Dancing for Health explains the cognitive, emotional, and physical dimensions of dance in a spectrum of stress management approaches. Designed for anyone interested in health and healing, this book offers lessons learned from the experiences of people of different cultures and historical periods, as well as current knowledge, on how to resist, reduce, and dance away stress in the disquieting times of the 21st century.
Panic attacks, phobias, avoidant behavior, worrying, compulsive behavior, unwanted obsessions, and body symptoms such as racing heart, breathing difficulties, sweating, shaking, nausea, numbness and weakness are some of the many manifestations of anxiety. DANCING WITH FEAR is a comprehensive guide to understanding and managing the many forms of anxiety. Using a recovery theme, the book offers a hopeful, self-help approach to the most common, costly, and chronic emotional problem in our country. According to experts, anxiety develops from the combination of three ingredients: genetic traits (such as “biological sensitivity”), family influences, and stress (the “why now” factor). The stress ingredient accounts for the widespread prevalence of anxiety today. Basically, anxiety is largely a learned reaction to stress overload in people with a sensitive temperament. Through new skills and habits, anxiety can be replaced with more effective behavior along with greater peace, optimism, and joy. The book is clearly written and technically accurate. Diagrams, lists, and charts illustrate the information, and 35 concrete skills and exercises are included. The book includes information on: · Survival instinct and anxiety · List of anxiety disorders with explanations · Diagnostic criteria for each anxiety disorder · Common fears by age group · Anxiety personality traits · Comparison of incomplete and complete stress recovery · Drugs used to treat anxiety · Herbs and natural remedies for anxiety Some examples of exercises and techniques are: · Meditation instructions · “The three-S” approach to stress management (Signals, Sources, Solutions) · Yoga and bioenergetic breathing exercises · Dietary guidelines for managing anxiety · Guidelines for friends and family members · How to replace worry with positive thinking · Three fundamental health practices for managing anxiety · Joy, pleasure, and satisfaction exercise · How to spiritually revitalize your life Content is based on the author’s personal anxiety background, as well as his expertise as a seasoned psychologist. Dr. Foxman’s own recovery from several anxiety disorders is described in an opening chapter. See Prior Distribution for a description of what is specifically new in this second edition.
“Lively and enlightening.”—Sarah L. Kaufman, Washington Post “[A] zippy guide to better health.”—Publisher’s Weekly STARRED Review Discover why humans were designed for dancing—and learn how to boogie for better health—with two neuroscientists as your guide. Dancing is one of the best things we can do for our health. In this groundbreaking and fun-to-read book, two neuroscientists (who are also competitive dancers) draw on their cutting-edge research to reveal why humans are hardwired for dance show how to achieve optimal health through dancing Taking readers on an in-depth exploration of movement and music, from early humans up until today, the authors show the proven benefits of dance for our heart, lungs, bones, nervous system, and brain. Readers will come away with a wide range of dances to try and a scientific understanding of how dance benefits almost every aspect of our lives. Dance prevents and manages illness and pain: such as Diabetes, arthritis, back pain, and Parkinson’s. Dance can be as effective as high intensity interval training: but without the strain on your joints and heart. Dance boosts immunity and lowers stress: it also helps reduce inflammation. Dance positively impacts the microbiome: and aids in digestion, weight loss, and digestive issues such as IBS. Dance bolsters the mind-body connection: helping us get in tune with our bodies for better overall health. We’re lucky that one of the best things we can do for our health is also one of the most fun. And the best part: dance is something anyone can do. Old or young, injured or experiencing chronic pain, dance is for everyone, everywhere. So, let’s dance! Types of dance featured in the book: Partner dance (salsa, swing dancing, waltz) Ballet Hip hop Modern Jazz Line dancing Tap dancing And more!
Dancing Away Stress: The 3 Step Method for Mastering Your Life. Decipher the stress code and free yourself from the vicious reaction cycle -- Now and forever! With the timeless metaphor of dancing, individuals have conquered debilitating stress and anxiety from their lives and embrace a more balanced lifestyle. Dr. Guess offers a practical, concise strategy actionable today. Packed with wisdom that will last a lifetime, this book has at least 25 activities to immediately melt your stress and restore balance. HIGHLIGHT OF DISCOVERY POINTS: * Recognize the symptoms of chronic and acute stress * Discover your unique set of stressors and your response options * Understand your Performance Style and your relationship with stress. * Learn culturally-based activities from the Circle of Balance to melt stress away * Review the author's experience overcoming Lyme's Disease. Delightful to read and easy to apply, Dancing Away Stress deals with fundamental concepts and life-changing ideas. There's no need to live with stress and anxiety when you can live balanced - enjoying a full, active life!
So you're taking all the popular supplements-great! But are they really helping? Is your health actually improving? Or could these supplements be harming you? Taking dietary supplements can be good for us―when we need them. But many are unnecessary, and some producers make outsized claims while using suspect means of production. This book does not advocate against supplement use. It's a call for clarity and sanity on the subject to prevent misuse. Mahtab Jafari, Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at UC Irvine, has distilled decades of clinical experience and laboratory research in her one-of-a-kind guide. The Truth About Dietary Supplements: An Evidence-Based Guide to a Safe Medicine Cabinet provides insight into this largely unregulated industry and empowers you to avoid getting swindled in your pursuit of good health. Maybe it started quite simply. A multivitamin to keep the reserve tanks full. Then a tincture or tablet to improve sleep, boost energy, or gain an edge. Maybe an appetite suppressant to help shed that last ten pounds. And now you find yourself with an expensive habit and a medicine cabinet filled to the brim with magic bullets that leave you feeling no better than before you started―or maybe even worse. It doesn't have to be this way! In The Truth About Dietary Supplements, you'll learn: A few basic facts about dietary supplements―Who makes them? Who sells them? Who is regulating them? Why we may need to take supplements The science behind supplements, both real and contrived The role the media plays in our education about dietary supplements The truth about pet supplements―Yes, your pets are at risk too! How to assess what you truly need and assure the quality of the supplements you take What to ask your healthcare provider to ensure you're making the right choices This thorough guide also contains a robust appendix about the scientific evidence on dietary supplements and COVID-19 to help you navigate this new minefield of misinformation. Stop wasting money on pills and potions that are useless, or even dangerous! Dodge the hype-mongers and arm yourself with the facts and information you need to make informed decisions. Learn The Truth About Dietary Supplements today!
The founder of the Dance Psychology Lab, Dr. Peter Lovatt, reveals the surprising cognitive and emotional benefits of dancing and prescriptive ways to dance yourself happy. Dancing isn’t just good exercise. Surrendering yourself to the beat can have a far-reaching impact on all areas of your life –it can help you communicate better, to think more creatively, and can be a powerful catalyst for change. Losing yourself in the moment to a song or piece of music can also alleviate anxiety, depression, and feelings of isolation, Dr. Peter Lovatt has found. Drawing on great stories from dance history as well as fascinating case studies from his Dance Psychology Lab and his own life, Dr Lovatt shares his best steps and routines, as well as top dance anthems to inspire everyone—even those who believe they “can't dance”—to turn the music on, stand up, and dance themselves happy. The Dance Cure is filled with surprising prescriptions covering a variety of needs, revealing how a particular type of dance can help. Looking to become more empathetic? Pair up for a Scottish country dance Eager to enhance your creativity? Shake it up with contemporary dance Need to de-stress? Let loose with punk-era pogo Looking to prolong your life? Zumba is the secret In need of showing yourself more love? Go solo as you trip the light fantastic. Want to bolster your self-confidence? Try ballet and belly dance. An irresistible blend of science and whimsy, The Dance Cure shows you how to turn the beat—and your life—around.
Now in paperback. The bestselling author of The Willpower Instinct introduces a surprising science-based book that doesn't tell us why we should exercise but instead shows us how to fall in love with movement. Exercise is health-enhancing and life-extending, yet many of us feel it's a chore. But, as Kelly McGonigal reveals, it doesn't have to be. Movement can and should be a source of joy. Through her trademark blend of science and storytelling, McGonigal draws on insights from neuroscience, psychology, anthropology, and evolutionary biology, as well as memoirs, ethnographies, and philosophers. She shows how movement is intertwined with some of the most basic human joys, including self-expression, social connection, and mastery--and why it is a powerful antidote to the modern epidemics of depression, anxiety, and loneliness. McGonigal tells the stories of people who have found fulfillment and belonging through running, walking, dancing, swimming, weightlifting, and more, with examples that span the globe, from Tanzania, where one of the last hunter-gatherer tribes on the planet live, to a dance class at Juilliard for people with Parkinson's disease, to the streets of London, where volunteers combine fitness and community service, to races in the remote wilderness, where athletes push the limits of what a human can endure. Along the way, McGonigal paints a portrait of human nature that highlights our capacity for hope, cooperation, and self-transcendence. The result is a revolutionary narrative that goes beyond familiar arguments in favor of exercise, to illustrate why movement is integral to both our happiness and our humanity. Readers will learn what they can do in their own lives and communities to harness the power of movement to create happiness, meaning, and connection.
Dancing to Learn: Cognition, Emotion, and Movement explores the rationale for dance as a medium of learning to help engage educators and scientists to explore the underpinnings of dance, and dancers as well as members of the general public who are curious about new ways of comprehending dance. Among policy-makers, teachers, and parents, there is a heightened concern for successful pedagogical strategies. They want to know what can work with learners. This book approaches the subject of learning in, about, and through dance by triangulating knowledge from the arts and humanities, social and behavioral sciences, and cognitive and neurological sciences to challenge dismissive views of the cognitive importance of the physical dance. Insights come from theories and research findings in aesthetics, anthropology, cognitive science, dance, education, feminist theory, linguistics, neuroscience, phenomenology, psychology, and sociology. Using a single theory puts blinders on to other ways of description and analysis. Of course, all knowledge is tentative. Experiments necessarily must focus on a narrow topic and often use a special demographic—university students, and we don’t know the representativeness of case studies.
In recent years, a growth in dance and wellbeing scholarship has resulted in new ways of thinking that place the body, movement, and dance in a central place with renewed significance for wellbeing. The Oxford Handbook of Dance and Wellbeing examines dance and related movement practices fromthe perspectives of neuroscience and health, community and education, and psychology and sociology to contribute towards an understanding of wellbeing, offer new insights into existing practices, and create a space where sufficient exchange is enabled. The handbook's research components includequantitative, qualitative, and arts-based research, covering diverse discourses, methodologies, and perspectives that add to the development of a complete picture of the topic. Throughout the handbook's wide-ranging chapters, the objective observations, felt experiences, and artistic explorations ofpractitioners interact with and are printed alongside academic chapters to establish an egalitarian and impactful exchange of ideas.
