I Danced to a Song a Day for 8 Months & Here’s What I Learned
- Brainz Magazine
- Aug 31
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 1
Written by Rasha AlShaar, Mind-Body Coach, PCC
Rasha AlShaar, PCC, is a Mind-Body Coach with an integrative approach to healing and self-development. By merging modalities that range from mindset and somatic tools, she's on a mission to facilitate full-body healing and head-to-toe awakenings to help people embody their authentic truth and innate power.
Since I was a little girl, movement has been my medicine. You’d find me rounding up my younger cousins like a boot camp choreographer, creating routines for us to perform at our weekly family gatherings. I’d design costumes, illustrate invitations, prep props, and line my grandmother, aunts, uncles, and older cousins into rows of plastic chairs when it was showtime. If I wasn’t doing that in my "downtime," I was in ballet classes until I discovered dancing on ice and poured my whole little heart into figure skating.
Now, as an adult, everything has changed, yet not much at all. As a Mind-Body Coach and Conscious Movement Guide, I’ve been diving deeper into Somatics (the study of soma, the Greek word meaning "the living organism in its wholeness") to expand on the mindset work that once supported my healing and self-development, but could only take me so far. Through both training and personal experience, I’ve been weaving together embodied grounding, authentic movement, and rhythmic dance, practices that release tension and guide us back to expressing our truth, in our bodies and in our lives.
Movement isn’t just still my medicine; it’s become my mission. As a facilitator, practitioner, and human, it has found its way deeper into my daily life. Literally.
A dance a day
On January 1, 2025, I made a promise to myself to dance to at least one song every single day. And I’ve kept that promise since, meaning, as I write this, I’ve danced to a minimum of 237 songs in 237 days, with 128 days left to go this year. And yes, there were days I missed my movement, but I always made it up the next day. In the end, the number of songs I’ve moved to still matches the number of days to date. This was never about perfection; it was about devotion.
Before I dive into the lessons this daily devotion to dance has revealed to me, let me clarify what I mean by "dance." Some days, it means stomping around the kitchen to ABBA or Ariana Grande. Other days, it’s Debkeh (a fun Levantine folk dance) with my husband in the living room.
Sometimes it’s an hour of movement at community events I either facilitate or attend. But most often, it’s just me in my room, moving intuitively to instrumentals or medicine music (songs rooted in reverence for nature) with either a soft smile or tears streaming down.
And so, now, eight months into this journey, here’s what I’ve learned from moving to a song a day:
1. Presence over performance
For years, we’ve been conditioned to move for how we look rather than how we feel, but conscious movement flips that script. When we shift the focus and motivation of action from the outside-in to the inside-out, something profound happens. The body finds ease and peace through truth. And moving through life with this authenticity makes the most beautiful art.
2. Every day is different
Meeting ourselves in free, authentic movement means giving full permission to be whoever we are and however we are. My movement looks, sounds, and feels different every single day because I look, sound, and feel different every single day. Allowing all our versions and states to be accepted and expressed without judgment or control is the greatest form of self-love I’ve ever experienced and witnessed.
3. Discomfort is the doorway
Awkwardness, shame, or the feeling of being "too much" or "too little" often show up in movement. These moments aren’t obstacles, though; research shows discomfort can actually be the threshold to growth (Psychology Today). When we keep moving through discomfort, even in the smallest ways, we move out of the freeze response and into a sense of freedom and liberation that surprises us every time.
4. Stillness first
Every powerful movement begins with stillness. The pause is active, fertile, where clarity, honesty, and intention are born, and from which movement emerges.
5. Soft body = soft mind
I once believed strength meant holding tight, bracing, and pushing. What I’ve learned is the opposite: true strength is found in softness. With every softening of the body comes a softening of the mind, which explains why conscious movement has been shown to reduce stress hormones and help regulate the nervous system (NIH).
6. Trust is built in the body
Self-trust isn’t given; it’s a practice. The more we let the body guide us, the more we build trust in ourselves. Every time we surrender to what the body wants instead of what the mind thinks it wants, we strengthen our relationship with ourselves and, by extension, with our world.
7. Rhythm of resilience
Just as music speeds up, slows down, pauses, and builds, so does life. My movement practice has shown me that resilience is not about resisting, but about responding. It’s the ability to move with change and adapt with grace. That’s true grit.
8. Repetition rewires
Transformation comes from the return. Moving daily, even in the simplest way, literally reshapes our brains. Studies on the effect of dance on neuroplasticity show that rhythmic movement rewires neural pathways, boosts mood through the release of feel-good chemicals, and strengthens connections that foster resilience and joy. Moving this way every day is like giving your whole being a supplement.
9. Play is serious business
I can’t emphasize this enough: play heals. Neuroscience shows that play dissolves rigidity, unlocks creativity and connection, and supports emotional well-being and growth (National Institute for Play). Healing doesn’t always have to be heavy; it can be light, silly, fun, and still profoundly transformative.
10. Movement connects
Moving alone is powerful, but moving together is something else entirely. Research by Frontiers in Psychology tells us that synchronized movement increases empathy, belonging, and emotional connection. When we move with intention and trust in safe spaces with others, movement becomes not just a form of self-expression and expansion, but also an invitation for connection.
If this moved you in any way, book a FREE Clarity Call to explore how we can work together one-on-one or in your community, one call and one song at a time.
Read more from Rasha AlShaar
Rasha AlShaar, Mind-Body Coach, PCC
With over a decade of experience in healing practices and self-growth tools, Rasha AlShaar founded her coaching practice in 2020, shaping her integrative approach through ongoing personal growth and rigorous training, blending subconscious, emotional, somatic, behavioral, and energetic modalities to best serve her clients.
Rooted in her curiosity, driven by her commitment to service, and grounded in her PCC accreditation from the International Coaching Federation with 700+ hours of 1:1 coaching experience, Rasha is on a mission to help others on their transformative journeys as a Mind-Body Coach, guiding them to reconnect with their inherent wisdom and worth through insightful dialogue, embodied experience, and tangible action steps.
