I am incredibly fond of dancing. The music, the sensations, the emotions, and the sweet tunes. From the young age where I used to be trained for Tap and Jazz dance, dancing has grown from a hobby to being my therapy. Anxiety, stress—they all tend to end up with me blasting my earphones in my ear and grooving to the playlist I cannot help but dance to. 
And so I want to take this chance to peel back the stereotypes of dancing. Dancing is often seen as a lesser sport, or not even a sport at all, and I find this ridiculous. the requirements of the muscle and the body movements are all extremely intensive, and I would even go as far to say that dancing is much more exercise heavy than other sports. How many other sports can say they involve your hip, your hands, you legs, and right down to the arching of your fingers? Not many, that’s the truth. Dancing is incredibly heavy with exercise.
Because it is so exercise heavy, dancing is an exercise that I recommended to everyone. It’s so perfect for releasing tension, stress and any anxiety after a long day.  The activity “can effectively promote good health by improving cardiovascular fitness, strengthening the muscles, increasing circulation, decreasing blood pressure, lowering the risk of coronary heart disease, reducing stress, and many other positive benefits.” 
I never realized how much I depended on dance for my mental stability until a particularly hard day that my muscles were sore, and dancing was out of the question. I was devastated. But it’s still hard to explain why I love dancing so much. My ability to watch dance videos forever, obsesses over my reflection in a certain window to ensure that my angles are aesthetic while busting out a move, and of course, take up an education in an activity most people consider to be hardly a sport? I still cannot understand why the aches and pains after hours of dancing, the sweat, and the breaths I am chasing are felt as nothing but pure euphoria. 
When I consider why, there are answers that are pretty obvious. After all, I dance for fitness. I dance to clear my mind. I dance to stabilize my emotions. 

These goals could be achieved through other means, although to be quite frank, I have yet to find a better alternative than grooving to Shakira. Despite this, I don’t need dance to maintain a stability within my mind and body. No, I need dance to fulfill my soul. I need dance to melt away the stress I feel, and complete my soul with its tunes. There is something so glorious about dancing that is so intangible that it is almost nonexistent. I can‘t explain it. I can’t explain why my feet automatically taps to certain beats, and why a certain melody will leave me waltzing around the room.

Maybe it’s because I use dance to express myself when words are not enough. The joy I feel, the sorrow I feel, the determination–these are all emotions that I can express through dancing. Dancing is the true embodiment of human emotion, and the ultimate expression of human thoughts. My body is always demanding a tune to vibe itself with. Dancing is beautifully therapeutic, and it’s a wonder not many more people use it as such.