Optimizing Your Joy Potential Through Movement, Dance and Play [Podcast Series]

Dr. Elaine O’Brien is the author of The Power of Play: Optimize Your Joy Potential.
She is a long-time dance fitness instructor.

“The science of positive psychology is around flourishing, well-being and happiness. So we can look at happiness as enjoyment, and also as having meaning in our lives. So it's a more balanced approach to traditional psychology, because it's looking at maybe the bright side—optimism and our character strengths, and what makes life worth living.”

“So I think that through the rhythmic movement that is challenging, complex, but also can be easy to follow over time, that movement with a group of people provides communitas and that we become bigger as a group than we are as an individual. So that also encourages that lifting up that forgetting, you know, where we are in time and space, and it makes time stand still but also go fast at the same time when we're in flow.”

“And I could see changes, profound changes in myself over teaching, as you said, like the brain power, I feel like I got smarter over decades of teaching dance fitness. But in my students, I could see this connection to their bodies and their movement and each other. So it's really interesting to me to be able to try and connect people to each other and build a positive community.”

“Dance fitness instructors, they have a lot of magic in terms of the ability to lift people up, out, you know, you never know what people are going through. And if you can provide a bright light and then encourage people to move and feel great. That was one of my goals is to help people leave feeling great, to leave the class feeling great, wanting more. And one of my theories is around using, trying to use your healthy body to help yourself and then to help others, as we move through the lifespan and the healthspan.”

“I think those are just a couple of ways to play. Anything that involves creativity and just sparks some well-being and goodness, I think can really be considered play.”

“[N]ot exercising is like taking a depressant, I think that not playing, similarly, is just, it makes us not live our full potential, the possibility of the joy that we can really harness and, and, again, evoke and just that other people can experience and then also feel.”

“[W]hen we have those positive emotions that we evoke through movement a lot of times and play generally, it really helps us broaden and build our repertoire of emotions. It boosts our learning, it boosts our well-being in the world, again, and just like canjust spiral up and up and up to really good feelings.”

“Then there's the biochemical things, right?, the dopamine that we get when we're playing, the brain derived neurotrophic factor, we can just really connect with people on a bigger level. We have a saying, let joy be your magnet. So if you can prime joy in your day, every day, it just helps you to really live your life more fully, more vibrantly. And I think going through the years, that's a real protective factor for you in terms of helping you to be more resilient…”

“Oh, I think that developing a play mindset is really important, right?, being open to the possibilities and thinking of things that you might have enjoyed doing as a child and that you could do now. When you don't play, it can make you cranky. It can really impact your health negatively. It can make you not as attractive, because if you're being cranky, that's going to reflect and people aren't going to want to really hang out with you. I think it stifles, again, creativity...”

“So, again, to close those [phone and computer] down and to get out and get a nice breath of fresh air, walk around the block, whatever you can do, because that'll change up the energy.”

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