Finding True Ecstasy in Dance

Ecstasy is defined as an overwhelming feeling of great happiness or joyful excitement.

As little kids, we are mostly full of ecstasy all the time; happy, joyful, full of excitement and wonder about the world!

Then, we grow up in a world where people are angry, sad, judge each other, and we go to school and the other kids are mean or a teacher puts you down and we start to lose that natural ecstatic state of being. What was once a natural state for us, gets replaced with judgment.

Is it any wonder, that so many young people start experimenting with drugs to find that ”ecstasy” again?!

A friend of mine once said, there is something missing from this world and we all know it. We try to fill what is missing with drugs and it may work for a while but in the end you always are left with that feeling of emptiness inside.

By the time I got to my early 20’s, all my natural joy was gone. I was pretty depressed and mad at the world and really felt so disconnected from other people. So like most young people, i progressed to taking drugs at parties to fill that deep void within me and give me that ecstasy i was so missing.

When you are a super aware and psychic girl, with that much empathetic abilities then you cannot get away with a drug lifestyle for long. Drugs invite in a lot of dark energies and it wasn’t long before I was having a complete psychotic breakdown that would turn out to be the greatest thing that ever happened me!

It sent me on a journey. A journey through darkness, numbness, depression, and into searching for something else. I did everything from counseling, 12 step program, yoga, meditation, I even convinced my poor mother to go to medjugorje with me (where Our Lady appears!!)  I was searching and seeking something else. Then a friend told me to check out 5 Rhythms. He knew I loved to dance and I was missing my days of clubbing. Being sober and dancing in clubs now just wasn’t fun anymore, it seemed so superficial.

So, I went to my first 5 Rhythms class and could not believe that this existed. I had been dancing at home in my room, asking for this. There was a DJ Facilitator who had this amazing playlist that brought us on a journey. Starting off soft and smooth, and then bringing us into some fiery, powerful tribal beats which then moved into totally letting go with trance and into a lyrical flow with expressive music and end in stillness. By the time we got to the end, it was like a whole transformation.

I couldn’t believe how lucky I was. I was after finding a way to have ecstasy again and this time it was natural and there was no comedown. It was better than drugs, instead of a comedown, we left in a blissful state, slept like a baby and woke the next day with creative juices flowing through my body!

We have everything so backwards in this world, we think the only way to ecstasy is with a pill, when in truth the ”true ecstasy” I was experiencing in these classes was way beyond what I had ever experienced with a drug.

The true ecstasy comes from within you and stays with you, it’s not some short lived experience. It ripples out in to your life and starts to wake up every other area of your life too. ”Ecstatic Dance” was waking up my body, my finances, my relationships, my everything.

Every week, I would go to this class, with this DJ Facilitator and this group of strangers and we would start to dance. At first, we would start a bit fear based, guarded, heads down. Then the music would change, our energy would start rising, as we get a bit more into it, get edgy and more fiery. Before you know it, we all have our walls down, we have no barriers and we are all dancing as one, with no judgment and accessing that ”ecstatic trance” state. That joy, that connection to ourselves and to others, you can’t put a price on that. That is what dance and music does, it takes you beyond this reality. It breaks down walls and barriers and judgments. Where nothing is solid, there’s no separations, it’s just ONENESS! Oneness with yourself and with everything and everyone around you and in the universe.

To do that sober and with no drugs, accessing the true ecstasy of you and the true ecstasy of the dance, that will change your life forever. You can’t go back to being sad and depressed after that! That is when you have a psyche change. The second definition of Ecstasy is ”an emotional or religious frenzy or trancelike state, originally one involving an experience of mystic self-transcendence”. That was what was happening, I was having mystical and magical experiences on the dance floor and accessing ecstasy within me totally naturally.

I found so much on the dance floor. I found me again. I let go of so many judgments and i just let myself be me. Today, I continue to move and dance because it’s the fastest way I know to having more of me. Now, i like to bring it to other people and see their whole world’s open up when they find that Ecstasy for themselves!

Some people dance for performance. Ecstatic Dance, Conscious Dance, 5 Rhythms, Goddess Dance, Journey Dance, Embody Dance…. whatever you want to call it, It is not a performance. It’s something you embody. It’s a journey from your head to your body.

So, if you are ready to awaken to you and that true ecstasy within you, drop whatever you think dance is supposed to look like and go try a class sometime. You’d never know, you might just like it!!

Amy Shine (Ecstatic Dance Facilitator®)

Photo credit: Jai Star Studios