Posts Tagged ‘Nia’
Posted by terrepruitt on February 24, 2025
I’ve posted about breathing before. The one about breathing being a good thing, how we shouldn’t hold our breath and it mentions “sounding” in Nia because breathing is important especially when you exercise so actually making a sound can assist with breathing. There are multiple posts about pranayama the breathing techniques/exercises that are the fourth limb of yoga.
A couple of years ago I saw a product I thought was cute so I ordered some for my students. They are called Calm Strips. I ordered one for box breathing, one that is an infinity loop, and one that is a rainbow. The idea is to use your finger to slide along the strip, giving you something physical to assist with the breathing and perhaps help to remind you of the inhale, hold, exhale.
I think sometimes we all need to take a breath. And sometimes we may want 
to do it as more of a practice, like pranayama. Another post I have about breathing references a small 2001 study about how Rhythmic Breathing may have both psychological and physiological benefits.
I was just sitting at my desk and saw the envelope with the Calm Strips in it and I thought I would share. The strips are actually stickers so you can attach them to things and have them available for when you may want to use one. But, of course a calm strip is not needed to take a breath and/or to have a breathing practice. You basically just need to remember to do it or do it when you think you need it.
Here is a picture of the infinity loop and rainbow strip. I gave all the “box breathing” ones away, but I have the little card that came with them.
Pranayama posts:
Equal Breath
Cool Breath
Three Part Breath
Ujjayi Breath
What about you? Do you ever need to just take a deep breath? Do you ever stop and just focus on your breathing?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: box breath, breathing, Calm Strips, Cooling Breath, deep breathe, equal breath, Nia, pranayama, rhythmic breathing, sounding, sticker, take a breath, three part breath, Ujjayi Breath, Yoga | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 28, 2023
I do love all the decorations. When do you take yours down? Do you take stuff down after the Twelve Days of Christmas? Do you embrace the Epiphany and take the Christmas decorations after? Do you take stuff down the day after Christmas? Do you take decorations down on New Year’s Day? I like to wait as long as possible, but usually our tree dictates when we take it down. Sometimes it lasts longer than others. Last year I was sad because it was a great tree and would have lasted until February but we had to rush to take it down because we had workers coming in. So sad. I am not sure this one will last until the 12th day of Christmas, but we will see.
Putting decorations up and taking them down has been a bit of a challenge these past years because I use our living room as my yoga/Nia/stretch Zoom studio so I have to keep the area clean and open . . . when in the past I could have boxes and ornaments all over. We will see how it goes this year.
So . . . when do you “undecorate”?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: "undecorate", Christmas decorations, Christmas lights, Christmas ornament, classes online, Epiphany, living room studio, New Year's Day, Nia, stretch, Twelved Days of Christmas, Yoga, Zoom classes | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on June 21, 2023
The Nia “Energy Allies” are a bit different now. The Energy Allies when I learned them in 2008 were more closely aligned with The Four Agreements. In 2022 Nia reinvented the Allies a little bit because they were so similar to the Four Agreements but that is not where they originated from. According to the “Art of Sensation” the Nia Energy Allies were based on the Toltec Principles of the Nagual after Carlos AyaRosas had attended a workshop in the 1990’s. But the ideas remain somewhat the same. I feel like #2 and #3 of the “old” ones have been swapped in this new version.
Instead of:
*Speak with impeccability* it is being called “MINDFUL SPEECH”, with different bullet points with one similar to “I communication” stating “speak about your experience” but there is no mention of staying on “task” which I feel is very important in a training situation because often things get take way off track and can take away from the training.
*Don’t assume anything* number 2 is now “EMOTIONAL RESILIENCE” which I feel is more akin to “OPEN-MINDED” when I read the bullet points that mention calmness and composure.
*Don’t take anything personally* or the new three which is “OPEN-MINDED” with one bullet point being “Assume Nothing”
*Always do your best* is now “AUTHENTIC SELF” with “do your best” as a bullet point
My original intent of sharing these when I posted about them in 2010 was to give examples of how the Nia training was conducted. I appreciated that the stage was set to keep us on topic so that we could have a chance to learn the material. That we were reminded not to make up stories and again . . . go off on tangents. Also to keep in mind that things were not being said and/or done to attack us. And lastly to remind us to do our best even if that changed day to day. Since the Allies have been changed or clarified to (I believe) be uniquely Nia I want to give you the opportunity – should you decide to take any Nia training – to learn them yourself so I am not sharing all the information here.
Are you familiar with the Principles of the Nagual and/or the Four Agreements?
Posted in Nia | Tagged: Art of Sensation, Authentic Self, Carlos AyaRosas, Do Your Best, Four Agreements, Nia, Nia 2023, Nia Energy Allies, Nia training, Principles of the Nagual, speak with impeccability | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on June 14, 2023
I originally started my blog as a way to share information about Nia and movement. While I post about things “in the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me” I do tend to daydream that people will see posts about Nia and learn there is such a thing. I became a Nia teacher about 15 years ago and have done a few posts about it. Nia is always changing and updating so, as I stated in my last post, I am going to share a bit about those updates as I learn about them. But first off as a reminder when Debbie Rosas first started exploring the new movement form – the new style was described as non-impact aerobics. “But intuiting there was more to it, Debbie began her learning journey. This led to the name NIA, an acronym for Neuromuscular Integrated Action. About 20 years later, NIA became Nia – a word that simply means Nia.”*
So, it is not NIA, it is not an acronym it is Nia. Nia is just the name just like any other practice.
Photograph provided by Nia Technique, Inc.
*From the Art of Sensation
Posted in Nia | Tagged: aerobics exercise class, Art of Sensation, barefoot exerise, Debbie Rosas, Neuromuscular Integrated Action, Nia, Non-Impact Aerobics, Practice | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on June 12, 2023
I have said many times that Nia is constantly changing and evolving. In the past I have felt that Nia has remained BASICALLY the same, but has moved forward when new knowledge has come to light, I recently saw something on FB that had me looking at some of the new material and I realized I should probably do some updating to my information. I am hoping to discover that I won’t need to change too much, but we will see. We will also see how far I get as it seems that other things tend to pull my attention away.
I don’t have the desire to update every single post that I have ever written regarding Nia but in the quick look I did, I saw some things that I would like to update.
For awhile I have felt that Nia is trying to tap into more of a “self-improvement” or “self-development” type of market. When I took my White Belt in 2008 they were at the start of re-vamping the training with triads and new verbiage, but I still felt there was a strong emphasis on teaching the participants how to tap into movement sensation in order to teach. In subsequent years, I remember having conversations with White Belt graduates about some of the teaching techniques I was taught and the graduates were not familiar. Then when I took it again in 2020 there wasn’t that much emphasis on teaching the teacher.
In 2022 Debbie Rosas, one of the founders of Nia, hosted an online event called “the global Nia Wisdom Summit”. She wanted to “explore Nia White Belt Principles from a new perspective.” She was looking to change the Nia White Belt training into something other than a teacher training. And after the meeting Nia has revamped the Nia White Belt training into “Nia Art of Sensation”, saying it is somatic movement education. So things are a little different. The principles look like they have been rearranged a bit and the verbiage throughout the “Art of Sensation” manual is – to me – more complicated and less user friendly. At first glance it looks like a lot more bells and whistles with more graphics and pictures of people moving. But as always it is evident that a lot goes into Nia training material so we will see.
I am going to try to go through it and hopefully update a few things. Stay tuned.
Posted in Nia | Tagged: Art of Sensation, Debbie Rosas, Facebook, marketing, new material, Nia, Nia posts, Nia training, Nia White Belt, Nia White Belt Principles, self development, self development business, self improvement, somatic movement, teacher training, training manual, Triads | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on February 13, 2023
I have posted these feet facts before, but since I couldn’t easily find them because they are part of a larger post. I thought I would list them for quick reference:
—Feet are not just for standing and balancing, they help with shock absorption to keep the entire body from sensing the entire jolt as you move. A flexible foot is great with absorbing the impact.
—Each foot has a network of more than 100 muscles, tendons, and ligaments.
—Each foot has 26 bones and 33 joints.
—With 52 bones (26 for each foot) it is about 1/4 of all the bones in the body (206).
—The largest bone in the foot is called the calcaneus (heel bone).
—There are over 7,000 nerved endings in each foot.
—The feet have 250,000 sweat glands so an active person can produce four to six ounces of perspiration a day.
As you may guess – from that previous post – I am a big believer in moving the feet. I believe they need to be strengthened and stretched. We do a lot of that in Nia, yoga, and of course stretch. I always remind my students of their “Homework”.
Have a great day!
Posted in Misc | Tagged: balancing, bones, calcaneus, Feet Facts, heel bone, ligaments, Muscles, Nia, Standing, stretch, tendons, walking, Yoga | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 15, 2022
This is a pretty narrow tree. Since I use the room as my studio to do my Zoom classes it works. Gentle yoga and stretch don’t require a lot of room, but Nia has lateral movement so I am going left and right a lot. It is easier not to be too restricted. So a narrow tree is working ok. I was just kinda surprised when I saw it in the daylight today. It is a good tree. Looking at another photo of it though, I think it may have shrank!
What do you think?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: Chrstimas tree, gentle yoga, narrow tree, Nia, Online Classes, stretch, tall tree, Zoom classes | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on August 2, 2021
So how are you doing on the daily calendar/tracker? Do you remember it? I have it in a place where I see it so I remember it, but I have to be honest, I did have to stop and fill in a few days at a time. I do my daily thing, but I don’t always fill out the log daily. The way I color the log changed. In my first post I made a key with colors assigned to a specific movement, I figured I would change the color assignments every month (so I could use all of the pens), but it ended up primarily just one color . . . which would tend to make sense if you were doing one specific thing daily. But I had made my log for 30 minutes of movement and changed in February to just use a color for meeting that goal. Also in February I added indoor cycling to my menu of movement. So my 30 minutes could be a combination of yoga, Nia, stretching, cycling, and/or walking.
I am still using the set of pens I received at Christmas and so far sticking with a type of pen per month. January was glitter, a majority of the glitter gets rubbed off, but when I look closely I can still see it. February was metal. March pastel. April was florescent. May was regular. There are only five different types so I reused metal for June and pastel for July. I am using glitter for August, but I think I am going to use dots and stripes for the LONG/larger days . . . we will see how that goes.
Anyway . . . hard to believe we are past the halfway point in the year.
So . . . do you have a daily practice? Do you have a calendar/journal/log that you use to keep track?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: calendar, Colorful Daily Tracker, colorful months, colorful tracker, Cycling, daily log, Daily practice, daily tracker, Nia, spinning, stretching, tracking daily, Yoga | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 28, 2021
Recently I asked my students what they would consider their goals in our classes. Currently I teach gentle yoga, Nia, and stretch via Zoom. The majority of the response was they wanted to work on strengthening their core and working with light weights. So . . . that is what we are going to do. While we work on core strength and stability in yoga and Nia we don’t use weights. About the same time I asked my students this I had a conversation with a friend who reminded me of the term Sarcopenia which can be defined as “a type of muscle loss that occurs with aging and/or immobility.”
Muscles need to move in order to stay mobile and they need to be challenged in order to stay strong. There is ultimate truth in the saying, “Move it or lose it.”
There are basically three types of increased strength changes that can happen to muscle it can get stronger, in can gain more endurance, or it can get bigger. These changes are not exclusive of the other, but generally there is a focus on one because they are done in different ways.
We are going to do a quick class (30 minutes) primarily working the core isometrically and work on endurance in the arms and shoulders. This is going to be a five week series, while some people will be dropping in I am going to design the class in a progression. I still may make some tweaks but basically we will be using light weights and moving pretty fast.
We had a little demo class a couple of weeks ago and we decided we liked it so we are moving forward. For now it is only scheduled for the month of August but we will see how it goes. I have been wanting to do this for as long as I can remember so I am excited to actually be doing it.
I am also very excited to help people. I have experienced that being able to move with comfort, ease, and having a little bit of strength makes life so much more enjoyable. Have you ever had a sore back or an injury to a hand, arm, foot, or leg? You may have experienced some challenges during that time. Being able to move and have the strength to do so is so important to one’s quality of life so I am excited because I think of this as me helping people have better lives. YAY!
More information about the upcoming class can be found on my site http://www.HelpYouWell.com, you can click here to go to the specific page.
Do you have weights in your fitness routine?
Posted in Misc, Muscles | Tagged: @HelpYouWell, core stability, core strength, fitness routine, gentle yoga, issometric strengthening, light weights, muscle endurance, Nia, stretch | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 11, 2020
With our living room as my studio for Nia, yoga, and stretch I’ve had to make some adjustments that have displaced some of my Christmas decorations. I’ve had to move some furniture around and my Zoom backdrop is in the way of a table that I normally put up to display a number of Christmas decorations. So . . . I’ve been rearranging things a bit. I just put the small bottle light up tonight, and I thought that it would be the piece that allowed me to be at peace with this arrangement, but I am not sure about it yet. I will have to sit with it. I have still been up and down (there are two ladders involved) decorating so we will see once I have a chance to actually observe it. My original vision was for multi-colored strings of lights. I didn’t have them, but might be able to scrounge them up. Maybe THAT will do the trick.
Christmas decorations continue for Friday Photos in December.
How are you doing so far?
Posted in Friday Photo | Tagged: Christmas decorations, Christmas Ornaments, Friday Photo, Nia, stretch, studio, Yoga | Leave a Comment »
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