So, I have not posted a few times when I normally would have. I was really going to make a huge effort to post on all my self-imposed scheduled days this month. The Friday Photos are really helping. I was confident I could do it, even with all of the Holidays. I know that I can at least post on Friday even if I can’t think of anything to write because it is just a picture. The 11th was a Holiday, Veteran’s Day, and I had planned to be out of town, but I was going to have it all set up to go. I was going to be out of town taking my dad to his surgery for cataracts. My hubby and I were going to leave late Thursday night to take my dad to an early appointment on Friday. But on Tuesday a call from a neighbor had me concerned so I was going to go to my dad’s and see what was up then come home Wednesday, teach my Nia and stretch class on Thursday and get ready to be gone for the weekend. But, I got a surprise when I got to my dad’s house. He was not alive. My dad was dead. It was completely unbelievable. I am still having a hard time believing it. I still stop and think, “Wait. What?” So here I am writing about death . . . again.
I was just starting to feel really sad about my mom’s death, really feeling the loss, yet at the same time I felt like I was starting to be able to find that bubbly joy again. Sounds odd and contradictory, but that is what I was feeling. For me, it is almost as if for the first few months I could just say that I hadn’t seen her in a while. Ya know, life gets busy . . . it has just been a while since I was able to visit. Then after a year or so I really started to miss her . . . I couldn’t act as if it has just “been a while” since we visited. Then recently I was really missing her. It has been way too long since I heard her voice or seen her or gotten a hug from her. It is as if the missing of her was settling in to my body. At the same time I felt like there were days where my dance was just bursting with joy.
And now here I am in a shocker of a situation.
So I am busy dealing with death. This one is all on me. So I might be absent from my blog a bit more than usual. Or I just might be posting about death a lot. Or I might just stick to cat stuff for a while. Cat stuff is easy. There are always pictures to post of cats. Our cats are awesome and while there might not always be a cute or funny story to tell there are always tons of pictures that I could post.
When I get home at noon on Wednesday it seems like the day goes by really quick. I am working on my Nia routine for class the next day. I am working on the stretch routine for class the next day. I might have to put together something for yoga for the class the next day. Plus I have a blog post I would like to write. So I just don’t have a lot of time to think about dinner. Well, tonight was one of those nights. I hadn’t even really thought about a blog post during the day. And I was making up dinner as I was cooking it. I really didn’t know what I was doing. Cooking the steak we have is always an adventure. I hadn’t really thought about a blog post as I was flying by the seat of my pants as I cooked dinner. At the last minute I thought well this might work and I snapped a couple of pictures. I didn’t really know how I was going to cook the meat or gnocchi. I had taken out two packages of meat. I thought each one was a steak, but it turned out each one was two cuts of meat. Yay. Now, we have dinner for tomorrow, well at least the meat part. I always try to have some gnocchi in the freezer, I thought it would go well with the steak. But I wanted it different – normally I just boil it. I thought after I boiled it I could pan fry it, to give it that crispy brown. My friend taught me that.
I have a friend who used to make . . . now I don’t even remember what type of gnocchi was . . . I think it was butternut squash gnocchi. Perhaps it was sweet potato. I didn’t even like gnocchi until she gave it to me. She apologize when she gave it to me because “it didn’t turn out right” and she recommended pan frying it. I thought, “Ok, whatever.” It wasn’t potato gnocchi so I thought it must be better cooked differently. Turns out ALL gnocchi is better cooked that way. But her gnocchi was THE BEST. It was sooooooo yummy.
Most gnocchi has to be boiled first and then it can be pan fried. Well, that is the way I like it best. With a little bit of browning on it. I had never done such a large batch before and some of it broke up and got a little mushy, but then the mush browned so I was ok with that. I threw in some kale and it rounded off our steak great.
Do you like potato gnocchi? Do you like it boiled? Have you ever tried browning it?
Some people might wonder what a stretch class is like Not the difference between yoga and stretch, but what a stretch class is like, what we do in class. I am sure all stretch classes are a bit different. My feeling is that basically you want to stretch the entire body. Different bodies are going to have different needs. Someone might have really tight hamstrings and perhaps need a lot of stretches that stretch the hamstrings. Some people might have tight calves and need a lot of stretches that stretch the calves. Someone might not have chronically tight triceps, but might need a good stretch for them because they used them a lot the day before. So there might be some people with specific needs, but everyone can usually use a full body stretch. So I thought I would share a stretch workout we have done so you can see what a class might be like. As with a Nia class that has a “map” of seven cycles consisting of setting your focus and intent, stepping In, warm up, get moving, cool down, and floorplay, in our stretch classes I use the body. I basically go from head to toe. We just start at the top and work our way down. Sometimes we do some middle work in between because I want us to be standing and it is what we can do standing. Or we might do some foot stretches while we are seated in the beginning, but generally I like to work from head to toe.
The “13 joint” in this sample the Nia Thirteen Joints Exercise. That is just one way to get the 13 major joints moving. “Posture” is just us setting up with a long spine for the movements to come. The “bend” is where we are standing and we keep our weight evenly distributed over each foot and bend left then right, closing one side and opening the other. Then the lean is where we shift our weight to get a stretch. “Peacock” is what I learned the movement as, where you clasp your hands behind your back then fold over and let your hands fall over your head to the earth. I cannot remember where I learned it as that, but that is what I call it.
The “on all four hip circles” is being on all fours and moving your hips to the left, back, right, then forward, then reversing and going the other direction. Hug (alt.) is literally hugging yourself with one arm on top then switching so the other arm is on top. Great way to open the shoulder area in the back. “Wind releases” are hugging one leg to the chest then the other.
We hold each stretch about 30 seconds. Sometimes it might take us longer than anticipated to get into a stretch or I might see some really uncomfortable people, so I adjust. If someone walks in with an obvious issue or states something or has a request we can switch things up. It is very flexible. Ha, ha, ha. That is what we are working towards.
Any questions? Care to join us? Care to try this at home?
My last post having something to do with the beach was in April, when my hubby and I had a little get-away. While many people go to the beach much more often, it is pretty good for me to have gotten to the beach again only four and a half months later. I was going with a friend to take a Nia class over the hill. After the class we were going to go have breakfast then go to the ocean. We always figure if we drive over the hill we might as well go to the ocean. Turns out, the Nia class wasn’t being held but we decided to go over the hill anyway. First we had breakfast at a place not too far from the ocean. Then we sat there, at the breakfast place, talking for about an hour. It was kind of overcast and we had no plans so we weren’t in a hurry. But we finally did make it to the beach. It was awesome. Just a handful of people and a nice little cloud cover. First we walked one way on the beach, then back the other way. Then we decided to sit down. The weather was perfect! The sun actually came out around noon. We just talked and enjoyed the ocean. We were immersing ourselves in the negative ions.
I had heard this a long time ago, but never looked into it until now. And I barely glanced into it. But I can tell you that what I am seeing out there in the way of information is that the air is full of invisible particles called ions. Sometimes these ions can be positively charged or negatively charged. Oddly enough, it is the negatively charged or “negative ions” that can possibly have a positive effect on us.
The director of research at the Center for Applied Cognitive Sciences in Charlotte, N.C. is quoted as saying, “Generally speaking, negative ions increase the flow of oxygen to the brain; resulting in higher alertness, decreased drowsiness, and more mental energy.”
The article further states:
Once they reach our bloodstream, negative ions are believed to produce biochemical reactions that increase levels of the mood chemical serotonin, helping to alleviate depression, relieve stress, and boost our daytime energy.
When I heard of negative ions long ago, I had only heard of the ocean as being a place to experience them. Or if other places were mentioned I only remember the ocean. But the WebMD article mentions mountains, waterfalls, and even the shower. So there might be more to it than just feeling good when you are in these places because you are not at work. It could be because of the negative ions in the air.
Unfortunately watching the video or playing it on your computer or device will not give you the same effects. No negative ions via video, but I thought I would share it anyway. Along with some pictures.
My friend and I sure enjoyed our breakfast and our ocean time.
Would you rather go to the mountains or the ocean?
Earlier this month I taught a yoga class. I was subbing for someone at a community center that I don’t teach at very often. In the past when I taught there I was usually subbing a Zumba class with Nia. I don’t care what class you are going to take, when you show up and it is not that class, it kinda is a bummer. Some people get very upset. Some people leave and even though they made all the effort to get to the class, they decide not to stay. Some people shrug their shoulders and say, “Well, I am here. I might as well give it a go.” I don’t blame anyone for being upset. As I said, it is kind of a bummer when you show up for one thing and there is another. Oh, I digress . . before the yoga class a woman asked me if I taught Nia. When I said yes she asked if I could do some Nia. I told her that I would be happy to lead her through a song AFTER the yoga class if she would like. The demo was awesome. I was amazed.
After the yoga class, I asked a few of the members that regularly come to Nia if they would mind dancing a song with me and the student who asked about Nia. So a few of the woman who dance with me regularly stayed to help out. But others stayed too. It was really cool. I did one song and they were so enthusiastic, I did another song. I bet I could have done an entire routine and they would have stayed for it.
It was really cool to have people who were new to Nia . . . who had never even heard of it . . . dance so enthusiastically. And, the most amazing part to me . . . they sounded. They shouted and whooped and hollered. That was really amazing. It is a challenge for so many of us to make noise while we exercise. So many of us were taught to be quiet. You weren’t supposed to grunt or huff-n-puff or even breathe loudly. So not a lot of people are used to making noise. These women jumped right in on it!
As I wrote in my post, One Person Making A Lot Of Noise, it only takes one person to help encourage the others. I think the members that were from the regular Nia classes helped a lot. It was really fun.
I am always happy and grateful when I get to introduce Nia to someone. So this really made me super happy and grateful because I was able to introduce it to a handful of woman. It helps a lot that the members that come to the Nia classes regularly talk about it to other students.
The members are really good and generous in talking about all the classes they like. They share with others all the information about each class and they encourage others to attend. Somewhat like the sounding . . . they make noise and others join in.
I was sitting here wondering what to write about. Needing to go make dinner and I thought of that class and it made me smile. And I thought I would share. While it might not make you smile . . . it will make me smile again, in the future when I read this post. You know most of this is for me anyway.
I’ve talked about Sounding in Nia before. Do you go to an exercise class where you make noise? Perhaps a yoga class where you chant? Perhaps another type of dance class where you hoot and holler?
Last week I was walking to my car from class. I had just taught yoga and Nia, so I was feeling tall and in good posture. I was sensing the spaces that allows for comfortable movement. I looked up at a woman coming towards me and at first I thought it was a woman I knew. The woman walking toward me bore a resemblance to my friend, but as I watched her it occurred to me that the woman I was looking at had completely different body language than the person I thought it could be. The woman I was thinking of walked tall and erect. She exuded confidence. The person walking towards me didn’t do that (stand tall) or give off that impression (confidence). It made me pause. It made me think. It had me saying to myself, “Egads, what does my posture say?”
When I am walking on a campus of one of the places I teach, I try not to use my phone. There are occasions where I have gotten delayed by traffic so I am turning my phone to airplane mode and preparing my music because I am going to be walking in with less time than I would like to have before starting class. But, I think of walking to class as a time where I might have an opportunity to engage a member or student, so normally I am not on my phone. I don’t usually walk bent over/looking down. But I see a lot of people who are.
I AM normally juggling with my stuff, I take in my purse, a canvas briefcase, a water bottle, my phone, my keys, sometimes a jacket, sometimes other papers, sometimes my yoga mat. So I am sure my posture is not very regal looking. And when I think about it, I love the people I see who walk tall and look out at the world.
I often think about my posture while I am sitting at my desk, or watching TV, in a yoga class, or teaching a yoga class, but I don’t usually think of it while I am walking. And I don’t usually think about it as an identifier. As in I saw this stranger’s face from afar and thought it could be my friend, but then her posture and her gait made me realize instantly it was not my friend. Even though I don’t think about it all the time, it is something we do, right? We include body movement in the way we identify people. The way we carry ourselves is part of our identity. Well, duh, huh?
Sigh. I don’t really know where I am going with this. Perhaps I want to be more conscious of my posture. Not just because I believe standing tall and having good posture is good for me, but I guess I would rather have part of my identity be tall, erect, confident, than bent over, slumped, and juggling. Hmmmm.
What do you think? Do you think about your posture at all?
I teach classes at a city community center. We are fortunate enough to have a dance studio at the community center. Even though Nia is non- to very low impact, it is important to dance on dance appropriate flooring. If you are going to a, let’s say a festival and planning on dancing on the pavement for a few hours one afternoon, that is fine, but if you are planning on going to an exercise class one to three times a week, the floor needs to be appropriate. We have a nice floor at the community center. It is in the dance studio which is right off of the front desk. A lot seems to happen in the rooms past the studio. I think the preschool or small children’s’ area is past the dance studio. The dance studio has two doors. It is so cute the number of small children that walk by and stop to look in at us. Some stop to watch. I think children are drawn to dance.
A couple of weeks ago, I looked up to see a small girl looking in at us. Then I saw a hand reach out to grab hers, and she pulled away because she wanted to stay and watch. She was mesmerized. Her eyes were big and she was just standing there completely still watching. Some kids start to move while they watch. All of them get wide-eyed when any of us make eye contact with them, but as soon as we say, “Hi!” or wave, the face breaks into a smile. So many want to join us.
I always want to stop the class to ask them what intrigues them. Is it just dancing in general? Is it that we are usually laughing and having fun? Is that the was are making noises? Could be they are attracted to the whooping or growling? Could be my wild tie-dyed shirts? Or the energy in the room? I don’t know. I often wish I could ask. Especially to that little one who was mesmerized and really did not want to be dragged away.
Sometimes it is really fun because there will be a line of them . . . like a whole class walking by so we get to wave a lot and we get a lot of waves back. Also, last week, we think a group was in line for the water fountain which is right outside the door. That was funny. Because we went, “WHOOO!” then we heard “WHOOO!” from the hall. So then we went, “WHOOWHOO!” and we got a “WHOOWHOO!” back. We were able to include them in our class via vocals for a couple of minutes. It was super funny.
Kids are so drawn to dance. You know, you’ve seen those videos of the little ones just dancing away to a song they hear in the store or in the car. They have not yet learned to be self-conscious of their movement or care what other people are thinking. They just hear the music and they move. It is so wonderful to witness. I wish we would never lose that.
Wow. We are having the best weather here in the South Bay Area. It is June and I have my windows open! Usually it is too hot and we have everything shut up until it cools down. At about 8:30 or 9:00 pm we open the house and try to let it cool down. We keep the windows open for as long as we can hoping that will help keep it cool for the next day’s heat. But we have not been having heat! YAY! So excited. So loving it. The other day when I got up, I was enjoying the hummingbirds around the feeders. There was four to five of them. When I got home from teaching Nia and yoga, I noticed the feeders were empty, so I texted my hubby asking him if he would make food that night. He is the expert hummingbird food maker. That is his job. I made sure they were cleaned out so all he had to do was “cook” and fill the feeders. And, today, I was able to enjoy the fruits of his labor. With the weather being so awesome, I had the doors open so I could hear their chittering. I can also hear the buzz of their wings. So awesome. I love it.
I was watching them fly all around and I was able to take this video. As I often say when I take pictures or videos – and it sounds lame, but hey, that is the way it is – I couldn’t see what I was shooting. The sun was very bright and I was at an odd angle – half in, half out of the house. I was trying not to disturb the birds. I THOUGHT I was capturing two birds on the feeder. I also was fascinated by the crazy one that is off in the distance. See him? He was flying around as if he were drunk. It was so funny. When I looked at the video I was so surprised to see FOUR on the feeder. I mean, that happens, that is why I wanted to be sure to fill the feeders again right away. But I didn’t even see them, when I was recording. That portion of the feeder was out of sight. Basically only my arms were sticking out of the house trying to capture the birds eating.
I could sit there all day and take pictures and make recordings, but . . . I do have other things to do.
I have not been able to get a good picture of an oriole yet. They are very shy and fly away the moment I move towards the door or window. I hope to have all summer long to try to get a good photo.
I love our hummingbirds – oh, except the on that was getting back at me for walking by him. I was outside, there was a bird on the feeder. I didn’t want to wait for him to finish so I squeezed by as close to our yard furniture as I could . . . giving him as wide of a berth as I could. He flew off the feeder. I turned around to and said, “Sorry about that.” And he flew up and then flew straight at me! Bugger!
They are so entertaining.
As a note . . . there is no added coloring to the water, it is that color because of the sugar. You can read about that in my post Another Case Where Less Might Be More.
Do you have hummingbirds? Do you have other birds?
In Nia we teach facing a mirror with our backs to the students. The mirrors help me stay connected to the class. I can look in the mirror and make eye-contact with someone. I can peruse the room and see what is going on. It is different from the way it used to be when I took Jazzercise so many moons ago. The teacher faced us and would do mirror actions. When the class went left the teacher would actually go to his right. When we went right the teacher went to his left. When we moved forward the teacher also moved forward coming toward the class. When the class moved back the teacher would go back. The teacher facing the class allowed for face-to-face connection. The other day I was teaching a class and I was doing the “mirroring” and as I was pausing in the movement, I realized why I didn’t like “mirroring” as much as teaching with my back to them. I couldn’t share my sensation. I could not teach what I was sensing.
I think part of what makes Nia so joyful and fun is that the teacher is having fun. We are taught to be in our bodies and dance. We learn routines, but if while teaching the music motivates us to do something off from the choreography, that is fine. We get to play. We get to sense what is happening in our bodies and share it with the class. Then the class gets motivated to dance what is in their bodies . . . their individual body.
When I was paused in that stretch I wanted to tell them what I was sensing and have them explore their bodies sensation, but I couldn’t. I had to pause and adjust my mind and my words because we were not bending the same way. So, yes, I could say, “side” leaving out which side, but it felt less authentic because we were not experiencing the same side. Silly, I know, but it was a thought that popped into my head as I was teaching. Sometimes there are no mirrors available in the classrooms I am assigned to teach in, so I have to teach facing the class and that is fine, but I really like having mirrors.
Also, I notice that when I am facing the students even when I used left or right or even use a landmark in the room . . . there are some that pause for a second in confusion. They are looking at me and seeing me do the opposite from what I am asking them to do and you can just see the internal struggle in the face. This is especially the case when instructing twists. Twists are already a little challenge for the brain so when the arm goes up and around and the leg goes up and around, crossing over the mid-line of the body, the brain really likes to see it as the body is to do it. The mirrored way really has people all twisted.
While we don’t have really complicated steps in Nia, it seems like the students learn them faster when they can see exactly how it is to be done. They don’t have that extra brain work to do of adjusting for left and right. They see my left foot going over to the right side and they get it. It takes a lot to see the right foot going towards them and over to the left while I am telling them to take their left foot front and over to the right.
It is nice to dance without the mirrors sometimes, as I wrote about in my post Mirrorless Inward Reflection. For some it helps them be less concerned about how they look while they are dancing. It can allow people to be more introspective. It can enable people to connect to their own Conscious Personal trainer. It is a good thing and definitely something I / we can do when we do not have access to mirrors, I just happened upon an insight recently and thought I could share.
Do you like to take classes with mirrors? Do you find it easier to follow when the teacher has his/her back to you?
I am just going to put this out there. I have this on my website, but not everyone goes there and someone might see it here and . . . well, why not, right? I could be teaching a class at a time when you want to take a class. You could be somewhat curious about Nia, but maybe haven’t gotten around to clicking on my website to see my schedule. It could be on your list of things to do. Maybe you are looking for a yoga class. I teach Nia three times a week. I teach yoga twice a week. I just started teaching a stretch class but we are taking an eight week hiatus (until August 11, 2016) during the busy summer months because the community center doesn’t have the room for us. They have so many summer programs for kids, it is crazy (good). I am subbing a gentle yoga class for three weeks at Mind Body Zone. And I have one Sunday Nia class rotation at the NW YMCA this month.
Nia is a cardio dance . . . meaning it is an aerobic workout. It is low impact, meaning we don’t jump high and land hard, but it can be INTENSE. You control that part. If you get low and reach high and move a lot you will get a big workout, if you don’t get down and keep your movements small then you will get a smaller workout. You get to decide what type of workout you want when you attend class. The music is varied from a little bit of Pop, with some Jazz, all the way to Rock. It is a place you can go to get some “me” time and have fun.
Since there really is no standard definition of gentle yoga you might not know what you are getting when you go to a yoga class. So you might want to know that I make yoga gentle by not holding the poses for a long time or flowing through poses. We do a pose at least two times so that we can tryout the modifications. If you know a pose we are doing and you want to get right into it right away, that is fine. We general do a few poses either standing or on the floor then we switch. It is an important thing to be able to get down on the floor and get up again. So we make that part of the routine. “Gentle yoga” does not mean beginner, it means that we do yoga gently.
In stretch we just work our way down the body. We stretch from head to toe. We hold the stretch from 20 to 30/40 seconds. We do standing, sitting, supine/reclined (on the back), and even some prone (on the belly) poses. Sometimes we use straps. Everyone is encouraged to stretch honoring their own body.
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