SOUND & MOVEMENT An ancient elixir that is a pulse of life medicine. Caroline O'Loughlin Nov 06, 2024

This short story came in strong to share this week.....shining a light on current day mental health challenges, influences, life habits and sharing an ancient medicine that helped in the past.

There is an ancient magical potion, known to many but practiced by just a few. This elixir is coming close to extinction in many places – it’s powerful and works every time. It is guaranteed to lift your mood, literally in minutes, infusing you with a bucketload of happy hormones. It diffuses stuck emotions, calms your nervous system and aids sharper thinking. If you take it often, you will look and feel younger, slimmer, sexier and calmer. Would like to try a drop?

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You see the things is, it’s not so readily available across Ireland these days. Your doctor will likely never prescribe it, especially as there is no profit for big pharma. It’s inexpensive, often free and comes with zero risk of negative side effects. Our ancestors knew about it. Literally every human on planet earth worked with it and versions evolved through us, over millennia.

Before I tell you what this magical elixir is, let’s recap on where we are today and what might have caused us to allow this precious remedy to become so quickly forgotten.

Fifty plus years of technological evolution has distracted us just a tad. Modern day Ireland is comfortable. Living in the ‘golden age’ driving fast cars, more international trips, dining out, entertainment together with hybrid working has more bums glued to seats. Exercise has become another task to squeeze into a busy day. Mental fitness requires physical fitness. Communicating through web calls, voice chats, texts and email is impeding a core basic need – real human connection. Phone addiction leaves us wide open to the preying algorithms, manipulating emotional states, like the animation movie ‘Inside Out’ so cleverly illustrates.

Are we still smarter than our phones?

With 7.2 billion phones now in use across the planet, 5G towers have sprung up in our back yards, thousands of them, masts dropped every few kilometres, since 2020. Meanwhile the ‘race to space’ goes on. Are we too busy looking down, to not look up? Are our minds so busy and distracted to not question more?

Besides instant communication, we benefit from apps for almost everything from banking, entertainment, leisure and so much can be done from the comfort of the armchair or the bed or anywhere with a signal. The signal is strong, its frequency impacting us in ways we do not yet know. Scrolling through bombardments of buffet menus on social media congests more neuropathways as we ingest, binge, and drop into a few more rabbit holes of time sucking energy. I was staggered to recently learn that today, most peoples’ thoughts, 4 out of every 5 thoughts or 80% are negative! Scrolling or web surfing is a perilous journey. As creatures of habit, we still go back for more. ‘Hit me with your rhythm stick!’

Human minds that for so long processed under 10,000 thoughts per day and burnt more calories, are now inundated, churning through 60,000-80,000 thoughts each day and moving less!! Is it any wonder we feel banjaxed half the time?

So, what happens when so many negative thoughts swirl around, cumulatively day after day, week after week, year after year? Unaddressed childhood trauma is likely to upgrade this to a tsunami. Thoughts create emotion. Is it any wonder our emotions can feel like rollercoaster ride? Which ride are you on today? Are you screaming to get off? This energy has got to go somewhere. Stuck in our body as ‘stress’, it creates a lot of ‘dis-ease.’ Most modern-day medicine isn’t designed to fix the root cause. It’s designed to suppress symptoms, long enough until there is an explosion or implosion followed by an urgent need for expensive treatments, so often with risky side effects.

There has never in our history, been so much anti-depressant medication prescribed. This has snowballed since the 2020-21 enforced lockdowns. Four years later, depression, anxiety, and cancer diagnosis are at an all-time high. So are suicide and death rates.

I am compelled to write this as I truly believe all our ancestors across this entire planet practised something they knew was integral to our health. It was there since time began and seems to have almost slipped from us, particularly during the past few years. I believe there is some correlation to its slippage and our decline in health and wellbeing. We can reclaim it, if we choose to.

Take a moment and answer this honestly – when is the last time you laughed? You danced? Truly danced like no-one was watching and absolutely enjoyed it. For more mature adults it may have been at a wedding or overseas on a holiday. For students it might be every week. Our little island on the Atlantic’s culture encourages a lot of alcohol consumption. Despite making us fat, disconnected and depressed, it does help us to relax, release inhibitions and numb emotion – but be aware, over usage claims it all back with interest, tax and penalties!

So, this Magical Potion or Elixir is even more potent …its effect can last hours and for some, days. There are no ugly hangovers. It can bond souls, match couples, raise vibrations and drive energy to levels of ecstasy. Babies innately can do it before they speak and walk. OK enough, what is it?

This magic resides deep in our soul….it can be ignited, like a match to a candle, through…DANCE!

So why did we stop dancing? OK the music stopped for a bit. Did you notice that all supermarkets in Ireland stopped playing music during ‘covid’ – I wondered why? We all know music speaks to the soul and is powerful. It can calm and soothe or stimulate and uplift. I wondered if turning it off was to dial up feelings of isolation. It felt eery and very strange to me and more zombie-ish as mask wearers floated the aisles alone. Lost in their thoughts – it was the era of ‘fear and isolation’, a damaging time. The damage is still unfolding.

Now that we are allowed to congregate, play music and dance again – but - do we? Our ancestors mostly met at dances, not on online dating apps. As a young man, in the 1950-60s, my father would have danced traditional ceili sets in Lisdoonvarna (aka ‘the spa’) Co Clare. Many a long summer’s night was enjoyed outside a little cottage in 1950’s Ballyvaughan, where people danced, worries dissolved and moods lifted. Visitors learned what the gaelic word ‘craic’ meant. Young men even danced with older ladies, especially ones whose daughters or granddaughters they were trying to impress! Older widowed women danced with younger women, couples moved around the floor …it was a chance to move, mingle and share joy, intergenerationally. It was informal, often unplanned and heart lifting.

Meanwhile my gorgeous younger mother from County Laois loved dressing up and going out with friends to enjoy a live band on a Saturday night at her local town hall. Travelling show bands played modern rock and roll and country music; all the rage at the time. It was how friends met up after the working week. It was often how couples met, albeit women lined up against one side the hall, like prize cows at the mart, and sheepish men dropped their pint glass and approached them, requesting a dance. For many ladies, a good time to skip to the loo, especially when an unsavoury character was in your line of fire! We’ve all been there. Slow sets were still played at discos in my era too. Grandparents, great grandparents and the whole way back, danced, more often than we do today. They worked hard, lived in close proximity to one another and nature, and were accustomed to many a dark night where only their thoughts kept them company. Without the trappings of our modern day comforts, they lived simpler, taking it one day at a time, understanding the need for fun to balance work, and staying in with you neighbours, friends and family. They had a lot of babies and buried a lot! Resilience is in our genes.

Zooming outside our little island country, the whole world danced. Ancient tribes on every continent always moved. It is how we harmonise, like plants and animals. We must move.

Jumping up and down moves our lymph, keeps us fuelled, keeps us light. It’s part of our connection to source. We can’t afford to unplug this, or we are indeed zombies.

You may ask, isn’t running or working out at the gym the same? Somewhat yes, releasing endorphins is euphoric but dancing goes deeper. It’s spiritual – connecting us back into our divine energy source, like a supercharge. It also connects us to the energy of others. Music and sound therapy are known to touch our hearts directly.

Dancing is medicine - the rhythmic beat is the pulse of life.

Have we become a bit too serious, intellectual or self-conscious? With the left brain holding the steering wheel so much, no wonder we need to down a few bevvies before stepping onto a dance floor. Dutch courage. De-masking and facing our deepest inhibitions requires conscious courage.

Our primal setting is to dance like a maniac without a care in the world. We stop thinking - we start feeling. It’s blissful and quickly becoming extinct.

Well, the good news is you don’t need to wait for a wedding, or a party invite for your next dirty dance. Dance classes are popping up again…you gotta search a bit, find your tribe, your genre, your beat. If you can’t, throw on some music and make your own party. I guarantee you five minutes dancing will raise your vibe. Kids love music and dance and are less inhibited. It unites generations and brings joy. My granny in the Burren danced up to her 90’s. She’d sleep a few days to make sure she could attend a family dance party that went on into the early hours. I believe our ancestors are cheering for us to dance a bit more and loosen up. Don’t forget ancient wisdom so quickly. Beware of binging on the wrong medicine. We are not as smart as we think. We think too much and forget we can step out of programming and grab joy by the balls. Come on, let’s dance!

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Let's Dance - Bowie