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<\/a><\/p>\nDebra: How does dance and using the body help us to connect with the divine within us?<\/p>\n
Deonesea:\u00a0 Dance helps us to get into our bodies, rather than being caught up in our heads.\u00a0 In the same way that walking in nature or practicing yoga can help us to find a sense of calm and stillness in our minds and emotions, dance is a pathway that helps us to find that place of mental and emotional serenity.\u00a0 From that place of serenity, we can open our Selves to feelings of excitement and joy and pleasure ~ the simple pleasure of being in a body that moves!\u00a0 When we can feel that place in our Selves, then we are in touch with our Divine nature.\u00a0 We are beings of Spirit embodied<\/em> in Matter ~ our bodies are vehicles for the expression of our Divinity.\u00a0 And like breath, dance is always available to us.\u00a0 We can bounce, rock, groove and bob our heads while we\u2019re driving and while we\u2019re standing in line to buy groceries.\u00a0 That bit of movement alone, when we are conscious of it, is enough to remind us that we are Spiritual beings here having a human experience and that we are<\/em> Divine!<\/p>\n Debra: Describe how dance has helped you to connect with the divine feminine?<\/p>\n Deonesea: The Divine Feminine as I perceive Her is the aspect of Creative Source that embodies the qualities of nurture, compassion, emotionality, beauty, sensuality, ecstasy, oneness and unconditional love.\u00a0 I find all of those qualities in myself and in the world around me through Dance.\u00a0 Ecstatic dance gives me an avenue to experience ecstasy by journeying through the many expressions of my emotional body, acknowledging and honoring all of my emotions through healthy physical expression.\u00a0 This is my chance to clear away any thoughts and feelings of anxiety or sadness or anger or stress, shaking them off to make way for deeper feelings of connectedness, gratitude and joy to emerge.\u00a0 Consciously breathing in the breath that is life, I feel even more deeply grateful and I relax into ecstatic states of release and surrender to the Divine, allowing my Self to be danced by Her.\u00a0 Deepening into feelings of ecstasy and joy through the sheer enjoyment of my body in motion ~ sweating, pulsing, spinning, squatting, twirling, shaking ~ I feel my heart open into deeper love and compassion for all life, love for the frailty and strength and tremendous beauty of this life we are granted.\u00a0 I hear the music, smell the incense, see the beauty of other bodies dancing, touch my own hair and face with my hands, and feel the beating of my heart wide open to love ~ beating to the rhythms of the music and the rhythms of the Earth ~ and for those moments I can feel that I am<\/em> the Divine Feminine, She in me and me in Her.<\/p>\n Find out more about Deonesea and sacred dance at: www.claydancestudio.com.<\/a><\/p>\n Bio:<\/strong> Debra Moffitt is author of Awake in the World: 108 Practices to Live a Divinely Inspired Life<\/a>. A visionary, dreamer and teacher, she\u2019s devoted to nurturing the spiritual in everyday life. She leads workshops on spiritual practices at the Sophia Institute and other venues in the U.S. and Europe. Her mind\/body\/spirit articles, essays and stories appear in publications around the globe and were broadcast by BBC World Services Radio. She has spent over fifteen years practicing meditation, working with dreams and doing spiritual practices. Visit her online at http:\/\/www.awakeintheworld.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to experience sacred dance at a women’s conference. The experience left me radiating with vibrant energy. It brought an experience of joy that I don’t get from meditation.\u00a0 One of the women said that dance is a sacred expression of the Feminine Divine. In ancient times tribes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":409,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,4,26,125,3],"tags":[346,434,345,436,433,435],"class_list":["post-633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-inspiration","category-meditation","category-oneness","category-spiritual-practice","tag-awake-in-the-world","tag-dancing-with-the-sacred-feminine","tag-debra-moffitt","tag-deonesea-la-fey","tag-sacred-dance-as-spiritual-practice","tag-wisdom-of-the-body"],"yoast_head":"\n