Introduction To The Benefits of Belly Dancing
If you’ve ever thought about learning belly dance, you might be fantasizing about moving your body like Shakira, feeling like a sensual goddess or having a blast working out.
But what can belly dance really do for you? What are some of the benefits you can experience while doing this ancient and ultimate feminine dance?
I’m going to get into all of that with The Top 7 Benefits Of Belly Dancing.
Get ready for some benefits that you totally didn’t expect and may really surprise you!
I have been doing belly dance professionally for over 16 years and started learning belly dance many years before that. I can tell you that for me, I have experienced all these benefits and more.
Throughout the years belly dance has been one of my most loyal and trusted friends, helping me through breakups, moves to new cities, health challenges and career changes.
I always finish a belly dance session energized and with a more positive outlook on my life.
Belly dance is so much more than a beautiful and artistic dance. It can be a healing salve for your body, mind and soul.
It will help you experience the sacred feminine within you so you can bring that beautiful energy into everything you do and to all the lucky people in your life.
So, let’s get into all these juicy benefits of belly dancing!
1: Belly Dance Is A Stress Buster
The most effective way to relieve stress is to get out of your head where you’re caught in that annoying hamster wheel thought loop (many of which are negative) and back into your body where you can get a frickin break!
Belly dance requires you to be fully present, so you won’t have time or energy to get caught in your bummer thoughts.
Another cool side benefit of belly dancing? You might just finish your belly dance sesh with a breakthrough or epiphany as a result of this little mini mental vacay. Finally, a solution to a problem that has been plaguing you for weeks.
2: Total Body Calorie Busting Workout
One of the most powerful benefits of belly dancing is that you will get a super effective workout without feeling like you’re “working out”.
Belly dance is a complete full body workout from head to toe and you will feel muscles you didn’t know you had. This is not your typical boring gym workout where you’re literally counting down the minutes before you can get off that torture machine.
Another great thing about belly dancing? It’s a low-impact (in most cases non-impact) activity that is gentle on the body and joints.
This makes it the perfect exercise if you’re recovering from injuries or have limited mobility. You can easily adapt belly dance to make it work for your own unique body. I have many students with conditions like multiple sclerosis or fibromyalgia that find belly dancing fun and therapeutic.
Because belly dance is a dance of isolation, this muscle control will require you to engage multiple muscle groups leading to increased calorie and fat burn. In belly dance you use a lot of your abdominal muscles but it will also give you sexy sculpted shoulders and mini-skirt worthy legs.
Belly dance is truly the perfect all-in-one workout to give you the biggest payoff in the least amount of time!
3: Strengthens Your Pelvic Floor
Ok, I think this is going to be a shocker for many of you. Most women don’t know this, but one of the hidden benefits of belly dancing is that it’s an incredible way to strengthen your pelvic floor without doing confusing and boring Kegel exercises.
But it actually makes perfect sense, because it’s believed that belly dance originated as a ritual dance to help women prepare for and recover from childbirth.
The cool thing is, you don’t even need to think about contracting your pelvic floor muscles while belly dancing. You’ll be naturally and organically targeting these muscles just by doing the different belly dance movements.
There can be many causes of a weak pelvic floor, and can cause very troubling symptoms.
I personally didn’t know how powerful belly dance could be in strengthening the pelvic floor until one of my belly dance students came up to me after class one day and told me that since she had been belly dancing she didn’t have a leaky bladder anymore. Amazing!
As I looked into it more, I found that they actually did a research study on the effectiveness of belly dancing for strengthening the pelvic floor and it appeared in a reputable medical journal.
It was the inspiration of this student and her amazing results combined with this research study that inspired me to create my program The Belly Dance Solution, that teaches women how to strengthen their pelvic floor and relieve a leaky bladder with belly dance.
4: Incredible Core Strength
I was a certified personal trainer for 5 years and I never found any combination of abdominal exercises that are as effective for strengthening the core as with belly dancing. Not to mention, none as fun! Belly dancing is so effective because you strengthen your muscles in a very organic and holistic way.
If you do crunches or planks you just focus mainly on strengthening one muscle group in isolation.
When you belly dance, you strengthen multiple abdominal muscle groups at the same time through the holistic nature of the movement.
It’s similar to the difference between chopping wood or doing a “wood chop” movement with a medicine ball at the gym. The real world movement is so much more effective.
With belly dance you’ll be strengthening your abs in a “real world” way which will give you rock solid abs and give you a healthy back and help to prevent back injuries.
5: Unleashes Your Inner Goddess
Belly dance is the perfect dance for women, connecting you with your femininity and sensuality. Belly dancing will make you feel sexy and confident. The movements of belly dance are flowing, serpentine, and sensual.
The moves pull you inside yourself and connect you with the deepest part of you. Belly dance movements are both strong and soft, allowing you to experience both sides of yourself.
The warrior side of you that needs to be assertive and strong and the softer feminine side that is flowing and receptive. When you deeply connect with your body and yourself you’ll feel gounded, sensual and sexy.
6: Make New Lifelong Friends
I have met some of my closest friends and sisters through belly dance and whenever I moved to or visited a new place I knew that I could always feel immediately at home by taking a belly dance class.
Belly dancing helps you feel a part of a tribe of supportive women who share the passion for dance and bringing out the best in everyone. No matter your age, you will find women you can connect with through the belly dance community and you will find lifelong friends.
Many dance studios and teachers have ongoing events and parties where you can meet new people and explore performing and expressing yourself creatively.
7: Creative Expression
Belly dancing is like playing an instrument with your own body and allows you to express yourself in a creative way. Once you get the hang of things, it’s a blast to be able to take your favorite song and express the song through the belly dance movements.
You will feel so empowered when you’re able to express yourself with such freedom and control.
I wanted to help all my belly dance students experience this amazing feeling. It’s why I created my program, “Feminine Fire” where I teach you how to DIY your own belly dance routines simply and easily. I created this program to give women the tools to become empowered creators in their own bodies and be able to express themselves creatively.
