Wow, today was amazing. There is just so much and so many butterflies of ideas, stories of insight that it is all just rolling around in my head like a bunch of gibberish. That said, is seems a shame not to provide some kind of post so here I am in rambling incoherent glory.
This morning started with the drive in and I started to play with St. Etienne’s Alpha Fox Beta album with the 8BC system and see if I could find the beat, find the one count and recognize the different elements of the song. I then played with listening to the different instruments coming in and out of silence. Kindergarten stuff as Carlos would say but it really opened up for me, a whole new element to music and it was enjoyable on a whole new level.
Then as I parked my car and walked down to the street, I decided to become more aware of how I walk, choosing to play with the Alexander Technique a bit more. Yesterday I have discovered that I have a tendency to look down a bit instead of out, though I have to also acknowledge that I do not do this near as much as I used to after discovering Nia. So I discovered what would happen if I trust my feet to go down the stairs without looking down, (a little unnerving, I have to confess) and then walked out across the street to the Nia Studio. Energetically I felt strong and confident and it was very interesting to notice how many people on the street walk with their heads down and the energy that brings.
On the drive home, having tried the stairs going down again without looking at my feet, it was still a little unnerving and at time I felt unsure as I had to trust that my feet know what they were doing and I had just been working with them all day so we are the best of friends now and everything, right. I mean, I even rubbed and thanked them for all the hard work today and everything. On the drive home, I think about the stairs at home and I take them all the time with out thinking, with out looking. Is this because I am familiar with them, going up and down many times a day? And then it hits me what the main difference was. Outside, I have shoes on; at home I am barefoot most of the time. Bingo! You mean there really is something to all of this feet sending the rest of the body information through its thousand of nerves? I love it!
Speaking of feet, I spent the afternoon learning how to walk. Wow, that was incredible just how far removed I was from using my feet the body’s way. I thought I was closer then I was with all the practice of the steps and stances that we did but Debbie really had us exploring how to walk, how the different bones in our feet and legs are designed to work, I discovered where was weak and then boom! Ah that is the weak muscle on the inside of my left foot that is leading to my knee to complain. Now I know where to direct some self-healing.
Which leads me back to the beginning of the day where Carlos shared with us the fifth principle, Awareness. There was just so much that was shared about self-healing, pleasure and pain as sensations, it was just incredible and I couldn’t even begin to recapture it. I will share the thought that occurred to me. I have heard the phrase, ‘I need to be in my body more’, quite a bit or ‘I thought I was in my body more then I thought I was’. My take away thought after this morning that it was not so much that I need to be in my body more because, hey, you know, my body has pretty much been here all along, it has just been waiting for me to notice, to pay attention. So I would say that I have discovered that there is a near overwhelming amount of information and sensation that my body gives me that I need to open up the neural pathways (or reprogram if you will) through the practice of awareness before I can even begin to access a fraction of that without short circuiting. Luckily the universe and my body will take care to go slowly so that does not happen. Still it is yet another avenue introduced in the principles to explore.
One final thought is that for some reason the energy of the day and the class felt really good, really focused and much lighter then the previous days. There was a lot of laughing, especially in the morning as we explored emotions. I though of you male Fred with great affection and sympathy!
Okay, I lied to you, one more thing that I just need to share. When we moved with FreeDance today, Carlos had us work more with moving with the creative energy through the body and the art of choosing to move to the music or not but still listening to the music. Yesterday when I tried to feel that creative energy he had described I did my best but can you say “Epic Fail!” Okay it wasn’t that bad and I certainly learned what it was not even if I was moving creatively and there was definite growth as I discovered that I could hear the music, be detached on a certain level to be able to choose to move the way I created. I didn’t have to get lost in the music. As we explored this further today, I got it. I felt that energy that he was talking about but could not describe and I knew it. It was incredible! It only lasted a few bars but now I know exactly how it feels and I was not lost in anything. I could still hear the music, I could choose to follow it or not but it was just so full and amazing. I know this does not even come close to describing the feelings or if it even makes sense but yeah. That is kind of all there is to say. YES!
Debbie taught the Nia class this evening (Opal for those wondering) and I highly recommend that if you ever get the chance to take a class from Carlos or Debbie or preferably both. Do it. Very different and wonderful and a lot noisier then our classes are. There was a lot more growling and cheering and having a class of 50 plus people yelling yes and no at the same time almost makes up for the lack of space in its power. Almost. It was also interesting that as exhausted as I was, and I could not move out of level one for most of the class, how much energy was given back. It was also interesting to note the different energies in the different parts of the room. For me, the space near the window felt more open and as a result I felt more open. Near the middle and towards the front was some crazy powerful energy and it was near impossible to stay level one, and it felt really good. By the door, I felt more constrained and my energy dropped as my attention seemed to focus on how tired I was instead of the pleasure. Needless to say, as soon as I could, I made my way back to the windows and I felt recharged enough to enjoy the rest of the class. I do have to point out that the last song, my movements were pretty darn pathetic!
Well this turned out longer then I had anticipated and hopefully it makes some strange kind of sense, or at least bit of amusement at my thoughts. This is all pretty incredible and I am off to ground and get some rest for the core of the body tomorrow.
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