Posted by terrepruitt on October 7, 2010
There is a book about Nia. The Nia Technique Book authored by Debbie Rosas* and Carlos Rosas**. When I first thought of teaching Nia I bought it. I think I have said before that I thought Nia was a little too “woo-woo”. When I read the book it helped me see that Nia is based on the science and the design of the body. I often refer to my book. I have little tabs stuck on almost every page and that gets bothersome.
While the book has a table of contents it is sparse and it does not have an index. I always find myself searching and flipping and going back and forth in the pages because I can’t find what I want and I know it is there. Last week when planning the Nia Playshop I just flipped back and forth one too many times. So I created an index.I created an index of all the things I want to look up and arranged in alphabetically. I also arranged it so that there are subsections within the index. But then that seemed so long so I did an index with just the main sections and a separate index below of the subsections. So, yes, I have the index arranged three different ways so that you can have a choice on how to look at it. It’s on my site HelpYouWell.com.
One of the “bothers”, cat eating tabs.
If you would like a copy of the Excel format just let me know.
*now known as Debbie Rosas Stewart
**now known as Carlos AyaRosas
Posted in Nia | Tagged: Carlos AyaRosas, Carlos Rosas, Debbie Rosas, Debbie Rosas Stewart, Debbie Stewart, design of the body, helpyouwell.com, Index, Nia, Nia Playshop, Nia Technique, Nia Technique Book | 3 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 5, 2010
I teach Nia in the San Francisco Bay Area. One thing I am trying to do is increase awareness of Nia and also, at the same time, increase my class sizes. So recently I hosted a Playshop in San Jose at the studio in Willow Glen where I hold my Nia classes. My topic for the Playshop was some of the 52 Moves of Nia. It was a success. I felt good about it, even though I put my students to work.
I had spent a day and a half or so preparing what moves I wanted to go over in the Playshop and what Nia katas from the various Nia routines I wanted to use in the Nia Class. I wanted the class routine to include all the various moves we explored in the Playshop. I spend a couple of days between doing other things reviewing to make certain I was comfortable with my presentation and to make certain I could get through it within the allotted time. So I was confident the Playshop and the Nia Class would go smooth. What I was nervous about was being able to get in and set up.
If you are a teacher of almost anything, you know that here is time needed to set up. Showing up early to set up and be ready to greet your students is not always possible with the time allowed in between workout classes. In exercise class situations sometimes there is NO time in between classes. They are scheduled to end on the hour and start at the same time. So I had scheduled 15 minutes in between, but there was still things that needed to be done and I wasn’t wanting to rush the class before us out.
So I came up with an idea . . . . now, I would bet I am not the only one to come up with this and I bet if I were to do minimum research I would find all the “Planning a workshop” information to tell me exactly this, but I am still going share it.
I realized that I could put my students to work! So I did. Most of the time people are more than willing to help. One of my students showed up really early—before me even. So I knew she was ready to do something. So I set her on one task. Then two of my students who I had been plotting to do this work all along were assigned tasks.
This assigning of tasks can also be connected to my post about “If You want something done right“. Because I had to be willing to “let go” and let my students do the tasks. And I have to say they did them beautifully. I was so proud. I was proud of myself for having thought of having them do it and I was proud of myself that I just let them do it. And I was especially proud that they did it so well. I believe they did better than I could have–it was awesome.
It was a great learning experience for me.
My hubby (thanks, Hubby!) also came to help. With him mopping the floor and some of my students setting up the room, I was able to concentrate on the participants coming in that needed to sign waivers and get settled. All of this allowed us to start on time . . . which allowed us to end on time — for the Playshop at least. The Nia routine I put together was a little longer than an hour so we went over on that. But all-in-all it was my students that allowed me to have a successful Playshop.
(Thanks Students!)
Posted in 52 Moves (of Nia), Nia | Tagged: exercise class, katas, Nia 52 moves, Nia class, Nia exercise, Nia exercise class, Nia katas, Nia participants, Nia Playshop, Nia routines, Nia San Francisco, Nia San Jose, Nia students, Nia Teacher, Nia Willow Glen, Nia workout, Nia workshop, San Francisco Bay Area Nia, San Francisco Nia, San Jose Nia, San Jose Nia class, SFBay Nia, Willow Glen Nia, working students, workout class | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on October 2, 2010
I really think water is a vital part of our diets. I believe that people should drink water. I believe that all water from bottled water, filter water, purified water, to tap water probably has some good things and bad things in them. There are some waters that I think of as designer water. So I would not ever really think to buy it. Recently I was a guest at a party where they were serving Voss water.
I had seen it before because I have seen other people drinking it. I thought it was a designer water. Since it was there and it was the only water I was gonna drink it. I don’t know what I was expecting, well, honestly I was expecting bubbles because someone had said, “be careful the water is carbonated”. I took a sip and was thinking that it was very odd for carbonated. I had grabbed a “still”. There was “sparkling” and “still”. Carbonation makes me burp and so I don’t tend to drink it, but I wanted to try that to. As I am writing this I am laughing because I don’t know what I was expecting.
It tastes like water. I can’t tell it from the other water I buy. It is said to be from pure springs and be pure, but I really can’t TASTE a difference. The bottle is nice. I like it. It is heavy though. The information I am seeing stats that the company is committed to a reducing their carbon footprint. The company wants to run as pure as the water. I am just saying I can’t taste a difference between this water and the other brand I buy.
Do you know about this water? Have you tried it? I just thought I would share my experience.
Posted in Water | Tagged: bottled water, carbon footprint, carbonated wate, designer water. sparkling water, filtered water, purified water, still water, Voss water | 22 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 30, 2010
With Nia you get a workout. It is not necessary to have any experience in any type of dance modality or martial arts, or any type of practice (Yoga, Pilates, etc.). Any BODY can walk into a class and join in and following their own body’s way get a great workout.
In the Nia practice there are three stages. So if you want you can take your workout into these areas. The stages are:
1—Learn the Move
When you learn the move you are learning the name, you are thinking about the move. The concentration is on placing your feet in the proper place, learning where your limbs are supposed to be. Maybe trying some of the different intensity levels and the different planes. This is the stage where you are actually doing a lot of thinking.
2—Move the Move
This is the stage we you move the move. You are doing a routine and just moving. Getting the moves into your muscle memory. Your body is learning the move. Here is where you are learning the combinations. This stage is where you let your body lead and you don’t think too much. The body has an intelligence of its own and if you let it sense it can flow.
3—Energize the Move
This is the stage that you can achieve once your body knows the move. This stage could be during a song the first time you do it, if you feel comfortable and your body senses the moves you might be able to just put the energy into it from one of the Nine Movement Forms. Or it could be the stage you get to once you have done the song a few times. It really depends on the you. It depends on how you feel and how you sense the music. But this is where we really get to play with our routines, where we can energize with the energy of T’ai Chi, Tae Kwon Do, Jazz Dance, or Yoga.
This weekend (10/03/10), in Willow Glen/San Jose I am holding a Nia Playshop where we will Learn the Move. We are going to play with some of the moves that make up the 52 Moves of Nia. Then after we are going to have a Nia Class where we Move the Move. Since we will have spent an hour Learning the Moves I am hoping that some of you will be able to Energize the moves. See you Sunday!
Posted in Nia | Tagged: 52 Moves of Nia, Jazz Dance, Nia class, Nia Class in San Jose, Nia Playshop, Nia Practice, Nia Willow Glen, Nia workout, Nine Movement Forms, Pilates, San Jose Nia, San Jose Nia class, San Jose Nia practice, San Jose Pilates, San Jose Yoga, Tae kwon do, Tai Chi, Willow Glen Nia, Willow Glen Workout, Yoga | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 28, 2010
It has been two weeks since I gave up my non-dairy creamer. I am not talking about liquid, I am talking about that white powered stuff so many people don’t like. Well, SOMEONE must like it because they keep making it. I tried to give it up before but without it my coffee lost its joy. Really it was just a matter of me being used to the taste of coffee with that stuff in it. I have been drinking it that way since I started drinking coffee, so that is how I like it. That creamer is full of all the stuff I don’t like.
I threw away the container before I got a picture but I have a copy of an old label from a nutrition class assignment. The first ingredient is corn syrup solid, the second is partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Yeah, two of the ingredients I try to avoid. One of the reasons I avoided those ingredients like the plague was because of this habit. I thought, “I am getting enough of that stuff in my coffee, I don’t need to have it in anything else.” Well, it is really hard to avoid—especially if you eat out . . .so many things have them it it. . . HFCS is bread for heaven’s sake so even if I am having a sandwich, I just don’t know. So . . . . I decided to try again to see if I could find joy in my coffee with out my beloved spoonful of chemicals and stuff I can’t pronounce and don’t even know what it is.
I have made it longer than the last time I tried. I am surviving. It is fine. I am using milk. I drink 1% so that is what we have in the fridge, so that is what I am using. Whew. I feel good getting that off my mind. Like I have said before, I am not perfect in my health habits, but I am trying to be healthier and help give others ideas and a place to share. So here’s to better health and better eating.
Have you taken anything out of your diet that you want to share about?
(Ha, I put this in the “food” category but I am not really convinced it is food. Oh, I also hope to stop by the store tomorrow to see if I can get a picture.)
Posted in Food | Tagged: Coffee, HFCS, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Non-dairy creamer, partially hydrogenated oil, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, white powered creamer | 15 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 25, 2010
I think of Nia as something to help me learn things and sometimes adjust patterns, both patterns of movements and patterns of thinking. Like sayings that we might have heard most of our lives, as in the one I posted about previously “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” you have probably heard, “if you want something done right do it yourself”. Wow. Really? If. You. Want. Something. Done. RIGHT. Do. It. Yourself. I actually wish I was that good, that everything I did, I did right. That everything I did no one else could do. Well, that is not the case. I realized a long time ago this was not true. I realized when I had a boyfriend that could do a lot of things. But it was as if his brain worked opposite of everyone else. He never approached anything like anyone else. But then the end project would be pretty cool. So I realized that he could do something right, it just wasn’t done my way.
Same thing goes with my husband. He can do a lot of things and he can do them well, but he rarely does anything like I would do it. Sometimes there are times when he is helping me and it needs to be done a certain way, say cutting a vegetable that is going into a recipe, so I will tell him that it needs to be chopped and not sliced—or whatever. But sometimes I just need to walk away while he does something. If he offers to do something or I ask him to do something, sometimes I just need it to get done and it doesn’t really matter HOW it gets done, I let it go, but I often need to walk away. Not because he can’t do it right, but because he won’t do it my way.
So, this is just another one of those sayings that I don’t subscribe to. What do you think? Are you the only one that can do things right or are you the only one that can do it YOUR way?
Posted in Just stuff | Tagged: can't teach a dog new tricks, if you want something done right, movement patterns, Nia, Nia Movement, old sayings | 8 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 23, 2010
(Click here for CURRENT schedule!)
This week I went to San Carlos to teach my Nia Class for the San Carlos Park and Recreation Department. Only a couple of people had signed up but I was hoping more would show up and sign up. As with most Park and Rec Departments and community classes, there needs to be a minimum amount of participants. Well, in this case the people that had thought were going to make it didn’t. I had just tweeted @JohnPruitt that I was going to be leaving in a few minutes when a woman came in. She said something about she guessed no one signed up and how that happens with Park and Rec classes. People don’t sign up and they get cancelled. She was hoping to just watch the class to see if she wanted to take it. Ha! I invited her to BE my class, she was game.
We did the warm up song, then the next one, and part way into the third song she said, “WAHOOOO! I like this.” After the song was over she said that was her favorite, she loved it and she could do it all night long. Made me happy. Nia is like that. She loved it. With only a couple of people signed up though, we cancelled the class, but we will try again when the next six week session starts in November (2nd, 2010).
The enthusiasm of this woman was fun and very contagious. I am confident that we have a new Nia participant in our midst. I believe that she will excitedly join in the other Nia events that happen around the San Francisco Bay Area and the South Bay Area. I love that. I love that I decided to drive up there from San Jose, to give the people that had signed up for Nia at least one class and explain in person that we need more participants. I love that even though they didn’t show up I was able to share Nia with a new person. I love that she loved it. I loved that even though it was her first time she was not worried about how she was doing—-she was just doing—and loving it.
I really enjoy working with the people in San Carlos Park and Recreation Department. They are very kind and supportive. I sense they feel sad when a class has to cancel, no one likes to see classes and programs cancelled. So maybe we can rally the troops and make the next session on Nia classes in San Carlos a huge success. I am certain my new student would love to be able to take a class with more people, more energy, more people shouting “Woohoooo!” Because Nia is like that.
Posted in Nia | Tagged: @JohnPruitt, community classes, Nia Classes, Nia enthusiasm, Nia events, Nia San Jose, San Carlos Nia class, San Carlos Park and Recreation Department, San Francisco Bay Area Nia, San Jose Nia, San Jose Nia class, South Bay Area Nia | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 21, 2010
Nia teaches me a lot of things. So does my husband. He is my computer technician. As you probably know with computers when something isn’t working correctly it isn’t always an easy fix. When he suspects what the issue is he can plan for it and figure it out and fix it. But sometimes something comes up that is not familiar. The first thing he asks me is “What have you done?” The second thing he asks is if I “Googled it”. Two times within the last nine months something has been troubling my computer. The first thing was an “Active Desktop”. The second was a HUGE e-mail. They annoyed me enough I was desperate to find relief. This time I remembered that whenever I have something wrong with my computer my techno-geek asks me if I Googled the problem. So that is what I did.
The Active Desktop “thing” happened when I wanted to save a picture from an e-mail to my computer. It was a Nia e-mail and a Nia promotional picture so I wanted to save it so that I could help in promoting the Bay Area Nia event. When I went to save it my computer asked me if I wanted to make it an active desktop item. I believe I was in so much of a rush I didn’t read the whole question, I saw “desktop” and said yes. I was thinking it was just asking if I wanted to SAVE it to my desktop. When I said yes it caused this “thing” to continue to happen with my computer. Every time I clicked from icon to icon or from document to document or webpage to webpage, my screen would go blank for a second then it would flash back up and continue on with its task. I put up with that for months. Every time my monitor went blank, my stomach would sink because I thought my computer had died. But then it would flash back up. At one point I did “Google” how to fix it, but the directions did not match with what I was seeing in my files. But after feeling sick for months I finally decided that I couldn’t take it any longer and if I broke my computer worse than it was so be it. I looked at the directions again and just kept looking and poking into my system until I found what the instructions were telling me I would find. I fixed it.
Then a month or so ago, I tried to send an e-mail. I didn’t realize it was as big as it was until my e-mail program kept showing something in my outbox. Well, it wouldn’t send it, it wouldn’t delete it, it wouldn’t do anything with that one e-mail but the rest of my e-mail was working fine. So for about a month I just put up with it, thinking there was nothing to do. But . . . I did it a second time. (Eyes rolling). As I was scanning the document I thought, “Remember to check it before you send it.” But as always when I am on my computer I got distracted and by the time I finished typing the e-mail and pressed send I had forgotten to check the size. It was huge and it wouldn’t send. So it was stuck again. Now I had TWO stuck e-mails.
So again I turn to “Google” and I found something that explained what I had to do. Now . . . keep in mind that I am pretty much a chicken when it comes to messing with my computer because I know if I break it I will be without it. So I only do things that I am confident about. The solution to fixing the e-mail was to disconnect it from the internet. I was completely comfortable with doing that because when I had a corporate job I used to do that all the time in order to connect my work laptop. So . . . .I disconnected the internet from my computer. My e-mail program had no way to try to send the e-mail (that was too big to send) so it allowed me to delete it. Yay. No more e-mail that can’t be sent and a message coming up saying “Do you want to exit with an e-mail yet to be sent?”
So . . . my point is there are things in life you can “Google”, especially if it has to do with a computer problem. Did you know that? It took me years to learn that many people post answers to computer issues. Its awesome.
Posted in Helpful Hints | Tagged: Active Desktop, Bay Area Nia, Bay Area Nia event, computer problems, computer problme, computer technician, Google, google a problem, Nia, Nia Bay Area, Nia promotion | 9 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 18, 2010
I posted a recipe for bean salad. I have made the bean salad about three times since I posted it (including that post). One time I used red onion and green peppers. I like both red onion and green peppers but it just wasn’t the same. It lacked the POP. It made it more like the other bean salads I have had. The first time I made it I checked the labels on the cans of beans and decided on the ones with the least sodium. The second time I went to the same store so I didn’t have to check the labels. The third time I was at a different store with different brands and so I had to check the labels again.
I wasn’t thinking about posting about the sodium when I was in the store so I didn’t get the information off of those brands. I went to the internet to get some of the sodium information. For the red kidney beans I found three different amounts in 1/2 cup. One brand has 340 mg, another has 436 mg, and another touted as 50% lower sodium came in at 220 mg. Don’t get me wrong, I love salt, but I would rather add it myself.
As you can see I got lucky because the brand I bought only has 100 mg per 1/2 cup.
For the garbanzo beans I found that 1/2 cup has 380 mg for one brand, another brand has 500 mg, and another as 460 mg.
The brand I bought of the garbanzo beans only has 100 mg per 1/2 cup, also. Right on!
The point I am trying to get across is that canned beans seem to have a lot of sodium in them so check your cans. Find the ones with the lowest sodium so you don’t turn a healthy dish into something not so healthy.
Posted in Food | Tagged: bean salad, canned beans, Garbanzo beans, mgs of sodium, red kidney beans, sodium. cans | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 16, 2010
I am turning to the bloggey-sphere for answers. The corners of our sidewalks were curbs and not ramps. I don’t even know if that is what they are called–ramps. Not too long ago people came and jack hammered up the corners and put in ramps. I don’t remember exactly when it was but you can see that the new ramp is still bright and new. I actually think it has been in the last two years because I think I was teaching Nia when they put in the ramps. I remember commenting on it because we always see the work trucks and the “don’t park here” signs but we can’t always figure out what work has been done. With the ramps it was obvious. The whole corner section was bright cement. 
Well, just this week the jack hammers have been back. Again they have made cement rubble of the corners. They did it rather quickly, I think. They have redone all the corners and they have replaced the ramps they created not too long ago with this metal knobby stuff.
I tried to Google it, but what I came up with was how to get a permit in San Jose to work on the sidewalk. What I want to know is what is the knobby metal for?
I would think things that need the ramp, things with wheels, like wheel chairs, skates, and strollers would not roll well over the knobs. You might be able to tell in one of the pictures that the knobby plates don’t seem to come together but it actually looks like the plates are already rusting or something.
So . . . . do you know what the knobby metal plates in the sidewalk ramps are? Also, do you know WHY the knobs are better than the cement?
I am so curious.
Posted in Misc | Tagged: Metal knob plates, metal knob sidewalk plates, Nia San Jose, San Jose Nia, San Jose sidewalk, sidewalk corner ramps, sidewalk curbs, sidewalk ramps | 10 Comments »
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