First of all, to clarify, Nia uses triads in their training and they are continually updating them, they may change the language or possibly rearrange the order, but they have used and are still using triads. This week our lesson was on Nia White Belt Principle 5. It has four triads, one for the main principle and three more to help with understanding the principle and being able to have it. The Nia White Belt Principle 5 is Awareness. White Belt is all about the body so Nia White Belt P5 – Awareness is about body sensory awareness.
The main triad’s three points are: Body, Message, Response. There is the body and we get messages and there is our response to the messages. We have a relationship with our physical body and our energy body which are shown on the “wings” of the triad. Your nose could have a tickle and your body sends you that message. You have a relationship with that sensation in your body and with the energy/feelings it generates. And your response could be to scratch your nose. That is a very simple example.
The idea goes much deeper than that and it has three additional triads. The first one is about skin, joints, and connective tissue and our perception of pain and pleasure. The second one is about awareness, stimulation, and self-healing with a temperature gauge for pain and wings of logic and mystery. And the third is about Dancing Through Life, Living Meditation, and Life as Art with the sacred athlete at the center and body and life as wings. Dancing Through Life is the “doing” and Living Meditation is the “Non-Doing”.
There is so much that I can say about each triad but I always want to leave a little mystery so that when you get the book or take the training and dive deeper into it yourself you will have somethings still new to you. I just want to say a few things about some of the points, self-healing in Nia is not telling you that you can heal yourself without medical assistance, it is more to the effect of moving to heal or in a way that allows your body to heal and not cause injury. If in your dance you step really wide into a sumo stance and you feel pain in your knees, you could “self-heal” by adjusting to a smaller sumo stance. This is a simple example, but it is about having awareness and moving to stimulate self-healing.
Also, I wanted to get a little more detailed about Dancing Through Life . . . one of my favorite sayings and ideas of Nia. A part of the idea is to — literally, DANCE THROUGH LIFE. Again, remember that Nia has a broad definition of “dance”, so this doesn’t mean do the waltz or plies though life, it is more like noticing everything you do is your dance. Brushing your teeth is your dance, making your dinner is your dance – the DOING of life is your dance, The non-doing is living meditation. Stop and notice things. Then allow Life to be Art.
Remember there is The Nia Technique Book that covers all of this. As I have been saying the language now in 2020, is a bit different, but the core of the information is the same. So even though The Nia Technique Book was published in 2004, you would still get a lot out of it. Also, this training is available to anyone, you don’t have to want to teach Nia, you just have to want to maybe look at things – things that are not new to you – a little differently, from a body centered outlook. Currently there are many trainings happening (about to happen) online.
What here sparks your interest about Nia White Belt P5 – Awareness? Are you living in a body that is always in pain? Do you think of yourself as Dancing Through Life? Are you living in a body that is always in pain?
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