On a rare appointmentless Saturday morning--this morning, luxurating in my newly arrived May issue of the Sun magazine, I read an interview, Science of Happiness. The interviewee, Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, PhD, faculty at Duke University  and the University of Michigan, studies positive emotions--amusement, awe, interest, gratitude, inspiration, to name a few. 

How positive emotions, moment by moment, in a ratio of 3 positive to 1 negative, take us to a tipping point of greater productivity, greater happiness.  It's not at all about ignoring the negative.  It's about choosing to recognize and cultivate moments of positive emotional states as well as acknowledging the negative.  Toward the end of the interview, this quote caught my attention, flipped me into a double-take, and then triple-take.  Is she talking about Nia?

"I came across a dance class that was about being joyful...[teaching] me to see being active as pleasurable...Now, because I crave the sheer joy of movement, I keep moving."
     ~Barbara Fredrickson, researcher of positive emotions, as interviewed in the Sun magazine, May 2009 issue.

I have emailed Dr. Fredrickson to find out more.  Meanwhile, I can not imagine how her description can be anything other than Nia!   Moment by moment, being and moving in sensation-rich, pleasure-principled Nia.

Love, Lesley