people expect of us, and using it only reinforces pre-existing neural pathways, the status quo. Catharsis, relief, and happiness, on the other hand, come when new pathways or ideas are allowed to form, or old ones are examined in a new light. In movement terms, this happens during "flow," when the autonomous nervous system takes over, the body moves on autopilot, and the mind is free to wander. This is why milder forms of trance dancing are referred to as kinetic meditation. They enable you to be a fly on the wall, to objectively experience your body's uncontrolled movements and the ideas it generates in the process.

So, to return to that couch you just pushed out of the way to make room for a dance floor…

Let me teach you one of the most popular trance dance movements I came across in Egypt—the "zikr twist." There are many more techniques in my book Trance Dancing with the Jinn; however, this is one of the easiest to do and quite effective. But first, you must learn how to stand!

Basic stance: Place your feet a little wider than your shoulders, toes pointing forward and knees slightly bent. Straighten and elongate your spine and adjust your pelvic bones so that the tops point up. No arching. Square and center your shoulders, then push them down. No computer slump. On the contrary, you want to open your chest up to heaven. Then elongate your neck as if you were balancing books on your head and let your arms hang loose by your sides. Close your eyes and breathe deeply. Feel your chest rise and fall. Think about everything in your life you are grateful for.

Zikr Twist: With feet firmly planted, on the first count slowly twist your upper body to look behind you over one shoulder. Allow the arms to wrap around your torso, back hand touching front shoulder and front hand reaching behind to touch the back hip. When hands touch shoulder and hip, you should feel wound up like a spring. On the second count, slowly unwind in the other direction to face front. The arms will swing out and follow in delayed motion. Without stopping, on the third count continue twisting until you can see behind you over the other shoulder. Once again, the arms will wrap around, but with the other arm on top. As before, the back hand touches the front shoulder and the front hand reaches behind to touch the back hip. On the fourth count, switch directions and face front, arms following in belated motion. As the upper body twists, the head turns from side to side. When done slowly, this movement stretches spine and neck muscles and loosens vertebrae. When done quickly, it induces trance by agitating the inner ear fluid. Never twist farther than is comfortable. If you are stiff, just swing your arms and turn your head. For a stronger sensation, tilt the head back as you twist.

This is just one suggestion of what you can do. Select music with a continuous, fast driving beat and as few silences as possible. Lower the lights, light a candle or incense, and see where you end up. The idea is to keep dancing for twenty minutes or more, without thinking about what you are doing. Allow flow to take over and let your mind wander. Start gently and pace yourself. Close your eyes. Concentrate on the tempo. "Inhabit" the rhythm, then move any way you want to, to whatever beat you hear. Remember, you are dancing for YOU, not anyone else. No one is watching. Whatever feels good is what you should do—for as long as you want to do it. If you want to go down on your knees, dance on your back, squirm on your belly, go for it—do whatever makes you happy; that's the whole point.

And when you are done, take time for a vision quest. Switch the music to slow and lyrical, lie down, think of a place that makes you happy and close your eyes. As Amy Leigh Mercree said, "Happiness can be a choice"—choose to be happy. Then let your subconscious guide you as to how you can make that happen in your daily life.

Article originally published in The Llewellyn Journal. Copyright Llewellyn Worldwide, 2016. All rights reserved.

I'm a professional psychic, and I am always trying to further develop my gifts. What I'm wondering is why I tend to become a thirsty psychic sponge when I least expect it. For example, when I go to my day job and I don't want to be in psychic mode, I seem to pick up things about my coworkers whether I like it or not. This happens even though I surround myself with a psychic filter or barrier, as I've been taught to do. For example, lately I pick up that a platonic male friend of mine clearly has more than just friendship on his mind. It has been overwhelming to pick up on his desires for me in the middle of the day while I'm at work. He is well aware of my abilities, and for that reason he has taken to avoiding me completely. I would never risk our friendship by telling him that I know about his fantasies about me, though I wish he would confess and tell me about his feelings. How do I shut myself off from this sort of input even after I've closed myself off from psychic impressions in general?

 - Deborah

Dreamchaser:

I'm glad you mentioned this barrier we psychics throw up when we're going about our day-to-day lives. I can just see it in people's faces when they find out what I do; it's that old, "Are you reading me now?" look. I want to put everyone's minds at ease: If you are socializing with a psychic, you are not in danger of being read!

There are, of course, messages or energy we receive that we can't control. If someone is dangerous, or if I need to be warned or alerted to something, that information will come through. Most psychics can tell when someone is lying. (I still chuckle that people even try to lie to me.)

We may be able to shut off the part of us that "reads" people when we are living our day-to-day life, but we can never shut down the part of us that receives, transmits, and responds to the energy that is all around us.

Every living thing gives off energy. When we walk past a tree, we feel the energy coming from that tree. When we walk into a room, we feel the energy of the person.

You are feeling this man's energy, and you have not yet found a way to shut it down. You have that whole "love thing" going on with him; love is the strongest energy and the strongest emotion. Love energy will affect every single person it comes into contact with.

So to answer your question, there is no way to shut down this type of psychic input. Very strong emotional energy from other people is not the sort of thing we can totally block out. The more enlightened and aware we become, the more energy we will feel.

I don't recommend you tell this man that you know how he feels and the fantasies he has about you, for I think that could be taken as a huge invasion of privacy. (It may also totally freak him out; I know it would be really freaky to me.)

If you like him too, you can just ask him to do something with you, or you can stand back and let him come to you when he's ready. You cannot, however, use your psychic gifts to help you covertly get closer to him, or the karma police will be kicking down your door.

If you don't share his interest, you can ask your guides, angels, and other beings, including God and the universe, to help you turn off as much of his energy as possible. You should ask for this help out loud, in a very simple way. For example, you might say:

"God, this energy is very uncomfortable for me. Please take away as much of it as possible so I don't have to suffer in this situation. Thank you."

I wish you peace with all your psychic perceptions.

*****

Astrea:

I'm a professional psychic too, but I never, ever read for myself! I don't trust my vision when it comes to my own issues or the problems my family members may be facing. I don't like to read for my close friends, either. I've never asked a romantic question for myself ñ I'd be too scared what the answer might be!

Even with these rules I've made for myself, sometimes things come to me that I would rather not see. Since I work alone, this happens most often when I'm at the grocery store, where I see into the lives of strangers even though I don't want to.

There is nothing you can do about those random people whose pain is so deep that it's going to come through to you no matter how hard you block it or how many psychic barriers you erect. People in pain have strong emotions, and if you're sensitive like you say you are, you'll pick up on them every time. The hardest part is to refrain from telling people if you have solutions to their problems!

When the person is someone you know well who is feeling love for you, it's another matter entirely. Your platonic friend does have feelings for you, and yes, he's avoiding you because he doesn't know where you stand. The feeling that something is breaking through your psychic barriers indicates that you need to clear the air with him.

If you've been reading for other people for any length of time, then you know how important it is to keep a professional distance and not get involved with those folks. If this man's feelings are imposing on you this way, then there is either something he wants from you, or something you want from him that you are projecting onto him. It could be that both of you are feeling something for the other, but you're afraid to speak up about it.

Since he knows about your abilities, confronting him won't take him by surprise. He knows you know and he's been expecting you to say something. My feeling is that one or both of you is married, and that's why you don't feel you should speak to him about this. (Another reason he's been avoiding you is because he doesn't want trouble.)

If you value his friendship, then you have to talk to him about all of this, whether anything can come of it or not. Remember, sometimes love happens when and where we least expect it. You may have some difficult decisions to make, but that's life. Discuss this together and work it out!

As far as shutting out undesired psychic input, I'm not sure that's always possible; sometimes you need to face some things you'd rather not know.