Seattle is in the throws of a massive storm. Rain, wind, thunder, lightining and even hail. We were brave to venture out last night to take my 6pm Nia class. With a few in attendance the call for "something special" came up. Not only in my mind but also in my body that is valiantly fighting a head cold. And the others contributed to the energy of "relaxing to renew". Have you ever felt like you needed to relax, renew and yet actually sitting is not what your body wanted? I had spent the day in front of my computer, though my body wanted to relax and unwind, it didn't want to be still any longer.  Of course, Nia has the perfect remedy--the Five Stages of Self Healing. I love the 5 stages. Flat out nothing heals my body in a shorter amount of time than the 5 stages. Going through the 5 stages is movement meditation for me. It takes place of sitting and mediating. I get to move, connect, release and feel transformed in a matter of minutes.  So for class we indulged ourselves in the an hour long 5 stages buffet.  And by the end, the room was humming, my body was signing and my mind felt open and serene.

Interested in learning more about the 5 Stages? You can also find the description in The Nia Technique Book on page 306.Or grab me in class and we can review!

That's enough typing, I'm off to roll around some more.

Jill

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!