Posts Tagged ‘Nia student’
Posted by terrepruitt on March 6, 2012
Have you ever been in a situation where the reaction of the person you are dealing with is completely odd? Before I became a Nia Student and teacher I worked in the mortgage industry. I started when I was 15 going on 16. I learned a lot working with Mortgage Brokers, Real Estate Brokers, Lenders, Title Officers, Escrow Officers, County Recorders, borrowers, appraisers . . . . and the list goes on. One thing I learned early on was from a broker. While I don’t remember the exact situation (what it was he did not do), I do remember the utter perplexity I felt then the moment of absolute clarity. I have what I learned and easily applied it to many, many, many, many, many situations throughout my life. Sometimes it actually helps because I can work with the knowledge, sometimes it doesn’t help because it doesn’t matter that I know what is going on, the person is just going to be the way they are no matter what. Sometimes there is no defusing certain situations or people. The lesson I learned was actually about behavior. I observed that people tend to get over the top angry and blow things out of proportion when they are at fault. The situation I vaguely remember was that I could not do something for the broker because he had not supplied me with what I needed in order to do it. He was angry and his huge outburst completely flabbergasted me because it was not my fault, it was out of my control, in fact. . .. . and then I saw it clearly . . . .it was his fault and he knew it.
People tend to get more upset when they are the one at fault. Even when they are the one at fault they project the anger on the person they are dealing with and more often than not the situation goes down hill from there. Sometimes, as I mentioned, when you know what is happening, when you recognize that the person displaying the anger [(edited, added 02.20.13) is angry at themselves], sometimes you can defuse the situation. You can somehow let them know that it is ok they made a mistake and work to fix the situation. But sometimes that doesn’t work. Sometimes people just want to be angry. Or sometimes maybe it is that they have had such a bad day they almost can’t help but be angry. Or sometimes when the situation involves another person they can’t let go of their anger. If say, whatever it is they did in the situation affected their child or their spouse (or whomever), sometimes this is when they can’t let go . . . and I believe it is because of the guilt of their error.
In some situations it is impossible to help relieve the person’s guilt because you might not even recognize they are feeling guilty. You might not recognize that they feel bad for the situation they have created. It could be that it is not really a big deal to you and it can be easily fixed so when the person displays anger towards you, you might be shocked and not be able to work with it.
This reminds me a little of listening with love, but this is more listening with understanding. Of course, as I mentioned if you don’t have a sense of any wrong doing then it is difficult to understand why someone might feel guilty and then that could be where the listening with love comes in, right? “I have no idea what is troubling this person so that they are so angry, but I will listen with love because there has been no indication that I should do otherwise.” 🙂
With all the different ways to listen; the “not assuming” and the “understanding what someone is going through”, to the just “listen with love” sometimes communicating can be a challenge. We should keep trying, keeping talking, keep listening, even through someone else’s guilt.
Have you experienced what I am talking about? Have you seen or been at the brunt of someone’s anger because they were the one at fault? What did you do?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: angry outburst, appraisers, borrowers, brunt of someone's anger, communication challenge, lenders, listen with love, listen with understanding, mortgage brokers, mortgage industry, Nia, Nia student, Nia Teacher | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on January 26, 2012
Sometimes there are things I just don’t understand. I find that when I ask I get answers. So my questions today revolve around packaging and waste. I am not meaning to pick on any on particular company but I am so confused as to why, in a world where we are trying to reduce waste and we have to pay for bags in which to put the stuff we just purchased, is it ok to package things like this. To me both of these packages are a waste.
I have a Nia student who always smells great and she told me the name of the perfume. I asked her if she would mind if I bought some and she said, no. It was before Christmas and I thought it would be a great gift idea for my husband to get for me. I love it when people tell me what they want and I try to help him out that way too. Since he was really busy AND there was other things that was on his mind he decided we could just order it online. I was excited. New perfume. But when I opened the box the only thing I was thinking is, “You have got to be kidding me!!!! Is it REALLY necessary to have ALL of this packaging for one bottle of perfume?” As I said, since I am not trying to necessarily bad mouth the company, I tried to take a picture that didn’t directly show the name, but you can see there is a piece of folded cardboard that goes first around the bottle, then that goes in the box, then there is a sheath that goes around that. Why? Just the ONE box would do just fine, I don’t think there is really any reason for the inner piece of cardboard and the sheath. To me the whole thing reeked of wastefulness. I was actually somewhat disappointed in the company because of that.
Then I was at the grocery store and I was faced with this. REALLY?!?!?! First of all prepackaging fruits and veggies sticks me with more than I want and second it seems like a HUGE waste of material. I could have easily used one bag to put my two zucchinis in, but no, I was forced to by five and they are packaged with a papery-plastic sheet, inside a plastic tray, wrapped with more plastic, and then labeled with even more papery-plastic. WHAT IS THAT ABOUT? How is that being responsible and cutting down on waste? FOUR things, instead of one bag? I just don’t get it.
I don’t understand when we are forced to be “green” in some areas, but in other areas waste like this is allowed to continue. This type of stuff confuses me. I am not sure the shiny material that the sheath was made out of can be recycled, but I put it in the recycling along with the rest of the wasteful packaging.
Whew. Ok, thanks, I am done with my rant. 🙂 Do you ever come across packaging of a product that you feel is excessive?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: being green, Christmas gift, going green, green, Nia, Nia student, perfume, recycle, wasteful, wasteful packaging | 18 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on January 14, 2012
Nia, the dance exercise that I teach, is a great cardio workout. Classes are fun and full of energy. To become a Nia teacher one must take the White Belt Intensive. It is 40+ hours of intense learning, discovery, play, dance, reading, listening, moving, sitting, and so much more. A person that is just interesting in learning more about Nia as a practice may also take the intensive. One does not have to have the intention of teaching to participate in an intensive. In the Nia White Belt there are 13 Principles. These principles are what teachers and practitioner use to expand their Nia practice. Working and playing with the principles actually help bodies to move “better”. Nia is a body centered exercise so these principles actually help us move our bodies. The fourth Nia White Belt principle is FreeDance, this principle has eight stages. The list of the eight stages is in my post Nia Class – Levels 1, 2, 3 – FreeDance Stage 8. The fifth stage is Authentic Movement – Change.
Nia is “about” many things. One thing Nia is about is Authentic movement. Our dance is not a performance. It is not meant to be pretty. It is meant to allow us to move in our own body’s way. The idea is that we will move in our own body’s’ way and we will move as we need to move. With freedom and authenticity we will be working our bodies as they each individually need to be worked. Yes, we do have specific steps in a kata or song. But everyone’s body does the steps maybe a little differently — to their own body’s ability. With practice the body will be able to do the steps and the moves in the Body’s Way, moving the way the body was actually designed to move.
With authentic movement we are letting the body move to the music in its own way. We don’t think of how to move it, we just let it sense the music and it moves. If one is practicing the Nia White Belt Principle #4, stage 5, then the authentic movement is done for two bars, two measures of how we count our music. After two bars change the movement. Do this for each song. The idea is that after a few songs the body will have gone through all of its “normal” movements. You will have danced out all of your movement tendencies. You will have danced all of your bodies patterns and your body will seek new moves. Your body will do things it does not usually do. You might be one that often moves your hips a lot, but after a few songs and continually changing the way you move your hips you might realize that you are out of hip moves, so your body plants your feet and you end up kicking up one leg at a time. Maybe kicking is not part of your typical dance move repertoire. Maybe once your legs start kicking your arms start punching. And this was not thought out or planned it just seemed natural. Leg kick, arm punch.
So the idea is to exhaust the normal and journey into new territory. If you have never done anything like this I want to warn you, you might be a little sore the next day. If you are a booty shaker and you change to a “how-low-can-you-go-er” you will feel it the next morning. If you always keep both feet on the ground and you start kicking or even just doing knee lifts to be different, your body will remind you the next day that you did something different.
If you let your body just dance to the music and switch it up, your body will give you great feed back on how you have never moved your foot/arm/head/butt/ankle/knee/whatever-you-moved-that-was-new the next day. You will go to move foot/arm/head/butt/ankle/knee/whatever-you-moved-that-was-new and probably sense it. This information will help you learn your movement tendencies and you can learn what new moves might help you improve your body’s movements.
Try it! Put on some music and dance with Authentic Movement, then change. Keep doing this through at least five songs and see where you end up. See what new moves your body comes up with. Ready? Go!
Posted in FreeDance, Nia | Tagged: 13 White Belt Principles, Authentic Movement, cardio workout, dance class, dance exercise, dance performance, dance practice, freedance, FreeDance Stage 8, kata, Nia, Nia class, Nia Dance, Nia energy, Nia Practice, Nia student, Nia Teacher, Nia White Belt Principle #4, White Belt Intensive | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on January 5, 2012
The principles of the different belts in Nia provide a foundation for our Nia practice. There are 13 Principles in the Nia White Belt. The fourth principle is FreeDance, this principle has eight stages. Eight things you can focus on that can become a part of FreeDance. When I attended my Nia White Belt Intensive we danced through these stages when we danced FreeDance. Dancing through the stages is something that can be done for fun. It doesn’t have to be because you do Nia. It can help you express yourself by turning on some music and applying the stages to the music. Dancing through the stages is also used as a technique for Nia teachers to become better aquainted with the Nia music. It is a tool that can help in learning a Nia routine. The seventh stage of FreeDance is Choreography, the tagline is: The Accidental “Click”.
I mentioned in my post about the eighth stage of FreeDance, Nia Class – Levels 1, 2, 3, that I often skip over dancing the first six stages of FreeDance when learning a Nia routine. Part of the reason is because I actually forgot about it being a step. I don’t skip them entirely, I do FreeDance about four of the stages to the music, but I don’t do all of them. I do believe that doing all six can be a great tool, so as I mentioned, I am working on implementing this action back into my “learning of a Nia routine”. Today in fact I started employing it with a the next routine I am learning.
Stage 7 of FreeDance, Choreography – The Accidental “Click”, is something that probably happens to all dancers and group fitness teachers alike. It kind of seems to happen in more than just dance actually, but with dancers the “click” is to the music. Often with the eight stages of FreeDance you are using more than one stage at a time. With experiencing the accidental click there is going to be stage two going on. There is going to be a lot of listening. The listening is to ALL of the music; the silences, the beat, the tempo, the instruments, the words the vibrations–all of it. With Nia we are taught to dance to all music, not just the kind that we turn on and can’t help but move too. We are taught to move to music we might not actually like. Many people are the type that when you turn music on something on their body starts moving. A foot might start moving, a head might bob, fingers might tap, this happens often. There seems to be some songs that EVERYBODY moves to, they just can’t help it. But then there is music that often clears the dance floor. The “everybody move to” music is easy to dance to. But the floor clearing kind sometimes can be difficult to dance to. In Nia we are taught to dance to it all. We are taught to listen to it all.
I will be the first to admit that sometimes there are songs I don’t like in a Nia routine. Sometimes there is just one noise that is to incessant or a beat that feels off, whatever the reason, I don’t like it all. Sometimes I like the music but not the moves. Sometimes I just can’t get the choreography and the music to mesh—in my head or in my body, whatever it just doesn’t work. So I keep doing that kata until it “clicks”. Eventually it will because Debbie Rosas Stewart and Carlos AyaRosas are great at creating routines, but sometimes it takes me a bit. The “click” is what state seven is about.
Stage seven is connecting to the sensation of your body. I think that often times I “don’t like it” (it being either the music or the move or whatever it is that is hanging me up) is all in my head. So if and when I stop thinking and get into the sensation of the body, I will find that the moves DO go with the music, I was just thinking they didn’t. Amazing how the thinking gets in the way of moving so often.
Here you have it the seventh stage of Nia FreeDance. Yes, I am posting about them backwards, from 8 to 1. It just happened that way. The days I went to type up a post my eyes fell on “Nia Class – Leve 1, 2, 3 for inspiration. So now I am going through the stages backwards. I bet even if you aren’t trying to learn a dance routine you can think of or recognize things in your life that click. Could be you are trying to remember a way to do something and you do it over and over and keep referring back to the instructions then one day “click”. In Nia it’s Choreography where we eventually find The Accidental “Click”, but in life it could be with anything. “Clicks” happen all the time. Even if you aren’t learning a dance routine, you’re familiar with that click, right?
Posted in FreeDance, Nia | Tagged: 13 White Belt Principles, Accidental click, Carlos AyaRosas, choreography, dance class, dance routine, Debbie Rosas Stewart, Free Dance, freedance, levels of intensity, Nia, Nia choreography, Nia class, Nia Dance, Nia foundation, Nia Practice, Nia routine, Nia student, Nia Teacher, stage eight, Stage seven | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 27, 2011
In Nia there are 13 White Belt Principles. The principles provide a foundation, something we can learn, practice, explore, and build on. One Nia White Belt Principle, Principle number 7 has two parts. The second part of the principle is levels of teaching. I wrote about this when I was sharing about each Nia White Belt Principle. The three levels of teaching come up again as the eighth stage in Nia FreeDance. The eighth stage is Nia Class – Levels 1, 2, 3.
The eight stages of FreeDance are:
1-FreeDance
2-Being Seduced by the Music
3-Feelings and Emotions
4-The Creative Source
5-Authentic Movement
6-Witness
7-Choreography
8-Nia Class – Levels 1, 2, 3
In addition to learning, practicing, exploring and building on the 13 White Belt Principles, Nia teachers are taught to use the eight stages of FreeDance to learn our routines and also to expand our Nia Practice and to have fun with Nia. FreeDancing to the music is often a step I skip. So is might go without saying that dancing the first six stages of FreeDance is something I often don’t do when I learn a routine. I am going to work on using this tool, FreeDance and its stages, to learn my routines going forward. I am also going to use this tool when I go back and practice and delve deeper into the routines I already teach.
In regards to Stage 8 – Nia Class – Levels 1, 2, 3, this is something that Nia teachers need to be able to share in a class. As I stated in my post about the second half of the 7th Nia White Belt Principle, everyone’s levels might be different, but the point is that I need to be able to show you different levels. The move itself does not change, it just might be done bigger or covering more floor. If the move is a cha-cha step, then my level 1 is a cha-cha, as well as my level 2, to make it more challenging in level 3 I don’t change it to a jazz square, I just make it bigger. Or I might even show the example of it being more bouncy. There are different ways to change the level and we all have different levels so we have different needs when it comes to changing the level.
Level 1, 2, and 3 does not necessarily mean “planes” as in low, middle, high, it means level of intensity. Now how “intensity” is interpreted DOES depend on the move. As I just mentioned it could mean bigger or more bouncy. It all depends on the move itself, but either way the spirit and the energy remains the same.
I do find that sometimes I don’t have enough time to show all three levels for all of the moves. Sometimes I just stick to level one if it appears that the move is challenging to most students. Then I might briefly demonstrate level two, but go quickly back to level one because I can sense I am going to be leaving most of the class behind. In that case, what happens is if there is a student that is ready for level three they get their on their own. It is fabulous.
I do think that it is really good for me to continue to remind my students that EVERYBODY has a different level 1, which automatically means that their level 2 is different, which dominoes into the level 3 being different. When playing with dancing freely to music it is fun as a student and a dancer to experiment with different levels of intensity of a move. Sometimes the music dictates the intensity as the music itself might change intensity. Sometimes it is just amusing to change it up to challenge the body, brain, and spirit. So, even as a student of Nia or dancer that dances because you love to move you too can also experience different levels of dancing free. This is a brief look into Nia’s FreeDance and Stage 8 Nia Class – Levels 1, 2, 3.
Ready to turn on some music and dance?
Posted in FreeDance, Nia | Tagged: 13 White Belt Principles, Authentic Movement, dance class, freedance, levels of intensity, Nia, Nia class, Nia Dance, Nia routine, Nia student, Nia Teacher, Nia White Belt Principle #7 | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on November 17, 2011
A Nia student of mine reminded me of something after a Nia Class the other day. She said her daily meditation said to speak with love AND to listen with love. I have heard that before I believe, either someone posted it on Facebook or a friend posted about it on her blog. I can’t remember. The speaking with love is not always easy, but I think of it as a more common thought, a more common instruction. It can be compared to the old adage “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” A well-remembered saying. Somewhat similar. Speaking with love would be saying nice things. But the listening with love or the hearing with love, that is a little less common of an instruction. I have not heard that one for as long as I can remember as I have heard the other one. I also think it is more difficult to do than to speak with love. I mean, like the old saying says, don’t say anything if you can’t be nice. But it is difficult not to hear someone. If someone is talking you general listen and hear them, but it could be a challenge to do it with love.
We all take our experiences into situations. Our thoughts and actions are based upon our past and what we know. So I believe that we hear and listen the same way. If someone has been in relationships where their partner has lied to them, then they might hear a lie in everything. They might be listening with distrust and anger, not love. If someone is having a bad day and someone says, “Have a nice day.” they might hear it as sarcasm. Whatever it is that we are feeling, thinking, and experiencing at the moment it can definitely “cloud” how we hear things. If we are not conscious of how we are listening we can make something out of nothing. If we hear and listen in anger, we could respond accordingly and cause a fight or hurt feelings. It is not easy to always listen with love. We all have “stuff” going on in our lives. Some of this “stuff” can make us sensitive and this sensitivity can possible make us read into things. Listen with love is a practice.
I can’t remember if what I am talking about was the focus of my friend’s blog post, but I do remember my comment including the association between what she was saying and the four agreements. Listening/hearing with love reminds me of “not taking things personal”. “Things” as I mentioned. If there is something going on in my life that is making me upset, I might listen and hear things in a negative way. Or if someone else is having a bad day and I am not listening with love, I might not stop to think, “Hey, maybe this person is having a bad day and instead of snapping meanly back at them, I should remember that we all have bad days.”
Clearly there are different ways we can take “listen with love”. When I hear that, these are two ways that occur to me. What do you think of when you hear, “listen with love”?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: common sayings, Facebook post, Four Agreements, have a nice day, listen with love, meditation, Nia class, Nia student, old sayings, speak with love, well remembered sayings | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 24, 2011
There is a song about saving time in a bottle. If we could bottle time and take it out when we needed it that would be a wonderful thing. But then again, maybe just learning to manage our time would be a wonderful thing. I am one that could use to learn a few things about time management. Although as I look around me I see little things transpiring that I can use as time-helpers. One thing is the new Facebook. I believe that I get caught up in reading and commenting on Facebook a lot, but with this new change I find myself signing on then signing off quickly instead of staying on to look around. So that is a little “time-helper” for me. The new format is helping me by making me want to spend less time on it. Spending a little less time on Facebook is one thing that would allow me more time. For some they pack their schedules so tight they don’t have breathing room. There is no time to just “BE”. No time to just enjoy the moment. No time to decompress and de-stress. It is as if pressure is on all the time.
A Nia student of mine and I were talking about having breathing room. She is one of those people who packs her schedule really tight. She was sharing with me that she had wanted to go to a Nia event very badly but trying to squeeze it into her schedule was causing a lot of stress. Even though the event was something she really wanted to do the idea of trying to fit it in a jammed packed schedule was causing stress. Nia is joyful and is the opposite of stress. The fact that trying to fit this Nia class into her schedule was causing her stress and was negating the joy. Reluctantly she decided not to go, she told me that with releasing that commitment she had a great feeling of relief. She no longer had to figure out driving time, class time, and scheduling all her other work around that. As much as she missed not going to the Nia class it was necessary to take it off of her schedule in order to allow her less stress. And it worked. The moment she decided to not go, there was a release of pressure.
In our society we are programmed to go-go-go and do-do-do. Some people don’t say no to things because “they could squeeze it in between this and that”. People sometimes feel it is wrong or bad to say no. If they have a spare hour they feel it would be wrong to not accept the invitation or the task. For some having nothing to do for an afternoon is unheard of and even more so . . . . a waste of time. And they have no time to just be. Some can’t enjoy the moment. They aren’t taking the time to decompress and de-stress. They live under constant pressure.
At my next Nia class my student shared with me that after our conversation she had went home looked at her calendar and decided a few things needed to be crossed off the schedule so she could just be. She wanted to bring the sensation and the experience of just having time to relax into her everyday life. She had said that she was able to accomplish that on vacation but she wanted to work on having more time in her life. She was so excited to have done this and that our conversation had reminded her of the importance of saying, “No.” That it is ok to say no and actually have nothing to do. It is ok to say no and to keep that time free to be.
Then a few days later she sent me an e-mail she had received with this quote from Martha Beck.
We laughed at how the quote came at such a perfect time. We had been talking about “emptying our time” and then bam . . . there is it another reminder, or confirmation in fact, of exactly what we had been talking about.
Amazing how sometimes things in life just keep telling us the same thing over and over. Sometimes it is when we most need it to. I know that I am not always good at recognizing it. I know I could adjust my time a bit. I feel I have a good amount of time to be, but there could easily be some modifications in my time management to make things less stressful. What about you? Are there things you could say no to? Are there things you could adjust? Do you have “empty time” in which you can just be/de-stress/decompress/reflect? If you feel you have a lot of stress maybe you could start with little increments and see how that feels and then go from there. You might be surprised how great it feels to relieve some of that pressure and give yourself some time.
Posted in Misc | Tagged: emptying our time, Facebook, Facebook change, Martha Beck, Martha Beck Quote, new Facebook, Nia, Nia class, Nia joy, Nia student, pressure cooker, saying no, stressful schedules, time in a bottle | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 19, 2011
Wow. I was practicing a new-to-me Nia routine this morning. I had taught it Monday but to me there is always room for improvement. I can always know my music more intimately. I can always cue better. I can always do a move differently. That is the thing about Nia. There is always so many ways to do the move. I find that it is best to keep it simple when first introducing a new routine. It is best to just do the basics and let the class get it down a bit before showing them any alternatives. The Nia students that get the basics down quickly can easily pick up on alternative ways to do the move themselves. Because they are already at the point of expanding. But I try to remember to keep it simple so I like to practice and learn it better. It is not always easy when the music just “makes” you move. It is easy to get carried away in the music and just start dancing. That is what Nia allows you to do, stick to the routine or dance your own dance. Well, this morning I kind of had a “routine”. Well, at least I had a plan. Ok, maybe more accurately I had a list. But sometimes even though you start out doing the first thing on the list and even the second thing, you get off the path.
It doesn’t even have to be a big thing that gets you off track. It doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Sometimes it could be a little thing or a good thing that derails you. But either way, you are off track. You find yourself at 11:00 pm with nothing to post about. I thought I had all afternoon to think of something, research it if necessary, write it up, then post, but I got off track.
THEN . . . I typed up this entire post. I was just about to add a link and save it and the laptop I was working on shut down. And I was writing in Notepad because I don’t like writing in the little box that WordPress gives me nor do I like the “full page version”. I write in Notepad, the laptop doesn’t have MS Word so it doesn’t automatically save. So this is my SECOND attempt at this post. And I am sorry to say, but the first one was much better. I had deposited all my thoughts onto the screen so I forgot them.
I am that way. I write something down so I don’t have to remember it and believe me, I don’t. I type up a thought, an idea, a post, I don’t remember it. It as if putting it in type takes it out of my head and leaves a blank spot. Which I guess can lead me right back to my post. I had a blank spot for it.
I even found myself click on “random articles” on Wiki. I figured I was safe clicking on “random” on wiki it is not like video roulette where I don’t know what I’ll get. I got a few about people I had never heard of. One person had been in “Charles in Charge” so I have been signing that for an hour. But another was about “Feather Bowling”. Made me laugh. Apparently:
Feather Bowling is a game played with wooden balls shaped like wheels of cheese. The balls are rolled down a dirt or synthetic alley towards a feather sticking out of the dirt at the other end. The object of the game is to get the ball as close to the feather as possible.
The only place to play the game in the United States is the Cadieux Cafe in Detroit, Michigan.
Who knew? Well now we do. And some of us might even have the theme song from Charles in Charge in our head. Either way, I posted and I shared and that is where I am right now. How about you? Signing? Dancing? Writing down thoughts and forgetting them? Feather bowling? Staying on track? Talk to me . . . .
Posted in Misc | Tagged: dance routine, derailed, Feather Bowling, Nia basics, Nia class, Nia Music, Nia routine, Nia student, Nia Teacher, Notepad, off track | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on March 31, 2011
The doctor in my Nia Class had given me the homeopathic medicine, Trauma. I really liked it so I asked for more. She said that she likes Traumeel, so I agreed to try it. Both of them say they relieve the same things (muscular pain, sprains, pulls, and bruises). The first ingredient in the Traumeel is Calendula officinalis, which is the fourth ingredient in Trauma and it shows “Garden Marigold” in parenthesis. This ointment has a lot of the same ingredients as Trauma but they are in a different order. So this ointment is very similar to the Trauma.
It is a bit greasy and has a slight odor. I just put some of it on along with some Trauma for comparison. After I put the Traumeel on I had to wash my hand. It is not extremely greasy but just greasy enough that I can’t just rub it into my hand. I am actually not convinced it works as well as the Truama. It actually smells like medicine, somewhat like a band-aid, it is not a strong odor, but compared to the Trauma it is strong because Trauma has absolutely NO odor at all.
When I was talking to my Nia student about Traumeel she mentioned that they have an oral medicine that can be taken. My Nia friend mentioned it too, in the comments of the post regarding Trauma. I was able to find informatnoi on the internet, Trauma has an oral medicine too. I have not taken either medicine orally.
Posting about these products is my way of getting information to people. I am sharing my opinion on the products so that you can learn something about them and then decide for yourself which one you might be interested in using yourself if you are interested in homeopathic medicine. I also welcome my readers sharing what they know. Having readers comment and share is the best part.
I have concluded that I like the Trauma better. I feel it works, whereas I don’t get the same sense from the Traumeel. As stated in this post, I put them both on. I put the Traumeel on my knee (which gets tired from my odd gait) and I put the Trauma on my toe (foot and a few other toes). My toes and foot feel nice, but my knee feels the same. The Traumeel is a bit greasy, whereas I think the Trauma is more of a soft cream that actually moisturized the area I have used it on. I smell a slight odor with the Traumeel but nothing with the Trauma.
Have any of you tried them both? Any of you tried either? What are your thoughts?
Posted in Helpful Hints, Misc | Tagged: bruises, Calendula officinalis, Garden Marigold, homeopathic medicine, homeopathic ointment, muscular pain, Nia class, Nia student, pulls, sprains, Trauma, Traumeel | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on January 8, 2011
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?
Posted in Nia | Tagged: body's way, dance class, focus and intent, four wall dance, fundamentals of Nia, line dancing, Los Gatos Nia, Nia, Nia class, Nia dancing, Nia fundamentals, Nia Los Gatos, Nia participant, Nia San Jose, Nia student, San Jose line dancing, San Jose Nia | 6 Comments »
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