Olga holds a degree in Dance/Movement Studies from Naropa University. She has recently moved to the Bay Area and is eager to share her experience and teaching of Dance as a Performing and a Healing Art.

These days we often hear "be in the moment." Some of us have known this concept for a while, but we literally have just "known" it and have not really experienced or felt it. What if the key to being in the present moment is not anything we need to learn from the outside of ourselves, but in fact it IS ourselves. What if the key to living in the present moment is to live more in the body? As spiritual beings having a human experience, we all inhabit a living body; it is a requirement in a way. But the range of aliveness in being human is so diverse. Like there are so many ways for you to experience the reading of this article. Right now, are you relaxed and simply entertained by what you are reading or are you searching through the lines for another solution to your problem? Your mind is alert, thinking, analyzing, remembering. What if I ask you, right now without lifting your eyes off the page, to feel between your shoulder blades, what is the sensation there: tightness, relaxation or numbness, you cannot feel anything at all there? Now, the challenge is not to settle for what you "think" you feel between your shoulder blades, but to actually feel the sensation from the inside. To help you, visualize your next inhale tickling your nose hairs, traveling up into your forehead and then flowing down into the area between your shoulder blades. Allow your warm breath to gently kiss your neck and shoulders from the inside. Slowly exhale . Now feel. Can you feel a tingling, an internal dance that goes on regardless if you are aware of it or not? If "yes," congratulations, you have successfully experienced "the moment." You embodied this moment; you were able to stay present simultaneously in your mind (reading/thinking) and your body (sensing/ feeling). If "not", don't worry, perhaps you had a hard day and require a little more meditation, simply keep breathing and bringing your attention back to your shoulder blades. Soon you will feel that you are becoming more alive in your body. And remember where there is no awareness, there is no life.

The truth is that the body is always present in the here and now. On the other hand our thoughts are not bound by such honest presence in the now. It is when we feel pain in the body, and then all of our thoughts are forced to be in the now, the pain. Illness and pain are best prevented by living fully according to one's inner guidance, the inner guidance you just experienced – you felt a sensation in your body, a minor tightness in your shoulder blades, and you naturally (without forcing) allowed a sequential flow to take you into the next moment, perhaps you straightened your posture or stretched out your arms. For most of us adults who live in the head, listening to the inner guidance is not natural. We have forgotten it since childhood and now need to practice it until it becomes natural again. One of the most effective practices to strengthen your connection to your inner guidance, the connection of the mind- body-spirit, is through meditation and dance/movement exercises. Meditation trains you to become one with your breath. And the breath becomes a bridge you dance across to connect in reverence with the divine. Have you ever danced as if no one was watching, not even yourself? It is quiet, with your eyes closed you listen to your own breath and you do not move until you feel an impulse arise deep inside of you and you still do not move, but instead you allow this impulse to move you, to sequence outward, animating your body in the most miraculous ways. In the dance you allow each moment to unfold organically, being moved and moving in the same time, like a snowdrop flower blossoming through the frozen soil in the spring. It takes a lot of courage and integrity to live in accordance with our inner guidance. And the dance trains us to be more present in the moment, to connect with our inner guidance. The dance also empowers us to take this way of being out into our intensely colorful and challenging lives, and it liberates our compassion to awaken such way of being in others.