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Chapter 16 From “Dance To Live” By John P. Lenhart MD, DC Dance for Self Preservation – Taking care of Yourself ………………………What we do want, is to preserve our present bodies in their live state, so that we can get maximum benefit out of them. Now. You deserve it. You have worked all your life to save up for retirement. You don't want to spend all of your hard earned savings on doctor visits, nursing homes, nursing assistance, wheelchairs and walkers, do you? I certainly don't. So, what are you going to do about it. Since you’re reading this book, you are certainly not one of those couch potatoes who sits around all day watching television, are you? You are most likely an active person who wants to enjoy life as much as possible. You want to live life to its fullest. You want to stay active and enjoy yourself for as long as it is physically and mentally possible. In order for you to extend your active life and have as much fun as you possibly can, you have to preserve your body. You have to preserve your mind and you have to preserve your spirit. We want to preserve our core being for as long as possible. This does not mean that we can't do an occasional touchup here and there, either through cosmetic procedures, or through esthetic applications of various creams and make-ups, but none of these procedures will do you any good unless your core is intact. Think of a car. You can give it a paint job, new tires, new chrome, new upholstery, new windshield wipers and new exhaust tailpipe, but none of these external additions are going to do your car any good unless the engine, transmission, and the drive shaft and differentials work. The core has to work before anything else works The same thing goes with your body. You have to function as a biological being. Your digestive system has to work. That means you have to be able to take the food in, digest it properly, and excrete it properly. Your circulatory system has to work. That means your blood has to flow through all the vessels without being clogged somewhere by obstructions, and your ticker, your heart, has to work efficiently to pump all the blood through the miles and miles of blood vessels. You need to feed all your cells in your body. Your lungs have to work. Without your lungs, the blood can't get any oxygen, which your cells need for survival. Your blood takes the oxygen from the lungs and the nutrients from your intestinal system and feeds your cells so they can live. Without food to your cells, the cells will starve and die. When the cells die, you die. It is a very basic system in principle. However, the implementation of our biological bodies to work efficiently, is very complicated. There are billions of cells in your body that have to work effectively in order for you to survive and be healthy. Your body is going through constant transitions. Did you know that every month you have all new skin cells? Every month you are reborn on the outside. Did you know that every three months you have all new bone cells? Your skeleton becomes a new skeleton every three months. We are constantly growing new cells and eliminating old cells. If you say to yourself, I’m too old to do this, well, in three months you will be another person. Biologically, that is. You are never too old to change. Your body is constantly changing, and what you put into it and how you treat it, will be displayed in how you feel and how you look from thirty days to ninety days from now. We are constantly going through changes in our bodies. How the new cells grow, how healthy they are, and how well they function, is entirely dependent upon how we treat our body. You’ve heard the saying in connection with computers, "garbage in equals garbage out." So, too, for our bodies. Not only do our bodies need proper nutrition and healthy nutrition, to survive and prosper; our bodies need proper stimulation through exercise in order to train those new body parts to be efficient and healthy. Let's go into the practical aspect of what we need for self preservation on an every day level. To survive, we need air, food, and water. At this level, we can be sustained in a hospital bed with tubes tied to our body, and a respirator pumping us air. If we want to go above this level, which all of us do, we need to add mental acuity and mobility to this equation. Without that mental acuity, we can’t enjoy the mobility. Without the mobility, we can’t enjoy the mental acuity. In other words, you have to be aware of your surroundings, and you have to be able to enjoy your surroundings. Just because you are aware of your surroundings does not necessarily mean that you can fully enjoy them. You need to be mobile and be able to do things to fully enjoy your environment. Physical activity is a key ingredient for prolongation of life. This is where dancing comes into play. Dancing stimulates your mind in many ways. It forces you to become mentally sharp. It is extremely difficult to learn and retain the patterns that you learn in various dances. It takes a long time. It takes concentration. What makes it enjoyable is listening to the music and getting a spiritual uplift through combining movement to the music. The repetitive combination of movement and the ethereal aspect of the music gives you a spiritual, uplifting, and mood elevation, and at the same time, mental stimulation. Your mind becomes sharper and more aware of your environment. You are able to think clearer. I have mentioned in previous chapters, dancing is one of the few activities that stimulates mind growth. The other major component is that it stimulates muscle growth, balance, and coordination. It stimulates bone growth and strengthening. It helps prevent falls, and it gives you independence. Your reflexes become sharper. Your mind becomes more acute, and your muscles become stronger and more toned. This combination gives you the freedom of mobility. Dancing is one of the best physical activities you can engage in to prolong life. Not only do you get the muscle strengthening and bone strengthening benefit of dancing, you also get the psychological benefits of dancing, and mind stimulation benefits of dancing. Through dancing, you not only strengthen your body, you also strengthen your mind. An added bonus to dancing is that you strengthen your psychological well being, because you feel so good when you dance, and you feel so good when you finish dancing, and you feel so good when you drive home and go to bed that night. Dancing is a great stress reducer. All the things that you thought were bothersome disappear carried away by the music. Your troubles disappear and you focus on what is important in life, which is your family, friends, and your spiritual and psychological well being. Dancing is spiritual, it is uplifting, it has been used in religious services since the beginning of time. And, dancing elevates your mood, so that you become happy. No matter how stressed you are, and how many worries you have, dancing takes them away. Self-preservation involves psychological preservation, physical preservation, mental preservation, mobility preservation, and overall well-being enhancement. Dance on a regular basis, and you will actually look better. There will be more circulation to the small capillaries in your face, and you’ll develop a glow, which makes you more beautiful. Your lungs will work better, your mind will work better, your coordination will improve, your bone strength will improve, and your muscles and reflexes will be greatly enhanced. Through dancing, you’ll be preserving yourself and enhancing your ability to enjoy life. Life without mobility is a bummer. Life with mobility and freedom of movement and freedom of thought, is a great pleasure. You need to dance to preserve yourself. You need to dance to stay healthy, be alert, and psychologically well balanced. Remember that song, If You're Happy And You Know It, Clap Your Hands? Well . . . If you're happy and you know it, stomp your feet
If you’re happy
and you know it, clap your hands
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