15 years. 15 years ago, I attended my first Biodanza class and I haven’t stopped dancing Biodanza since. I loved Biodanza from the very first minute.
Here I could be completely myself. Here I could dance the way I wanted to; wild, still or just be. Here I could find joy, I could cry, laugh, … .. Here I could give expression to everything that lived in me. Without any judgment. Without right or wrong. Wordless. Nobody even had to know my story.

In Biodanza I felt human warmth and unconditionality. This is where I felt the ground under my feet again, the same ground that had been traumatically mowed under me a few years before. Here I found myself again, I rebuilt myself, I found peace, and regained my zest for life.

Biodanza is a dance form but is based on a philosophy of life: the biocentric principle. The biocentric principle focuses on LIFE. In Biodanza, natural (biological) processes that take place in each of us daily are lovingly supported in complete safety to achieve more vitality, less stress and better mental and physical health. Gradually you will start dancing differently with your day to day life too. You will notice that you start supporting these processes spontaneously in your daily life yourself.

What was already in me, but screamed for space and air because it was overshadowed by the hassles, the hectic pace and stress of every day life, finally got space and support in Biodanza. Biodanza allowed me to reconnect with what I, myself and we collectively as a modern hectic society have lost on our way to faster, more efficient, more commercial, more automated, … The road to collective burnout.

Biodanza made me more resilient, stronger, calmer, more zestful, mentally stronger and free! To be free who I really am and to choose the life that suits me completely. Mental peace, relaxation and better health were the result.

Although I could not explain how this happened for a long time:

• I found no words for what I had experienced unconsciously, without words. There was experience, experience, feeling and experiencing again, ……. “How does Biodanza feel?” is as difficult to explain as “How does sex feel?” That is personal and difficult for everyone to put into words.

• I did not understand how it worked, or how this dance session had such an effect on me and on my daily life. I only understood that it was a great pleasure for me. During class and in the days after class.

• I feared people would find it “weird.” We live in a society that has moved so far away from what is “normal” and the things that actually feed life, that normal biological human needs are now labeled as “weird”. Everyone longs for contact and good relationships. And yet things like eye contact and touch are only too happy to be avoided or there is a sort of taboo or inconvenience. In addition, we have all been indoctrinated for years, that first you have to be fully emotionally self-sufficient to build good relationships. You have to love yourself first, to be able to love others. In many places you read that you have to remember that you don’t need anyone but yourself. The reality is that this is simply not true. Human beings are social mammals that have developed a nervous system that is built for strong connections. It’s a biological impairment. Our survival AND our health depend on it.

Now that I’ve studied The PolyVagal Theory (1) from Dr. Stephen Porges extensively for my monograph “Strengthening your nervous system with Biodanza” to become a Biodanza facilitator, I understand more than ever why Biodanza does what it does. Why it has such an enormous impact on people and me back then and still today.

Why does Biodanza bring so much peace, makes people more resilient (more resistant to stress) and more lively?
Biodanza works directly with your biology. Through movement, music, emotion and contact it influences your autonomic nervous system, hormones, neurotransmitters, etc….

Your internal world determines how you feel and how you experience the world. What would your life look like if you could influence your biology to invite and experience much more relaxation, joy, safety, warmth, love, beauty, pleasure, self-confidence, …….

Now I understand that:

• Our hectic society and society constantly triggers the sympathetic nervous system (nervous system of action and stress). The media add to this by promoting the loss of connection with each other through comparisons, picture-perfect, judgments, hatred, division and destruction. Connection and a sense of security, however, are a biological necessity to survive and thrive! I found that safe place in Biodanza! I regained an indestructible faith in life, a secure foundation and I have never felt lonely for a day since starting Biodanza, even though I was single and alone for a long time.

• Due to a trauma in my life, my capacity to regulate my nervous system (and stress) was broken. Social engagement and connection are sacrificed for survival. As a result, the branch of my nervous system that connects and inhibits the defense responses of fight, flight and freeze had lost its strength and my stress responses were running free, resulting in chronic stress. This had an effect on both my psychological and physical well-being. (1) In Biodanza I had the opportunity to practice my vagal brake and to learn how to regulate again due to the nature of the exercises and the structure of the lesson that follows and supports the natural functioning of the nervous system. All of this in a positive, loving and safe environment. This made my nervous system stronger and I could really relax again. First in the lessons. Then this effect continued into my daily life. Stress diminished and I regained my resilience.

• The strange thing is that I finally came to rest through movement. Mindfulness, meditation and sitting still have never worked for me. Now I understand why. The functioning of my nervous system had changed. After this trauma, any overstimulation immediately led me to dorsal vagus, the immobilization response (also known as freeze or dorsal vagal trajectory). I was numb, absent, inaccessible. The only way to get out of here is to add some activation back in, I learned now. (1) So I could sit and meditate until I was 100. That didn’t help me one meter ahead. Thanks to the gentle movements, in all safety, that I could regulate at my own pace and rhythm, in a safe environment, my body regained the capacity to be active again and to regulate itself again. It’s not for nothing that Biodanza is called “Mindfulness in motion”.

• Connection and contact with others is a biological necessity for health. Building walls, and locking yourself in for protection makes you lonely. That loneliness eats you from within. Research by Julianna Holt-Lunstad, Timothy B. Smit and J. Bradley Layton revealed that living with air pollution increases your chance of premature death by 5 percent. Living with obesity 20%, with excessive drinking 30%. Living with loneliness increases that chance by 45%. (2) The contact and connection with others make your nervous system stronger, more resilient and more resistant to stress. In addition, you also produce the hormone oxytocin with eye contact, touch or an embrace, which reduces the production of cortisol (the stress hormone). (3)

After my trauma, I lost all faith in people, including myself. Out of shame, I hadn’t dared to tell anyone what had happened and I lived a lie. I was cut off from everything and everyone because I no longer trusted anyone, didn’t make any new contacts and did not dare to tell the people I did trust my story so therefore I no longer had any authentic contact and conversations.

During one of my first Biodanza session I cried my eyes out because I felt my heart open and I could experience that there was still love inside. That I could still feel love or affection for other people. That not everything was irrevocably dead or concealed behind a thick wall of self-defense. Slowly I started to trust and open up in this safe environment.
In the meantime, I have an enormous circle of friends, a splendor of a man in my life and full confidence in humanity and the world. I live authentically, free, full and confident! That is the power of Biodanza. I am convinced that this journey saved my life. In many different ways. If you understand that this opening of my heart is a sign of a nervous system that feels safe enough to function in the calming state, where health, self-healing, cell repair and growth is available (and not in stress mode) then this is truly so!

And no, in Biodanza you are not “forced” in contact with others. There are no obligations at all. Everything is an invitation and you follow your own needs in respect for the others (needs). But just because of the structure of the session, which supports the functioning of the nervous system, the nervous system comes to rest and the branch responsible for social contact becomes active again. You automatically reconnect with the biological necessity to connect with the other. You WANT to be close to the other, see each other, be seen, share, … We need this. Why do you think loneliness hurts so much?

Why you can not “see” or “think” whether Biodanza could be benificial for you.

Sometimes people ask: “Can I come and have a look?” If you have read carefully above, you will understand that this is not possible. Biodanza is not so much about WHAT you do and even less about what it looks like. Everything I have described above takes place IN people, in their biology, in their physiology, in their hormonal system, in their nervous system. There is actually nothing to see. Biodanza is to be EXPERIENCED.

Your head, your mind, your ego, your thoughts can never know or think in advance what your body is going to experience. You experience Biodanza with your body. Just as you experience daily life primarily with your body. Your brain is there to give meaning to what you have experienced. (1) And if it doesn’t understand what it sees or experiences, it makes up its own story, which is not necessarily the true story or reality.

So no, it does not help to watch YouTube videos about Biodanza in the hope of finding out if Biodanza can do something for you. Unfortunately. You will have to take this leap yourself. The group is there to welcome you lovingly if you decide to jump … You are very welcome!

With me in Mortsel (Belgium) or with a colleague Facilitator Biodanza in your area.

Sources:
(1) The Polyvagal Theory – Dr. Stephen Porges
(2) “Loneliness and Social Isolation as Risk Factors for Mortality: A Meta-Analytic Review”


Scientific research on Biodanza (including fibromyalgia, stress reduction, depression, etc.)