“Collective joy”—a state of ecstatic self-transcendence and belonging that comes from moving with others, often to music.
The above quote is from a book I’ve been reading lately, called “The Joy of Movement,” by Kelly McGonigal. I’ve been having lots of “aha” moments, but it’s also been bringing up all sorts of thoughts and memories and realizations.
For one thing, it prompted me to remember that, maybe ten years ago now, I wrote a list of “activities I loved.” I had even forgotten that I wrote a blog post about it; perfect timing for me to re-read it!
With all this on my mind, I got to the office in the late afternoon yesterday. I intended to do some work, then go for a short walk (trying to get myself moving!). But thinking about past activities I used to do brought to mind a song that I used to absolutely LOVE doing aerobics to. Of course, this was back in the day when most of the time I didn’t know who the artist was and one couldn’t just run home and Google the information. So it was many years later that I learned the group was the Pointer Sisters and the song was called “Jump (For My Love). ”
If you like to dance, I challenge you to listen to this song without moving. In fact, I put it on out of curiosity — just wanting to hear it again, you know — and next thing you know — I was up and dancing!
It felt so good that I quickly found the video for Gino Vannelli’s “Brother to Brother” — another one of my all-time favorite dance songs — and I danced around the office to that one as well.
Afterwards I felt so happy. I do believe I’m slowly finding my way back to my original joy in movement.