Last night was our first study group using the book "Mama Gena's School of Womanly Arts" by Regina Thomashauer. And boy did we get off to a saucy start. I'd like to use the blog forum to leave some notes and also to invite you to join us for the remaining two classes (Thursday, 8pm PST Sept. 30th and October 7)

 Topic One: Pleasure

"Pleasure gives us clarity, it refreshes us and rejuvenates, it keeps us ahead of the curve" writes Mama Gena. 

Did you know there is a word-"anhedonia"- which literally mean without pleasure. And too many of us are living our American lives like this "having loss of interest or pleasure in all or almost all usual activities and pastimes".  Have you given up on fun?

Mama goes on to teach us that in order to give pleasure we must know pleasure (a quote from the movie Dangerous Beauty). So how do we connect to pleasure? We simply, yet not necessarily easily, ask ourselves if we are in a state of pleasure. Are we obligating ourselves? Did we start in a state of pleasure but then obligate ourselves to the point of misery. I gave an example of housecleaning. Usually when I start cleaning, I am excited to get it done. I am looking forward to doing it b/c I like the result. About half way through, the sensation of fun is gone and I begin moving towards displeasure and downright grumpy bitterness. So do you have times when you ignore the sensation of displeasure coming...blow through it and end up putting yourself in a sour mood over it? Is the activity really that important? And is there a way to maybe take a break and boost our pleasure up before returning to less fun activity.

 Nia Co-Creator, Debbie Rosas has always inspired me. And she has always had a beautiful poetic way with words. This article came out in the Nia Natural Time News, the Headquarters newsletter. You can sign up for it here. It's a beautiful reminder for me that I have a Sacred Livelihood and my purpose is to guide, lift and inspire others towards self-acceptance and personal celebration. Here's Debbie's touching and thoughtful article in it entirety. With Love, Jill

What's It All About
by Debbie Rosas

We are having a revolution: The Revolution of Self. This is an apex in our evolution, a revolution of culture and consciousness. I believe this could be one of the most significant apexes of our collective evolution since the industrial revolution.

Recent events have shaken us to our core, allowing us (and forcing some of us) to reflect and refocus. All over the world, people are reevaluating their values and their relationship with self and community. As a result, there is a new consciousness emerging in and around us. It is an energy wave touching and affecting everything we do, a measurable wave of change and transformation offering us a new vision and purpose for humanity. I feel this energy in my core; I feel it deep in my cells. It's as if there is a new kind of power and beauty stirring the creation of a sacred body, a sacred life, a sacred business, a sacred lifestyle for our children, family, community and selves to benefit in ways we cannot even imagine. It is an energy inviting us to ask, "What matters to me? Where do I find my purpose? What inspires me to get up everyday and do what I do?"

As much as I love Nia (and I am always reminded of this when I am actually dancing Nia), I don't always give myself a full hour to practice. It must be something in my traditional fitness background that has me programmed to think if you don't "work out" for an hour, it's not worth while. As a post-rehab personal trainer, I scheduled all my clients for an hour. And as an aerobic instructor (yes, years before the term group-x instructor) all my classes were an hour long. Even when I walk our Great Dane, Magic, I look at the clock prior to leaving and silently calculate the hour of my return.

Today, I made an in road to breaking that "an hour, is power" cycle. The mental cycle that often has me skipping exercise because I "don't have enough time".  Today, I coaxed myself into experiencing the benefits of just getting started, doing what I can and being present for the time that I have allowed. Today, I did the first 3 songs of a Nia video routine called Sexi and then noticing the aching of my heels, skipped forward to the last two songs.  I wanted to give my feet a little break and yet still wanted to keep healing and moving my body. What I experienced during the last few moments at the end of the video tape completely surprised me. As I enjoyed the last few arm circles, meditative and quiet,  I had this noticeable feeling of complete-ness. This feeling was a present feeling like my body was a-ok and receiving lots of benefit with my time selection. The warm feeling of compelte-ness felt just as if I had done the entire 9 song routine, even though I only did 5.  

That's right.... the less I do Nia, the more I belive it is the perfect form of exercise, health and healing for me. My body told me that today. You see, I have spent the summer doing lots of fun movement and exercise. I've been walking and running with my great dane. I've been doing Pilates on my home reformer. I've broken out the yoga mat, as well as picked up (uhm.. I've tried to pick it up) the sport of Fencing.  All those activities have been enjoyable and are considerably healthy. And yet, they also came at a price to my body. My hamstrings and calf muscles are tight from walking. My wrists are sore from down dogging and chataranga--is that the spelling?---you know the low push up position, and the back of my ribcage is sore from thrusting my "weapon" during fencing. Oh, I know it's not the activites' fault. Plenty of people enjoy all these activities without all this body whining. But here's what really struck me as I enjoyed my first Nia home video this summer. Today, Nia helped me put all that whining to rest. Within minutes of moving I was able to massage out my calves, dance with my hands to loosen up my wrists and roll my spine to expand my ribs. Because of Nia's principle "do it your way" I was able to balance out my body by stimulating some areas and lengthening out other areas. The beautiful thing about not doing Nia all week (I'm on summer hiatus from teaching) is that when I do it...it's like a cold drink of lemonade on a hot day---so refreshing, so flavorful that my body is bursting with enthusiam and pleasure.  And what a great way to change my attitude about "not doing Nia...tsk, tsk...bad girl". Now I can say..."ah, I haven't done Nia for a few days, boy am I brilliant. This is going to feel soooo good." I must admit this particular brilliance won't last for long. Starting this Monday (August 17th) I am on a Nia Feast for five days.

Some of you know via Twitter and Facebook that I took Fencing for the first time last night. Here's the short (if your in a crunch for time) and the long (if your into the story) of it.

The short of it: the teacher is out with a total knee replacement..hhmmm, I think I'm the oldest person here, I think more single woman should be here b/c there are a few hot guys (except soon we'll all be in masks), everyone has a suit to wear which includes an "outside jock strap" looking thing (including the string in the back). By the end of class we are holding the "weapon" (an Epee) and that brings out a quiet fierceness to my surface.

The long story: I've been looking for something new to do. When I take the summer off from teaching I get "ants in my pants". This came to an emotional head last week with the very tragic death of my friend Arden. She was gone in an instant saving her son from drowning. That lead to the question "what am I not doing, that I've always wanted to?" Feeling this energy I reflected on all the things I have done (physically speaking): in my twenties it was rock climbing, mountaineering, snow boarding, skiing, water skiing, wake boarding, jet skiing, rollerblading--all introduced to me by adventures friends or new boyfriends. Professionally: Ballet, Modern dance, Yoga, Pilates, Laban Movement, Feldenkrais, Nia, aerobics, weight training, pole dancing. Other high school sports include: softball, volleyball, running hurdles, the high jump.