On Wednesday after my Nia Class in San Jose I was talking to one of my students. Some how we ended up on a subject that had her telling me about a friend of hers who is blind but has no issue navigating the step that is not too far from her front entry way inside her home. She was explaining that people have no problem with it on the way in, but on the way out they forget about it and usually stumble on it when leaving the house. This led to many other tangents in our conversation but one thing it had me thinking about was sight/seeing and our focus.
I was thinking that the sighted people were focusing on the door on the way out of the house. For me, I imagined myself leaving her house, part of my focus on her and saying our goodbyes, then another part on the door—–but with the door a multitude of other things would come into my mind and into my focus. I would see the door and begin to think about my car, which would make me think about my drive, which would lead me to think about what I need to do on the way home, which (depending upon the hour of the day) might have me thinking about what to cook for dinner and if I needed to stop at the store on the way home—-all of which would make me trip. I would not be focused at all on my feet and on the step and I am sure that I would stumble into the door.
With that in mind I had a focus and an intent for my next Nia class which was the one in Los Gatos. The focus was Awareness, the intent was to connect to one’s body. While I have used awareness as a focus before, and I have probably even used the same intent before, and I have even invited the participants to close their eyes, this time I did it more frequently. With this routine there is a song where we are completely stationary so closing one’s eyes to allow for complete focus on one’s body is perfect. There is also a song where we turn and face different walls (in line dancing it would be called a four-wall dance). When we turn it often takes me and other people out of the line of sight which can often lead to one “having” to be aware of one’s own body.
To me one of the fundamentals of Nia is being in one’s body and dancing in your own body’s way, but I think that we often get distracted by the things we see. I know that while I teach sometimes I will get distracted because I see my hair sticking up or I see something else I should not be concentrating on. So I think that having Awareness, with the intent of connecting to the body and adding “eyes closed” to be a great tool. We did not dance the entire routine with our eyes closed, just when it was safe to do so, when our movements were not far from our spot and there was no chance of bumping into someone. Also, it was just an invitation to assist with the focus and intent it is not something that was required.
As the teacher I do not close my eyes as much as I would if I were the student because I am teaching and making certain that all is well in the class, but I know that the few times I did I was able to really embrace the focus and the intent.
What do you think? Do you think that if you close your eyes you can focus more on your body?
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