Dance your way to wellness and less pain

Dancing is as old as mankind. Spiritual traditions around the world engage in various kinds of dancing, trance movement and dance-inspired physical culture. India is well-known for its spiritual traditions, especially yoga. One of yoga’s treasures is the Kaoshikii dance, which Shishir Inocalla shares with you in today’s video.

Exercise, including dance, is good for your body. Aside from elevating body temperature, loosening joints, increasing range of motion and muscle pliability, it increases oxygenation and your blood flow. As endorphins are released you feel euphoric and pain can be reduced. In another article I wrote about a study showing how dance makes us feel better by reducing pain. You can read more about that here.

Kaoshikii wellness claims

Today, we look at a yoga dance of the Ananda Marga (“path to bliss”) tradition. According to Shri Shri Anandamurti, a leading proponent of Kaishiki, this yogic mantra dance is a panacea:

1. Exercises all the glands and limbs from head to foot.
2. Increases longevity.
3. Improves flexibility.
4. Relieves arthritis of the spine, neck, waist and other joints.
5. Reduces gout in the spine, neck, hand and waist.
6. Helps keep the mind strong and sharp.
7. Eases menstruation.
8. Helps regulate glandular secretions.
9. Improves control over the limbs.
10. Decreases lethargy.
11. Relieves insomnia.
12. Improves self-expression and develops one’s potentiality.

This list is a spectacular goal to reach with the daily practice of Kaoshikii! I wanted to know more about this so I met up with Shishir Inocalla, who at age 13 was sent from the Philippines to India to live in an Ashram.

According to Shishir, these dance movements, in their sequence, stimulate the nerves and ignite the different acupoints on the bottom of the feet. Not only that, but as you raise your arms dancing, into the yoga Sun Salutation, and move your body by bending side to side, you are releasing all the tightness in your body and allowing the energy to shift and move. While dancing you are also chanting the universal mantra, “Baba Nam Kevalam” which means “Love is all there is.”

How to do it

Stand upright, offer “Namaste” then raise your arms up into a sun salutation position.

Lightly march in place on the balls of your feet.

Bend to the right.

Bend to the left.

Bend downward forward.

Bend upward and backward.

Back to center.

Once you get the sequence, you add the universal mantra, “Baba Nam Kevalam.”

Increase speed as you like and as it feels good.

You can do this for five minutes, 10 or even 20 minutes every day.

It is good especially for females as it improves health, mental disturbances and physical imbalances in the body. As you dance the movements massage and open the energy centers in the feet and bring the energy up to and through the body.

It’s much easier than it reads, so follow along with the video and have fun as you dance and chant your way toward better wellness of mind, body and spirit.