I saw this entry from a Nia Teacher, Kriszti VanSlyke on our Nia Teachers Forum. I pass this Nia tip on at a time of year where we could all use"fitness for our life" in Seven...yes, seven minutes! This formula comes from Co-Founder Debbie Rosas. We've done it in class once or twice and we'll do it again so we can get some ho-ho-ho going!

Kriszti writes "The whole idea is that we can take 7 minutes our of our day to condition our body for 'fitness for life'. Five minutes is going through the five stages of self-healing: 1 minute in embryonic, 1 minute in creeping, 1 minute in crawling, 1 minutes in standing, and 1 minute in walking. We got that, and here comes the new part (to me): spend 1 minute getting down on the floor and back up to standing as many times as you can (in one minute). Then in minute seven you lay down and LAUGH. I mean deep belly laugh for 15 seconds on your back, 15 seconds on each side, and 15 seconds on your belly." End of quote.

So, why is this so valuable- 1) we know the 5 stages of self-healing touch every part in your body to strengthen, align and reorganize our connection to our body 2) we know that laughing really is a way to train the core abdominal muscles, not to mention lift our moods significantly 3) and getting up and down is the most functional exercise you can do--lots of bang for your buck. We want all these movements in our life so we can continue to have fluidity, ease and grace in our bodies for life. Seven minutes...wow I can do that between the commercials of Oprah!