Ecstatic Dance: A Healthy Way to Connect With Your Masculine Energy

From episode: Breaking Societal Norms: Exploring Conscious Sexuality, Masculinity, and High-Caliber Women

But now I want to talk a bit about what does it take to become connected with our bodies, with our pleasure, with our energy? And well, one way that I absolutely love and recently has been becoming more and more potent is through the art of dance. Now I'm in Peru currently, I'm in Pisac and I love this place there. There's a really big expat community and there's just, it's magical and just the space alone is magical. And I've had the opportunity to attend two aesthetic dance events and I got to experience the most incredible orgasmic bliss just by dancing. But let me take a step back. What exactly is ecstatic dancing? So if you don't know what ecstatic dancing is, well, ecstatic dancing is a form of free form, right? It's improvisational, it's a dance that's free form and it aims to induce a state of ecstasy, or it helps heighten the emotional and the physical awareness that is often practiced in spiritual and therapeutic settings, right? And while dance has often been, I would say, stereotypically associated with the femininity, it has also been a space, specifically for me, for the expression and exploration of various forms of masculinity. And while the relationship between masculinity and dance is quite complex and varies across time periods and individual perspectives, there's no denying that there's benefits to moving our body. For instance, dance allows men to express emotions, right? That they may otherwise suppress due to societal expectations around masculinity behavior, not to mention the therapeutic use. Now, more than ever, dance is increasingly being used as a form of therapy to explore issues related to masculinity, such as aggression or emotional suppression. Now, there's also a story of how Shiva, a figure that represents the divine masculine, discovered that dance could restore balance into the universe. In short, the story goes that back in time, in the celestial realms, an imbalance troubled the universe, and Shiva sensing this was restless. Now, his wife, Pravati, suggested finding a new way to channel the cosmic energies. Yes, and so he meditated on this, and then Shiva finally realized that movement could restore balance, and so he began to dance. Holding a drum for creation and fire for destruction, his dance aligned the cosmic energies. Therefore, peace returned, and Shiva became Nataraja, the lord of dance, forever symbolizing the cosmic balance. Now, I ain't gonna lie, these last two ecstatic dances, I thought of Shiva as I danced, and I seek to channel him to invoke that grounded masculine presence. You see, for those that don't know, Shiva serves as this complex symbol of masculinity, embodying a range of attributes that resonate with men in various ways. For instance, Shiva represents raw power and strength as the god of destruction, while also embodying spiritual depth and wisdom as the ultimate yogi. Yes, his loving relationship with his wife, Pravati, shows his compassionate and his sensitive side, offering a balanced view of masculinity that includes both strength and emotional depth. Yes, now Shiva's simplistic lifestyle symbolizes ideals of freedom and independence, traits often valued by men. And through his various life experiences, well, he also exemplifies resilience and the ability to transform challenges into opportunities for growth. So, for many men, including myself, Shiva serves as this comprehensive role model who encourages balanced, a integrated form of masculinity that goes beyond the traditional stereotypes.