Dancing to Bring the Rain The History and Cultural Significance of Native American Rain Dances
While traditions and dances vary between Native American tribes, many of them feature rain dances. Because water is essential to life, and because many tribes lived in agrarian societies, these dances were important rituals, pleas for the survival of the tribe for another season. These dances have existed for hundreds of years, and many tribes still perform them today. Rain dances are notably common in the Southwestern U.S., where the dry climate means water is scarce and every bit of rainfall is essential for survival. Generally, rain dances are performed to ask the spirits or gods to send rain for the crops. Tribes such as the Hopi, Navajo, Pueblo, and Mojave perform rain dances often. An old Cherokee legend says that the rain is filled with the spirits of past chiefs, and the rain is an indication of their battle with evil spirits beyond the natural world. One interesting fact about rain dances is that both men and women—not just men—participate in the ceremony. Dancers wear special regalia, sometimes including headdresses, masks, body paints, and jewelry. What is worn varies from tribe to tribe, but turquoise is very important in rain dances for many tribes and is often incorporated into the jewelry. The rain dance regalia is not worn at any other point or for any other purpose during the year, and participants dance in a zigzag pattern, unlike all other dances, which feature a circular motion.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, when the U.S. government was relocating Native Americans all over the country, they banned the practice of many ceremonial dances on reservations, sometimes including rain dances. However, rain dances continued undercover: Native Americans simply performed the ritual as a different, unbanned ceremony. The dances and the traditions continued, and today many tribes still perform rain dances, even if only in reverence for their heritage.
Running: A Love Story Use Cues to Create a Running Habit
social (linked to a particular group of people). So if you want to create a running habit, develop prompts that will cue you to engage in it. For example, you can use temporal cues to make a habit of running every day after work, or you can make it a necessary step in your routine: Wake up, brush teeth, coffee, run, shower. Documenting how you feel after a run will help your mind link the good feelings it gives you to the action, which will then cue the habit. Next time your drinking buddies suggest happy hour, suggest a run instead. Maybe they’ll even pick up the habit.
For seasoned runners, that sweet call of serotonin might be enough to lace up their sneakers week after week, but the rest of us might need a little more convincing. Research into the psychology of habit formation, which has allowed companies like Procter & Gamble tomake millions, has found that habits are often linked to a specific cue. Calling on the insight of psychologists, marketing campaigns have used this tactic to sell products like Febreze, and you can use some of the same techniques to adopt a running habit. Most cues fall into one of four categories: temporal (linked to a specific location or time of day), action-based (one of a series of actions), emotional (linked to a mood or emotion), or
Since the ‘70s, devotees have referred to the elusive rush of euphoria they feel during and right after a run as a “runner’s high.”Your friend who claims to “love” running despite how exhausted she looks at the finish line of her 10K might be experiencing the effects of this phenomenon. This post-workout boost has long been linked to a rush of endorphins entering the brain, but a recent study from researchers in Germany suggests that a more likely cause is an increased production of serotonin and other feel- good neurotransmitters. Because of these physiological effects, running may help to improve your body’s ability to stand up to stress while also making you feel good.
Go on now. Let running sweep you off your feet!
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