N O V E M B E R | 2 0 0 9 |
FALL INTO AUTUMN.
We are finally entering my favorite season. Leaves are changing, scarves and sweaters are replacing tank tops and flip-flops, Honey Crisp apples are piled high at the grocery stores.The flowering trees in DC make lovely fall foliage as well. Gold, amber and rust is the palette of our canopy. To see the brilliant reds of the Swamp Maples, I will have to return home to upstate NY where the Fall Spectacular makes me actually want to go home. Returning is the theme I want to explore this month. Schedules have returned to normal. People have resumed their studies, work, routine. Fall always feels to me like coming full circle. I feel and see the most dramatic changes in everything. Literally, the leaves are returning to the earth. If you stand on a street corner in any tree-lined neighborhood the fall happens all around you. It feels really good to stand in the middle of fall and feel the returning. It’s gravity at its best, right? Somehow this gravity doesn’t feel heavy, it just feels like a returning home. Returning home with dynamic ease.
GET DOWN ON IT.
October’s Feelin’ Good Playshop was so much fun that to really indulge in the dynamic ease of fall, I am getting all the way down. My Playshop in November will explore a return to the earth in a playful way.; Floorplay. Doing Nia on the floor is a natural and playful way to return to a former phase of our lives; childhood, when being on the floor was easy, close, and preferable. Then again, I am a floor person. When ever I am offered the option to watch a movie, hang out and talk or just wait, I always choose the floor. I distinctly remember a scene from my childhood; I was five or six years old, at the bank with my mother. She was on line to cash a check. I was on the floor rolling around with a handful of blank deposit slips. To my mom’s credit, she let me roll around and play on the floor. Maybe it seemed that there was nothing she could do or maybe she just simply understood and even wished that she could get down there with me. Most animals indulge in floorplay because being on the earth feels good. So, the bank might not be the most ideal place to return to playing on the floor, but that’s where Nia Floorplay comes to the rescue. In regular fitness classes, the activity done at floor level is referred to as work. In Nia class, it’s play. It’s a non-verbal exploration our relationship to the earth. The whole practice of Nia is about finding more pleasure in your body while at the same time finding fitness. Using gravity to create conditioning opportunities is at the core of floor play. You don’t have to take my word for it…
GIVE YOURSELF A TIME OUT If you’d like to sample how floorplay can create pleasure in your body while also creating conditioning for your bones and muscles, you can do so right now. Give yourself five minutes to get down right now. Like any mind-body-spirit exercise, doing this for five minutes can positively impact the rest of your day. If you think, “I can’t do this now.” Or “I don’t have time.” All the more reason to drop to the floor and DO IT! Got your iPod handy? Do it to music – any music. If not, don’t worry. Just listen to the voice of your body as it returns to a state of play. Just as a sample, let’s play with your elbows on the floor.
Within five minutes you can get a sense of what floorplay can do for your body-mind-and spirit. Your body craves the healing and conditioning that floorplay provides. Your mind desires the break from normal adult thinking. Your spirit hungers for the freedom to just play on the earth. If you’d like to learn and experience floorplay, join me for Nia and mark your calendar for Sunday, November 22 from 12-2pm to do the Floorplay Playshop.
ON GIVING AND RECEIVING.
The Universe has enough for everyone and I can give and receive from the infinite flow. I invite and emphatically encourage you all to share what you have and what you love with others. If you are feeling constricted by the economy or if you are dealing with pain, boredom, uncertainty, or just dis-ease, try giving as a way to release and feel better. In recent days, I have realized that when I give, life starts to brighten up. At work, in school, I basically give for a living. Funny paradox. Every day when I teach, I am challenged to give unconditionally. My job has morphed from teaching middle school performing arts to teaching 1st – 8th grade performing arts. Before October 1st, I had proudly never even spoken to a 1st grader. My expertise is in middle school. Yes, before I started teaching 17 years ago, I had never even seen a public middle school and I came to love it. But I won’t lie, the kids I teach exhaust every inner resource I have. And then, just when I think I am out of stuff to give (out of patience, out of lesson materials, out of ideas), I feel the arms of a child wrapping around me. These kids love to hug. Hugs feel so good… and I’m even not a hugger. So, in an instant, I am re-fueled and able to give more. Give again. II’d like to also acknowledge that my friends have been very gracious with me. Where I normally see a little help from my friends as a good thing for me, I am now learning that it makes them feel good too. Thank you Rod, for the smart look you’ve designed for Suzworks. Thanks Katy, for the gift of the banner. Thanks Donna for your company, support and some fantastic dinners. Thank you Debbie for sharing Nia with our community.
INTO THE SEASON OF GIVING AND GETTING…MAY YOU DO IT ON THE FLOOR.
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WHAT IS NIA? Nia is a delicious blend of dance, martial arts, and healing arts (including yoga) that allows your dancer, athlete, warrior, and child within to expressively emerge. Nia is a dynamic cardiovascular workout that stimulates and integrates your mind, body, and spirit and leaves you feeling recharged, rejuvenated, and fully alive. WHY PRACTICE NIA? Nia increases the pleasure of living in your body; Nia creates weight loss and proper weight maintenance; Nia strengthens muscles, improves muscle tone, and increases muscle definition; Nia calms the mind and relieves stress; Nia increases grace, flexibility and endurance; Nia builds reservoirs of chi and improves cognitive functioning. And so much more! WHO DOES NIA? DOWNLOAD The Nia by Suzworks schedule NOW! |
NOVEMBER PLAYSHOP; FLOORPLAY
GET DOWN ON IT
Spend two hours at ground level exploring flexibility, mobility agility, stability and strength. Be a kid again. Steep your Nia practice with new significance, more healing, pleasure and fun!
Sunday, November 22nd, 12 – 2pm
The Mindfulness Center
4963 Elm Street, Suite 100
Bethesda , Maryland 20817
$25 pre-register (call 301-986-1090) | $30 at the door