I cannot promise that all mental health professionals take their own advice, but I try not to speak outside of my own experience. I suppose I could say the same thing for dance instruction. Recently, when working with a fairly new salsa student, I encouraged him to try to get the pattern of the basic step cemented by just walking around his house left-right-left-pause, right-left-right-pause, stepping toe to heel rather than heel to toe. While I worked with him for almost an hour just reviewing all the details of the basic step, I was reminded yet again what a great workout just this basic dance step can be. If you really concentrate on proper technique and body isolations, you are using a lot of different muscles, and I find just one song can have me out of breath.

I am constantly trying to find ways to integrate more activity into my busy schedule. Today, I decided to take my own advice and popped my iPod into the dock while I set out to clean house. Normally cleaning takes me a lot of time because I get bored and distract myself. Dancing let me have fun and...read the rest of this article originally published at Diets in Review....