Tango and mindfulness

We all have heard about mindfulness meditation and practices, but what does it mean exactly? And how is it connected to tango and most importantly, to our everyday life?

According to the Great Good Center of the University of Berkeley, mindfulness means "maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment.Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.
Though it has its roots in Buddhist meditation, a secular practice of mindfulness has entered the American mainstream in recent years, in part through the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn and his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, which he launched at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 1979".

Are you curious on how mindfulness works in practice? It is very simple and requires almost no effort. In fact, studies demonstrated that 10 minutes per day of meditation will change the very structure and chemistry of your brain; check out this two  short videos: on the positive effects of meditation, and on the very meaning of mindfulness: presence of heart.

Tango and mindfulness

What is the connection between tango and mindfulness?
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Tango is a complex universe of creation, whose unique feature is the pure improvisation. And what opens the possibility to improvise more and more complex geometries, while staying in balance and harmony with our partner?  Presence and the capacity to act in a moment. In other words, the instantaneous coincidence between decision and action.
In this sense, dance becomes then an expression of awareness, attention and consciousness arising from both participants. Presence and connection in the dance means also to be engaged in what I like to call "active abandonment", a state of flow in which improvisation arises from a conscious and progressive letting go of  predetermined pathways, as we embrace and continuously adapt to emerging possibilities.
In order to achieve certain states, we can prepare ourselves through practice and different kinds of meditation, like the body scan, a widely practiced mindfulness meditation.
It is about paying attention and focusing on what is happening in our bodies in a non-judgemental  way, focusing on our present experience, in order to listen to ourselves before we listen to our partner.

A body scan mediation can last from a few minutes to hours. Here are some links to guided meditations for beginners; give it a try if you wish to understand this exercise better because you won't regret it :)

- A 3 minute body scan meditation to cultivate mindfulness (3 min)
​​-  A body scan meditation to bring your attention inward (12 min) 
-  Beginner's body scan meditation (30 min)

Still curious?
One book amongst others:
Mindfulness: an eight week plan for finding peace in a frantic world
The book features a programme and presents simple techniques that everyone can easily learn and apply to improve health and wellbeing. 
And...what is your personal experience with presence, mindfulness and tango? Comment below if you wish :)