I’m stomping my feet to the primal reverberations of a didgeridoo. Flame lit silhouettes of the people around me move with the grace of jungle animals while trying to re-connect with their animalistic instincts. This is not a tribal ritual. This is CHAKRADANCE™ , the spontaneous movement class taking the world by storm. Offering similar benefits as yoga, CHAKRADANCE™ offers a space to unwind, destress and get in touch with our inner selves.

CHAKRADANCE™ and Laughter yoga are just two of many spiritual healing phenomena’s springing up these days. Promising the holistic benefits of reacquainting the mind, body and spirit CHAKRADANCE™ and Laughter yoga are more than just exercise.

With stresses surfacing from modern day living, society is becoming obsessed with finding new ways to create inner harmony. A self professed “stress head” I decided to take heed of my stress levels by looking within myself.

In my search to find new ways to combat stress a friend of mine who could be classed as a “self-help junkie” recommended “chakra spray”. Made up of essential oils chakra spray is sprayed onto the body like perfume to balance the charkras. My friend briefly explained that chakras are energy fields which affect our emotions. This appealed to me, but I wanted a little more self-satisfaction than simply spraying myself with essential oils. CHAKRADANCE™ was the perfect solution.

The class begins with a short meditation for a moment of self-reflection and relaxation from the pressures of life. Moving around the candle lit circle of fifteen people we explain what brought us to CHAKRADANCE™ . Reasons vary. People wanting to alleviate phobias of dancing, others wish to heal emotional or health problems, but what remains prevalent was a sweeping desire to balance the chakras (even if half of us didn’t know what that actually meant before attending the class).
“A chakra is a spinning vortex of energy” explains CHAKRADANCE™ founder and teacher Natalie Southgate, “chakras are the energetic gateways through which our various subtle energies interflow. Like electricity”. We all have hundreds of chakras, but only seven major ones. CHAKRADANCE™ aims to get in touch with each of these major charkas separately through dance, music and visualization in the attempt to feel a sense of balance.

The seven chakras include base chakra relating to survival issues and grounding. The sacral charkra relating to emotional release and sexuality. The solar plexus chakra, which affects drive and power. The heart chakra affected by love. The throat chakra dealing with communication and creativity. The third eye chakra relating to intuition and vision and the crown chakra which connects to spirituality and understanding.

Chakras have been core to eastern philosophies, belief systems and health care for thousands of years, but it is only recently that westerners have begun to look beyond conventional medicine to heal. Understanding the importance of balancing our chakras is becoming more and more popular.

Natalie Southgate is a trained dancer and holistic healer. Southgate combined her two passions when she realised musical tones affect the chakras, “I started doing it on my own at home and I just realized that a particular type of music would make my solar plexis move, I could feel the energy”.

CHAKRADANCE™ applies spontaneous movement and sound to go into a different mind state. Not only is CHAKRADANCE™ a great work out but “when we dance we start stirring up our emotional energy. We start to release these energies that may have been blocked” says Southgate.

Different visualizations and music represent different charkras, “each chakra represents an aspect of consciousness vital to our lives” says Southgate, “physiologically each chakra is connected to the physical organs and endocrine glands, the health functions of which are directly affected by the state of the corresponding chakra”.

I anxiously wait for the music to start. A vibrational frequency resonates the room as we visualize the color harmonizing with the particular chakra we are about to work on. No instructions are given except to surrender to the music and free our natural energy flows. Concentrating on the parts of our body corresponding to the different chakras inhibitions are quickly forgotten.

The woman next to me stomps her feet, another spirals her arms above her head and thrusts her hips like a belly dancer. A woman on all fours crawls around the room like a lizard weaving between fellow dancers, some of which are swaying side to side, others dancing as though in a nightclub. It is a truly liberating experience.
CHAKRADANCE™ is considered to be a form of vibrational medicine because “we are using the tones to connect with the chakras” says Natalie Southgate. The vibrations of the music are powerful stimulants of the different chakra energies, “even if you didn’t dance and lay on the floor all day you would still feel the power” explains Southgate.

Expecting to be restricted by inhibitions I am surprised at how freely my body flows with the music. Bodies move around the room with ease. Perhaps because of the darkness of the room, perhaps the power of the music is taking hold, whatever it is people glide around the room as though in their bedroom and no one was watching. My fellow dancers are not here to perform; they are here for their own internal experience.

At the end of each dance we share our experiences. One girl felt such relief that she could not hold back her tears. Most of the group felt satisfaction from identifying the chakras they had troubles with and conquering their battles. My feeling of restriction in the third eye charkra dance surprised me. A dance to arouse intuition and imagination, I could not get into the trance-like music. The monotonous music is supposed to allow me to go into a trance-like state to open up visions and insights. With this one particular dance I felt a barrier and could not get past it. Oh well, at least it allowed me to identify a problem within myself that I can work on.
In the break I spoke to Michelle, who attended the class to rid herself of her fear of dance. She loved CHAKRADANCE™ because she was not restricted by structure, unlike other healing exercises such as yoga there was no instructor telling her what she was doing wrong. I agree with Michelle. I loved CHAKRADANCE™ because of the freedom of movement I could embrace while connecting my mind, body and spirit.

I left the CHAKRADANCE™ class feeling totally refreshed and rejuvenated. CHAKRADANCE™ makes you feel fantastic because it’s not just the body exercising; the mind and spirit have a great workout too. CHAKRADANCE™ is one of the many holistic healing disciplines combining old ideas with modern science.
Another new concept is being embraced by about fifteen people at Hornsby Park, gathering in a semi circle laughing at what appears to be nothing. Arms outstretched and taking deep breaths between bouts of chuckles, giggles and squeals participants chant “ho-ho ha-ha”. Laughter yoga has arrived in Australia from its Indian roots.

“Laughter is the best medicine” and “those who laugh, last” are two fortifying affirmations that are proving to be more than just sayings. Combining contemporary theories of laughter therapy and ancient yogic breathing techniques, laughter yoga has both physical and emotional benefits. “The link between laughter and yoga is the exercises we do” says President of laughter Clubs Australasia Peter Salerno; “in yoga there is breathing and movement that we use to induce people to laugh”. The yogic deep breathing and stretching is applied to laughter because it loosens up and relaxes muscles.

The aim of Laughter Clubs is for people to reconnect and find happiness within through increased laughter. To laugh without reason is the essence of the exercises, “the stimulation of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual states with laughter therapy is more effective than what humor can do. People are educated in working with laughter for themselves, not just the entertainment of funny jokes” says Laughter Clubs Queensland Director Susan Welch.

While laughter yoga is not a place to act seriously the health benefits of the exercises should be taken seriously. A study conducted by Dr. Maden Kataria who founded Laughter Clubs showed that during the 1950s people laughed 18 minutes a day, whereas the daily average now is no more than 6 minutes.

Scientific research shows that happy people are less likely to suffer stressed related illnesses such as high blood pressure, heart disease, depression, tension headaches and even cancer. Laughing produces endorphins, seratonin and dopeman. These natural drugs help the body heal and increase the immune system. “A good laugh is like an internal jog” says Peter Salerno.

CHAKRADANCE™ and laughter yoga are just two of many interesting holistic therapies developing for us to try. So get out there. Get active. Dance a little. Laugh a little. Get in touch with yourself and enjoy life.