Used My iPhone For My Nia 5 Stages Practice
Posted by terrepruitt on October 1, 2009
I believe that I cannot say it enough. Nia can be a lot of things. It can be a workout where you just go to class to move, dance, and have fun or it can be a practice, like Yoga. In the practice you can look at some of the elements that make up Nia and work and play with them. One of the movement practices of Nia is the Nia 5 Stages.
I think of the Nia 5 Stages as a practice because you can do it as often as you like and each time you do it you will sense improvement where your body can use improvement or “self-healing“. And you can even do the 5 Stages with an actual focus on improving something. I am experimenting with it. Since I recently just took the training and want to share it with others in a class format and in one-on-one sessions, I am experimenting with multiple aspects of it. In addition to the DVD and CD that was part of my training, I am using my iPhone to assist me in my experimentation.
I have two applications on my iPhone that I am using. The first one is iDicto. It is a simple recording application. In teaching the Nia 5 Stages we use voice, language, and imagery to allow the participants to move through the stages in their own way. By recording my scripts into my iPhone I am able to do a lot of things, two of which are:
—–I am able to check all of the different points of my speaking that I need to learn and work on, for instance the timing of my speaking
—–I am able to play back my recordings and use them just as I do the CD and the DVD that I received with my training, as if I were taking a Nia 5 stages class
The other application I use is Chronology. First of all let me remind you that I am experimenting with the 5 Stages. So I am doing it different ways. One way is to do each stage until your body tells you to move onto the next stage. Another way is to do each stage for a minute. Now, while I am doing the 5 Stages I don’t want to be looking at the clock and I am not good at sensing when a minute is up, so that is where I LOVE Chronology. It allows me to set up six different timers. I set one up for six minutes, one for five minutes, one for four minutes, one for three minutes, one for two minutes, and one for one minute.
Then I start them all and I begin my practice by just just relaxing. After a minute, the timer goes off and I move into the first stage, then went the next time goes off, I move into the next stage and so on. This way I know that am spending a minute in each stage. After doing each stage for a minute, I can adjust each timer for any amount of time I would like.
This is just ONE way of doing it. It is up to you if you want to do a timed stage or do it more naturally and move from one stage to the next when you are ready. As I said, I am experimenting and trying all different ways to do it. I think when I do it without a timer I spend more time on the first stage. But I don’t know, I am not being timed. 🙂
What really makes me laugh is I do find myself thinking, “There really IS an (iPhone) application for everything.”
This is just one way to do the Nia 5 Stages. When I acquired these applications they were free. Looks like Chronology is $2.99 now, but I bet you can find one for free that does the same thing. It needs to be able to allow you to set up multiple timers (at least 5) and run them all at once. And I did a search for iDicto and I don’t see it at all, but there are a lot of recording applications. And I am sure you can find one that is perfect for you.
If you are interested in learning more about the Nia 5 Stages please let me know. I am very excited to share this easy to do “exercise” that will allow you to move with ease and grace.
Terre Pruitt's Blog 
Jill Campana said
OMG. Remind me not to get an iPhone. There are waaaaaay too many things I could do with an iPhone — of course I’d have to go to a weekend training to learn how to use them. Good grief Terre, your brain amazes me. I was born without the “techie lobe”, so none of what you say above makes any sense to me except for the 5 Stages. Now THERE’S something I can use!!!!
I’m sitting here with my jaw dropped reading your blog and thinking, OMG…Terre Pruitt is one amazing woman; she utilizes everything in her life to better understand and practice Nia — which is why Principle #5 of Nia is “Awareness: Dancing Through Life”. I’m in awe, really, Terre. I love how you are using your iPhone to create voice content and timing your Stages.
I love the 7 Minute Conditioning exercise that Debbie Rosas introduced. 1 minute each of the 5 Stages; 1 minute of getting up and down from the floor and 15 seconds “cooking on all sides” while belly laughing. (Cooking on all sides, and I think you mentioned this in an earlier blog, is laying on the back, turning to one side, laying on the belly, turning to the other side.)
Another grand blog my dear. You rock.
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terrepruitt said
Thank you, Jill. Not really all that amazing, BUT . . . thank you because you just helped me think about something I was talking about with a woman who has been doing Nia for at least 10 years.
I was sharing with her that this is soooooo much to learn and know and do and that Nia is so vast that sometimes it is overwhelming and she reminded me to look at what I have accomplished. We continued to apply this attitude to both of our lives, and all that we had done. And in the vastness that is technology (including my iPhone) I do not use it as well as I could. It can do a lot more but some things I am not ready to let it do (as an example sync ALL my contacts from my computer/e-mail into my phone — that is too much for me right now).
Honestly, in my opinion, the iPhone as a phone—BAD! Icky, almost to the point of worthless. ALMOST. But the computer aspect and all the applications—-awesome! WAY worth it. There is so much, I think I could spend all my time learning it and using it. I don’t use 1/100th of its capabilities. But thank you . . . I should focus on my accomplishments and not on all that I am NOT doing!
It is awesome to use the recorder to learn. And since I always have my phone with me I can listen to it to learn anytime. I do that with the Nia Telecourses too. I put them in iTunes so I can download them into my iPod(/iPhone) and listen to them whenever I want.
I don’t use everything in my life as much as I think I should and could. But . . . as we are talking in another conversation we are having . . . . I am still learning. There is so much . . . I will continue to learn. And when I get at that point where I think I am not doing a good job of learning and doing, I will stop and I will look back at how far I have come and I will take a deep satisfied breath and give thanks because there has been progress.
I love the 7 Minute Conditioning exercise too.
Thank you, My Friend.
I forgot to say that one of the main reasons I even dabble in technology is that my Wonder-Hubby is a techie-kind-of-guy. So he helps me a lot.
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