Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

  • I teach yoga, Nia, and stretch online!

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Posts Tagged ‘Los Gatos Nia classes’

The Fourth Chakra

Posted by terrepruitt on February 17, 2011

The focuses of my Nia classes this week were connected to love.  Since is was Valentine’s Day this week.  Monday’s Nia class the focus was Love with the intent of allowing what was needed.  Whether it was to give love to the community, the world, or oneself or to receive love from the community, the world, or for oneself.  The playlist was LOVEly.  Wednesday the focus was peace.  With somewhat the same intent but with the addition of the peace inviting in calm.  The playlist was the same . . . love, kisses, and hearts.  Tomorrow’s class in Los Gatos the focus will be the fourth chakra, the heart chakra.

The routine I’ve put together allows for the many opportunities to move the upper back, chest and the ribs.  Our intent will be move the physical area where the heart chakra is located in order to open the heart chakra.  Opening this chakra invites feelings of joy.  Joy shares company with calm.  With joy and calmness as companions additional positive feelings, sensations, and states of being are experienced such as compassion, prosperity, and abundance.  This also allows for connections to peace and harmony.

Also with moving our heart chakra we are enhancing our circulation.  Concentration and focus is a powerful tool.  While we might move our upper back, chest, and ribs it will undoubtedly affect our circulation but with the additional focus on the fourth chakra we can bring extra attention to it.  Bringing whatever healing to our heart chakra that might be needed.  This will round out the week of love quite well, I believe.

Posted in Chakras, Nia | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Mind Body or Body Mind

Posted by terrepruitt on August 1, 2009

A lot of practices claim to be mind-body practices. I believe the idea is to engage our mind to control our body.

Well, I like to call Nia body-mind. For me calling it body-mind reminds me that we are first going to the body. We are engaging our bodies in movement and allowing them to move freely. Then we can allow our minds to loosely focus on what we are doing. So we don’t want our minds controlling our movement, but we want our minds registering the sensation so as to give it full power and allow us to acknowledge what feels right.

Let me give you an example of what can happen:

The music starts, and like a lot of people, we begin to move without even thinking, we start to sway or wiggle, or whatever the body senses the music is telling it to do. But then—CLICK!   The mind engages and then we start to THINK about how to move, then we start judging  movement, then we start choreographing movements, then we realize that we are thinking, thinking, thinking. UGH! I would be the latter as mind-body, my brain is thinking and I am doing what it tells me.

In Nia, one of the greatest tools to learn is to be body-mind and just let the body go. The body can listen to the music on its own. Then when you are able to do that, it is amazing how the body knows what it needs. It can move you in a way that your mind might keep you from. Your hips can thrust or gyrate, your shoulders can shimmy, your feet and skip and jump, and your voice can be heard—all without judgment from yourself.

Also, if we let our bodies lead us, it will keep us from doing something that is too much or not in the best interest of our bodies. Our bodies seek balance and health. When we are working out, if we are allowing our bodies to be the guide we can get the exact kind of workout we need. As our bodies guide us to what we need we can concentrate with our mind to understand the sensation that we are sensing with our bodies. When our bodies get the workout it needs both our body and our mind feel great.

I think if you have not tried Nia it will be difficult for you to “get” what I am saying. I would like to invite you to go to the Nia website and see if there is a class near you or look at my class schedule and see if one of my classes (I teach four per week) works for you.  There are Nia classes in San Jose, Los Gatos, Mountian View, San Ramon, Oakland, Pleasanton, Palo Alto, Los Altos, all over, one of them has to work for you.  Go out and try it!

Posted in Nia | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »