My new alternative to medication

I know a lot of you are coming to this blog looking for information about your medication. I wanted to share with you my experience last night that got me thinking about therapy and medication.

I have a friend who has been inviting me to join her in tango class. My interest in this dance started a few years ago when I took a Spanish class at the local community college and I had to do an oral report on Argentina. It's become my goal to get down there someday, and in the meantime to learn to tango so I can have more fun when I get there.

So I finally went to the class last night. It was so...much...fun!!! A big part of the dance is not so much the choreography as it is letting loose and just experiencing the music. In fact, a big portion of the class we were assigned by the instructor to just close our eyes and "feel" the music.

I have learned from learning other styles of partner dance, that it is impossible to participate if you bring any kind of control issues to the floor. Dance is all about partnership. Listening to your partner's unspoken communication, and working with that energy to create beautiful movements. Tango is no different. You have to listen to the music, sense your partner's energy, and within all of that input, together, spontaneously express yourselves in a compatible way as you move across the floor.

If you have any self-consciousness whatsoever, you ruin the flow. One partner I tried to dance with was so caught up with what I was doing wrong and what I needed to correct so that his experience would improve that I found myself not even trying to work with him. With others, things just flowed.

The lesson flew by, and way too soon, it was time to go. My friend and I lingered in the parking lot and I told her it seemed that couples who took the time to learn to dance together would probably have better relationships. Because everything that you have to do on the dance floor to succeed, is everything you need to do in life to succeed. It's a lot of give and take, losing a sense of who's right and who's wrong...and about just being yourself. Tango, as are other dances, is completely about knowing how much to let another person into your space and where boundaries need to be defined. That's pretty much what life is about, too.

Isn't that what therapy is about? Not that counseling doesn't have its place, but sometimes you just have to stop talking about how you want to live your life...and just do it.

Hopefully one of these days I will be posting a photo of myself from Buenos Aires, rose in my teeth, tangoing the Argentinian night away!