Greeting gestures, a language of paying honour, respect, love, adoration, graciousness, empathy towards each other. It is a global custom and has multiple variations. Each country has its own customized version and ritual. The most popular version i.e. hand-shake probably has its roots in Great Britain. Men in the United States will usually shake hands when greeting each other, but it’s not usual for them to kiss when greeting. Americans in addition to handshaking also do a fist bump, wave and hug.

For English people, the handshake is the formal way of greeting when meeting someone new. In informal situations, both men and women use a quick kiss on the cheek, and for women who know each other well. Handshake works universally as a professional way to greet. It is a little firm in Germany, more extended (3-step handshake) in Botswana and for Malays, it extends to touching each other’s fingertip followed by their hearts. Filipinos take a hand of their elders and press it to their foreheads called as ‘Mano’.

One of the major health and environmental challenge we face today is rapid emergence of novel pathogens. The spread of these pathogens, especially of nosocomial origin (hospital based), is often linked to cross-contamination by healthcare workers and ways of greeting gestures while meeting each other. An idea of handshake-free zones in hospitals have encouraged awareness. But also questioned how a doctor will take the physical examination without touching a patient. On the other hand, we cannot ignore the fact that microbes like Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Enterococcus faecalis, E. faecium, and Shigella dysenteriae type 1 can sustain on hand surface upto one hour while Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cepacia survive up to 30 minutes. Rotavirus might survive for 20 min while the viability of human parainfluenza virus is nearly 60 min.

Studies indicate that a contaminated hand can transfer its viable contamination to seven different subjects or surfaces. One of two common items is a clean paper towel and soap dispenser with average transfer rate ranges between 0.01% to 0.64% and 12.4% to 13.1% respectively. We touch our face nearly 2-5 times a minute i.e., 2000 to 3000 times a day. In fact, whatever contamination we have on our hands is also getting transferred to our face. We may wonder whether our hand soap is capable of killing all the potentially pathogenic microbes. Are we washing our hands correctly and does it really help? We often use hand wash, sanitizers without giving attention to their content and standards. Do they qualify for antimicrobial purpose? Moreover, our greeting gestures further contribute to the spread of the germs.

For healthcare workers, the protected physical contact is a non-avoidable choice. Healthcare workers and doctors should change their gloves while switching from one patient to another. Avoiding greetings which involve physical contacts especially during outbreaks can provide a preventive approach to managing outbreaks. Hospitals need to improve compliance with hand hygiene. Handshake free zone can be one alternative in hospitals. But they aren’t designed to replace hand washing but to complement it. Creating handshake free zone will also bring attention to the hands as vectors for disease. It will also improve compliance with hand hygiene and an easy and inexpensive way to reduce infections.

It is rude to not to shake a hand if a person extends its hand towards you in the name of trust and honour. We can’t be rude to others but why not to adopt ‘Anjali Mudra’, Wai, Namasté, Wave, Bowing or Adaab to greet. This respectable way of greeting with no physical contact should be adopted in the healthcare settings. In India, by adopting our age-old greeting method especially in a healthcare setting can shield us from many invisible microbial infections. We just need to adopt, practice and re-practice these gestures to decrease the spread of infections.

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Dance is an art wherein you can express yourself and have a therapeutic experience. Dance movement therapy is an old concept but needs a grip in India. The author shares her experience on how dance therapeutically heals her mentally and physically.

What is DANCE?
It is not just a form of art wherein you move rhythmically to music for entertainment. But, it is also a type of therapy. Here is how?

The purpose of dance is to express one’s emotion freely and take pleasure in performing it. If one is angry, cheerful, melancholy, afraid or feel strongly about something, one may choose to show it through eyes, facial expression, and body movements in dance.

There is nothing new about dance. It is well known that dance benefits our body and mind. People have been dancing for centuries or you can say since childhood for entertainment. However, dance as a type of therapy was recognized back in modern dance movement of 19th century. During this movement, it was realized that dance could go beyond simple entertainment, and can be used as a form of expressions. By mid of 20th century, dance therapy developed in US and Europe which added observation, interpretation and manipulation of dance elements into the practice. In 1966, a professional organization, the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) was established. Dance movement therapy (DMT) in USA, Australia, and dance movement psychotherapy (DMP) in the UK is the psychotherapeutic use of movements and dance to support intellectual, emotional and motor functions of the body,as a form of expressive therapy.

DMT uses movement and expression with the skills of psychotherapy, counseling, and rehabilitation to help individuals to achieve both physical and mental health, stress reduction, disease prevention and mood management.

Following are the benefits of Dance Movement Therapy –
1. Improves cardiovascular endurance
2. Improves balance and coordination
3. Improves muscular strength and flexibility
4. Improves body posture and mobility
5. Reduces muscle tension
6. Reduces stress and anxiety
7. Mood elevator
8. Improves expression of feelings
9. Builds confidence and get over shyness

Following are some recent research which showcases that dance therapy can be effective in the treatment of mental health issues like eating disorder, depression, and anxiety.

A study from the Journal of Arts in Psychotherapy (2007) found that dance therapy had a positive effect on participants experiencing symptoms of depression.

A study from Alzheimer’s care (2009) suggests that DMP improves memory recall in people with dementia.

American Journal of Dance Therapy indicated that DMT may be a treatment option for children on the Autism spectrum.

Also, it can be considered as a treatment option for childhood obesity.

At my golden age with silver hair and a young heart, I must say, dancing helps me feel a lot better. I did all sorts of exercise, yoga, meditation, walking, jogging, etc. but I didn’t enjoy any of it and discontinued it sooner or later. Then, I realized that my body moves with emotions and expressions whenever I hear beats of music. I become thoughtless, feel happy and energetic. My mind connects with my body and soul, it’s like meditation to me. It therapeutically heals my aching joints and stiffness of body due to lifestyle diseases, much better than any physiotherapy ever could. This article is not some kind of scientific research, as lot of research on this topic has already been done all over the world. It’s only my insight and personal experience after joining a dance class. A group or couple dance class helps motivate you to do better each day and builds your confidence.

Some people might think, “A dance class? At this age? ”. Yes, I know it is uncommon but why not. One of the reasons that people of my age do not turn up at dance classes is because they are shy. Many North Indian families in earlier days did not appreciate dancing and did not allow girls to dance as it was looked down upon. I was never allowed to dance but allowed to do higher education in those days.

I will not tell you how to move your body or on which song you should dance or how you should dance…… No. I am only going to tell you to move your body and express your feelings as we all know that dancing makes us feel light, joyful, releases happy hormones such as Seratonin, Endrofin, Dopamin etc. Dance moves can predict our feelings like if we are anxious, or self-conscious while dancing, it will show through our moves. You can do any type of dance i.e. Ballroom, Ballet, Tango, Zumba or just wiggle slightly, do what you love or what you feel comfortable with.

Dance like no one is watching and just let go of yourself is the secret of good health. You do not have to be a dancer to get benefit from dance movement therapy. Do not let shyness, age or stamina come on the way. Let your heart dance with joy and happiness, your eyes will dance with emotions and your body movements will improve motor skills. The concept of DMT is new to India and needs more attention. India being the motherland of traditional and modern dance forms can be the new platform for DMT. A new concept like beer yoga is becoming a fad in our society wherein I feel DMT is much more scientific and effective in gaining holistic health. So be happy, enjoy and destress yourself, have a good diet and get better sleep. That is a secret of a happy and healthy golden age.

If you wish, sometime instead of sport shoes, put on your dancing shoes…Hey…..Come on…..Dance.

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Read all the issues of InnoHEALTH magazine:
InnoHEALTH Volume 1 Issue 1 (July to September 2016) – https://goo.gl/iWAwN2 
InnoHEALTH Volume 1 Issue 2 (October to December 2016) – https://goo.gl/4GGMJz 
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 1 (January to March 2017) – https://goo.gl/DEyKnw 
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 2 (April to June 2017) – https://goo.gl/Nv3eev
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 3 (July to September 2017) – https://goo.gl/MCVjd6
InnoHEALTH Volume 2 Issue 4 (October to December 2017) – http://amzn.to/2B2UMLw
InnoHEALTH Volume 3 Issue 1 (January to March 2018) – https://goo.gl/fksdQx

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