How Garba and Dance Boost Mental Health: Insights from Dr. Devashish Palkar

While Navratri is one of the most celebrated festivals all over India, Dr. Devashish Palkar, MD Psychiatry, PGDCH, also known as the psychidiaries on Instagram said the festival could be more than just Garba and Praying.

Navratri is a nine day Hindu festival celebrating the divine goddess through worship, fasting, and dance. Garba is a traditional Gujarati folk dance performed in circles during Navratri to honor the goddess and celebrate community.

In one of Dr. Devashish's recent reels he said that, doing garba or even just watching garba can help with your mental health and release happy hormones inside your body.

Dance offers a promising alternative to traditional physical activities by combining movement with enjoyment and accessibility. Across children and adolescents, dance interventions have been found to improve cardiovascular fitness, motor skills, emotional well-being, and executive function.

In medically fragile groups such as those with Down syndrome or abdominal pain disorders, dance has also shown therapeutic potential, enhancing balance, reducing symptoms, and supporting psychosocial health. Policy makers and educators should seriously consider integrating dance into school curricula and community programs to leverage its holistic benefits. ¹

Dance engages multiple brain regions—including the motor cortex, somatosensory cortex, basal ganglia, and cerebellum—coordinating movement, rhythm, and spatial awareness simultaneously. PET imaging studies have shown how these areas communicate while learning and performing dance.

A landmark 2003 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that regular dancing was the only physical leisure activity linked to a lower risk of dementia in older adults, likely because it stimulates the body, brain, and social interaction at once. ²

Through his reel, Dr. Palkar stressed on the fact that whenever his clients ask him about ways to cope with stress other than meditation, he suggests them to participate or at least be spectators at a garba ground.

He said Garba not only helps us connect with ourselves and the goddess spiritually but also leads to the secretion of hormones like dopamine, oxytocin, and endorphins which are brain derived Neurotrophic factors (neurotrophic factors are essential proteins that regulate the development, maintenance, and function of the vertebrate nervous system) that are very significant for a good mental health.

References:

1. Tao, Dan, Xinyu Chen, Xiaomin Zhang, and Yingying Li. "The Physiological and Psychological Benefits of Dance and Its Effects on Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review." Frontiers in Psychology 13 (2022): 9234256. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9234256/

2. Vinkers, David J., Jacobijn Gussekloo, and Rudi G. J. Westendorp. "Leisure Activities and the Risk of Dementia." New England Journal of Medicine 349, no. 13 (2003): 1290–1292. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12815136/

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