Posts Tagged ‘Nia students’
Posted by terrepruitt on August 24, 2013
I have mentioned before that I have fantastic Nia students. Well, I also have fabulous students in my gentle yoga class. When I posted about green beans being the only beans I like, except garbanzo beans in a couple of recipes, one of my students commented asking if I liked hummus. Turns out she just made some with sweet potato. I asked if she wanted to guest post or give me the recipe so that I could post it. Just as I say about recipes she used the original recipe as a guide and made it her own. She gave me kinda what she did (pictured). In addition to bringing me the recipe she actually brought me some hummus. In a little baggie! So cute. So sweet of her. It was a perfect addition to our dinner that night because I hadn’t really planned a well-rounded meal since I spent a good portion of the day at the vet’s office with my cat. You know that all medications have side effects and one of hers had a big one so we are now on a different plan on how to handle her issue in order to deal with the issue that came up as a side effect. I had my very first Thursday morning Nia class that will be Thursdays at 8:30 am the same day. So being at the vet for hours then coming home and having to get some stuff done before having to leave for Gentle Yoga didn’t leave me time to think about dinner in detail. So having the sweet potato hummus to serve with a raw bell pepper helped a lot. And it was delicious. I modified it only by roasting the sweet potatoes and adding more water.
Hummus With Sweet Potato:
Ingredients (pictured)
1 cup peeled and chopped up roasted sweet potato* (I measured it AFTER I roasted it)
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/3 cup Tahini
7 garlic cloves, roasted (or raw)**
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup water (not pictured)
Peel and chop a sweet potato. Roast it in the oven (at about 450° F with garlic salt and olive oil). Until it is cooked to your liking.***
Put all ingredients in the blender or food processor and pulse until smooth.**** You can start with less water than 1/4 cup and add as you see fit.*****
________________________________
Recipe notes
*I measured the sweet potato AFTER I roasted it
**I used roasted garlic
***I roasted the sweet potato less than I would have if I were eating it
****I don’t have a food processor, I used my blender and I had to scrape and pulse quite a lot. I did not drizzle with oil or sprinkle with paprika.
*****I will use the “bean water” next time. (I forgot that I needed water at all otherwise I would have saved the bean water to use.)
________________________________
As you can see there are two different colored spreads in the picture. I think we might have used different colored sweet potatoes because I can’t imagine a sprinkle of paprika or her + of cumin would change the color that much. Can you?
Either way they both were delicious. Hers was more sweet. Again not sure if it is because of different potatoes or not. Could be the roasting.
Either way . . . this recipe is just a guide. A place to start. Something to look at to say, “Ok, someone has put sweet potato in a hummus and they thought it was good, now what can I do to make it my own?”
Right? So . . . . go make it and report back! 🙂
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: cat medications, cumin, Garbanzo beans, gentle yoga students, hummus, Nia, Nia class, Nia students, olive oil, paprika, roasted garlic, sick cat, side effects of medication, sweet potato, tahini, Yoga | 10 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on August 9, 2013
Hey we are INTO August! WOW! And we are at our Friday Check-In. So? How is it going? I have a lot of Good Things to add to my Goodie Jar.
I have one thing I should put in my jar because every time I use it I am so very grateful. I love showers. They are one of the best privileges on earth . . . I think. I need to put that in my goodie jar. I think they are damn good things. Aside from that I had some good things go in that jar this week.
One of the good things I had happen this week was something amazing by my Nia Students at the community center where I teach on Tuesdays. I shared this on Facebook, but I will share it here too. After class one of my students mentioned to me that the class that was being held on Thursday mornings was being cancelled so she asked if I would want to teach Nia in that time slot. I said yes. So she asked how to get it as a class. I told her she needed to talk to the person in charge of the classes at that San Jose City community center. I told her to write a note for her or send her an e-mail. She wrote a note and had the students sign it. I thought that was so cute. She said she thought it would prove that the students really wanted an additional Nia class to be on Thursdays if they all signed it.
Before I got home the person in charge of the classes at the community center called me to let me know we can give it a go! So awesome. This is definitely a good thing for my jar!
How about you? Do you have good things to add? Well, here is your reminder . . . ADD THEM!
Cheers! Have a GREAT weekend!
Posted in Good Things in the Goodie Jar | Tagged: community center, exercise class, Facebook, good things, Goodie Jar, Goodie Jar – Check In #27, great weekend, Nia class, Nia community, Nia community center, Nia San Jose, Nia students, San Jose Nia | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 27, 2013
Today we had a Nia Jam. I would have written about it right after and posted it, if I hadn’t of had theater tickets. There is a little theater in San Jose that I love (Click here for City Lights Theater) and tonight they were doing the Rocky Horror Picture Show and — wow! The singers/actors were all amazing, but wait, I digress, must be the time warp! The Nia Jam was at Stanford, the awesome Nancy Hoebelheinrich orchestrated it all—as usual. The focus was sound and movement. There were seven teachers. This was a unique Nia Jam because they decided to tie in some Kivo, which is “An Empowerment Practice that activates Voice and Body so you can do the Work you came to do.” The creator of it is also a Nia Teacher. You can learn more about it here. I really go to the Nia Jams to fill my Body, Mind, Emotional Self, and my spirit with Nia. I always have a great time. I love that I get to both teach and be a student. I am not a student enough so I really enjoy my time being a Nia student. I learn a lot as a student. I know I have shared on my blog before that I often want to just stop dancing and take notes. Often times the pearls used are ones I would love to use in my class. Today there were a few dances I would love to bring to my students. Nia Jams are such a good time.
(The white box is someone who requested to not be in the photos . . . some photos were taken before the request was made)
Nia Jams are jammed packed with energy. With so many teachers leading so many different dances it is just one big cosmic burst of energy. I do think that adding the other modality changed the tone and energy a bit, but everyone loved it and had great time. The weather here in the San Francisco Bay Area and particularly Stanford — where the Nia Jam was held — was fantastic. 
One whole wall of the space where we get to dance is doors so it is open and lovely. There are huge fans on the ceiling and several time during the hour and half that we danced, I sensed the air the fans were moving around the room and I was grateful. It was a beautiful day.
I will continue to shout from the rooftops that if you ever have a chance to go to a Nia Jam — go. I don’t just mean ones that I am a part of or ones that are in my area, I mean ANY Nia Jam. I KNOW that ALL of them are infused with the same HIGH energy and fantastic music so I know that any one you attend would give you a GREAT taste of what Nia is.
This month also happens to be the 30th Anniversary of Nia so it was very fitting that we had a Nia Jam this month.
Thank you, Nia Teachers and Nia students for coming to the Jam and making it jamming.
What song would you love to hear at a Jam to get you moving with all you have?
(I will have more pictures from the Nia Jam on www.HelpYouWell.com shortly, so check it out! Thanks!)
Posted in Nia | Tagged: 30th Anniversary of Nia, actors, BMES, City Lights Theater, Empowerment Practice, Help You Well, Kivo, Nia, Nia energy, Nia Jam, Nia Spirit, Nia students, Nia Teacher, Rocky Horror Picture Show, San Jose Theater, singers, Stanford Nia, theater tickets | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on July 5, 2013
This is the 22nd Goodie Jar check in. I forgot to post a check in post last week. So IF I had remembered this would actually be the 23rd check in since we started with a Good Things Jar, but since I forgot, this is 22!
How about a share?
This week it was really, really, really hot for our area. I do not like heat at all. I just melt. So while I in no way consider the heat a good thing, I do feel very blessed and consider the fact that we did not lose our electricity at all — a very good thing. Seems that in the last few heat waves we have had our power has been cut or we have had “brown outs”. So that fact that we have been able to have fans on through out the heat wave was fantastic! I put that in my jar.
I had an extra fabulous Nia Class on Tuesday. It is always nice when students contact you after class to comment on their experience.
I had a fun time at the annual 4th of July party. The hostess always does a great job with the food and this year was really good. It was a small crowd so it makes for a more intimate evening where you actually get to have longer conversations than when you are busy trying to jump from person to person to make sure you get in at least a quick visit.
Time off with hubby is always a nice thing to add to the jar.
And for last week at least one good thing I added was a wedding. Fun stuff! These are photos from the photo booth at the wedding.
So what are the good things you’ve added to your good things jar in the past two weeks?
Posted in Good Things in the Goodie Jar | Tagged: 22nd Goodie Jar check in, annual 4th of July party, fun stuff, good things jar, Goodie Jar – Check In #22, heat wave, intimate evening, June wedding, Nia, Nia class, Nia Class on Tuesday, Nia students, photo booth | 11 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on June 8, 2013
In Nia we often say while dancing, “Everybody sense your . . . ” (For more see: Nia White Belt Principle #13 Teaching What You Sense.) This is to help bring attention to specific body parts. It could be because we are doing a specific move and we want to have the student’s attention on that body part. It could be that we feel a body part just needs attention. It could be that we want the students to move in a different way. Sensing a body part though does not require movement of that part. If I were to say right now, “Everybody sense your hand.” I wouldn’t necessarily mean for you to move your hand. I mean for you to sense it. Recently on Facebook I posted, “EveryBODY sense your trachea!!!!!! Breathe . . . . . . . .” and one of my friends asked HOW? Fabulous question. How do you sense your trachea? No, really how do YOU sense your trachea? How do you sense any of your body parts?
As I said, sensing a body part does not necessarily mean moving it. It could, if that is how YOU bring attention to a part and if that is how YOU sense it. It could mean you LOOK at it. Maybe looking at it helps you sense it. It could mean you touch it because you want to cause it sensation so that you can sense it. There are many ways to sense a body part and we all have different ways of doing it. Some might start with closing their eyes and picturing it in their head. Some might just think of it and be able to sense it right away. Part of the practice is the discovery of how we sense different body parts.
For sensing your trachea I thought that one way an individual could do it was by breathing. That might help you sense your trachea. Sensing your breath coming in and out might help. Maybe coughing would help? Maybe meditating on it? Maybe touching it? There really are so many ways to do it and it is up to the individual. Sensing body parts could even take practice. Maybe each body part is different. Perhaps you can easily sense your hand without looking at it, moving it, or touching it, but since you might not often “sense your trachea” it could take a little bit of thought and practice. Again . . . . the wonderful journey that is Nia and sensing your body.
Often times we don’t even give a second thought to a body part, unless it is in pain. Unless it SCREAMS at us for attention we might never stop to listen to it. We might never stop to sense it. There are so many reasons to sense your body . . . I have already stated just a few that might come up while in a Nia Class. I am sure you can think of many others.
This is one of the things we do in Nia that can be carried out into life and as we like to call it as we “dance through life”. This is one of the things you can do that makes Nia “practice”. You can practice sensing your body parts throughout the day. Back to the “pain” part of attention . . . say you have pain in your knee, you are going to want to sense it as you move throughout your day so that you can move in a way as to not cause more pain. Another example if you’re wanting to straighten up your posture a little bit you might want to practice sensing your spine or your shoulders during your day. As I said, many reason to play with and practice sensing your body parts. And it really is an individual thing. You do it in your own way.
Starting with body parts you can see and touch might be a good place to start if you are needing a suggested starting point. That way looking or touching can be the beginning of the sensing journey. Either way, if you let yourself be open to it, I am sure you will find a way.
So how do YOU sense your trachea?
Posted in Nia | Tagged: Dancing, everyBODY, Facebook, Nia, Nia class, Nia Dance, Nia Practice, Nia students, Nia White Belt, Principle #13, Sense your, trachea | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 6, 2013
You might have read my post about a couple of Nia Celebrities coming to the San Francisco Bay Area (for that post, click here) and around this month (April 2013). Well, they arrived this week and have been doing classes since Thursday. Today was the class in Palo Alto at the Equinox (Gym). The classes are scheduled around the North Bay, East Bay, and Peninsula. The class was great. The 52 in the title refers to what the classes was about. All of the classes in this series are based on the 52 moves of Nia. I have posted about the Nia Moves before. They are not uniquely Nia moves, but Nia has compiled them and bases our routines on them. Nia has also set guidelines as to how they are to be done. As I have also mentioned in my posts about the 52 Nia Moves, when they are included in a dance sometimes they are not done exactly to specifications. Anyway . . . this class was definitely interesting. I love the gathering of Nia people. And when a celeb is in town the energy is astronomical. There are – as of today, April 06, 2013, a few chances left to take a class with Debbie Rosas (one of Nia’s founders) and Nia Trainer Kevin VerEecke. If you can make it I recommend it.
As I just mentioned it is always fun to gather and dance with Nia people. This time was really great for me because several of my students were in attendance. I love that they were able to take a class with Debbie. She is like many successful company leaders . . . dynamic and a force of her own. I think that when you can be in the presence of the person who started something (whether it be a fitness craze, a company, a restaurant, whatever) you get a different understanding of the workout (company, restaurant, etc.). Even if you are just in the same space as the person and you observe them without even talking to them . . . you get a better sense of things. Being able to be in a Nia class led by the founder of Nia is really an education.
This type of class is a different direction for Nia. It is not a dance exercise class it is an exercise class where we do a move from the 52 moves for a minute. The moves and the timing is not based on the music they use a timer. Most moves were done slow, then fast, and then as fast as you can. They are calling it Interval Training, but it seems to copy the “Intermittent Training” formula that Zumba uses. So it reminds me of a Zumba class without the dancing. It is truly an exercise class with loud music and a lot of sweat!
It is easy to do all 52 Nia Moves in an hour especially if you are doing one a minute. With nineteen of the 52 Nia Moves being movements done with the arms, hands, and/or fingers they are easily combined with foot and body movements. So we were even able to do a few of the moves for more than one one minute cycle. But not all Nia routines have all 52 moves so this is another way to get a great workout in!
I am usually torn at a Nia event because I want to dance . . . . I don’t want to miss a moment, but I also want to take pictures to document the event. This exercise class was a little easier to break away from because they were either doing the move slow or fast, so I could jump right back in and be right on the mark.
Here are a few shots that I took. As you can see everyone is happy, sweaty, and having a fabulous time!
Have you ever met the creator of something you love? Did you find it exciting? Are you going to make it to one of these Nia 52 Moves classes?
Posted in Nia | Tagged: 52 Nia Moves, April 2013, California Peninsula, Debbie Rosas, East Bay, Francisco Bay Area, Intermittent Training, Interval Training, Kevin VerEecke, Nia celebrities, Nia class, Nia education, Nia founder, Nia Moves, Nia pictures, Nia routines, Nia students, Nia trainer, North Bay, Palo Alto Equinox, Zumba | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 4, 2013
I have such wonderful Nia students. One day I was talking to one of my students and she shared with me something she and her husband are doing before bed. She said that they each share THREE good things that happened throughout the day. Now this is just like the good thing jar idea in that the “good thing” is up to the person doing the sharing. It can be anything you think of as a good thing. You could say you heard your favorite song on the radio, saw a hummingbird, had a door held open for you, held a door open for someone else, you attended a Nia class . . . . whatever you want. The “Good Thing” is up to you. The idea is to help the day end on a positive note. And it could lead to a nice conversation with whomever you are doing it with. If you are doing it by yourself it could allow you to remember more good things about your day. Whatever the situation it is a nice positive way to end the day. Three good things is a beautiful thought to fall asleep on.
It could be particularly helpful in a stressful time. Often when something is causing stress we tend to think about it a lot. For me the quiet time as I am falling asleep is prime thinking time. Is it for you? With thinking time the mind can easily go to the stressful thought. But if you have spent a little time with three good things maybe the good has pushed the stress off to a corner. Falling asleep on a positive note seems like it would help you have a good sleep. Sleep is a great tool in handling stress. It could be you are happily thinking about your good things as you drift off. Could be, if you have a partner you are talking about good things with, your partners good things are on your mind.
It also seems like this fun exercise would be good for people who tend to think of the negative instead of the positive. This would help direct the negative attention to positive and shift the energy. We all have things going on in our lives that we could dwell on and conduct negative thoughts and energy, so having to think about positive and good things that happened throughout the day and talk about three of them . . . that can really get the good stuff flowing. Not thinking about the negative side of things can really work wonders.
I really like this idea. I am looking forward to reading all the good things at the end of the year that I have document throughout the year, but this is a way to keep that “good thing” idea at the forefront. This can provide “instant” gratification and help shift energy from negative and stressful to positive and peaceful.
Manifest the positive by sharing the good things!
What do you think?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: energy shift, Good Thing jar, good things, negative energy, negative thoughts, Nia, Nia class, Nia students, peaceful thoughts, positive energy, positive thoughts, sharing | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on March 7, 2013
At the present time I am fortunate enough to be holding Nia classes at four different locations in San Jose. Each location allows me to meet different people. At one of the locations I have been teaching for four years and some of my students have been coming to my classes that long. At three of my locations I am a new teacher and Nia is new. Most of the people are new to me. It is exciting to met new people and discover new relationships. There is the relationships between my students and me and there is the relationship between Nia and the students. One of my students told me after one class that she loved the part of Nia where we compare things to nature. The specific example she stated was “tickling the clouds”. She said that the mention of nature in Nia reminded her of one of her favorite poets, Mary Oliver. She asked me if I had heard of Mary Oliver or if I was familiar with her. I said no. I also said that I would look her up. Well, the following week, my student came into class and handed me a copy of two poems. As soon as she held out the paper, I remembered that I had said I would look up the poet and that I had forgotten. I gratefully took the paper without reading the poems because class was about to start. After our class there is another class so I did not stop at that time to read the poem either. It was not until today I picked up the paper to read the poem. On the second line I realized I HAD heard this before and I laughed. This very poem or at least a portion of it is in the Nia White Belt Manual.
I thought it was funny that my student related Mary Oliver’s work to Nia and obviously so did the creators of Nia, Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas, because they put this poem in the manual. Only the first few lines are in the manual, but I recognized it right away.
The lines are:
“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.”
From Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese poem.
That portion of the poem is at the very beginning of the section which is Principle #1, The Joy of Movement. The last line of that section really struck me.
I want to continue to share with my students that a Nia class is not just about learning the moves and doing a routine. It is about doing what the body loves. It is about their relationship to their body. It is about their relationship to Nia. To me that is why we do a routine over and over. That is also HOW we do a routine over and over and not get bored with it. If we move and let our body do what it loves then it is moving in a different way. Once we have done a routine a few times we can play. We can move lower . . . if that it what the body loves . . . we can move higher . . . if that is what a body loves . . . all the time moving in the general pattern of the routine. It is when we are not in tune or when we cannot let go, that the routine is tiring or boring. If we are only moving the way it was choreographed and not putting our spirit into the moves it is as if we are walking through a desert on our knees. Suffering through a workout. UGH! Repenting for the cream we had in our coffee, the workout we missed yesterday, or the cookie we had at lunch.
I used to do a different routine every class. I thought people would get bored with the same routine. But then I realized that the more I knew the music and the choreography the more fun I had and the more playful I could be. I asked my class and they said they liked the fact that after doing the routine a few times they, too, could be less concerned with the choreography and more aware of their own spirit, dance, and play. So it is a relationship with Nia and the body that we are building and experiencing in a Nia class, we are not just learning a routine, we are not just moving through choreography.
I have been thinking about this a lot lately as I work on a routine schedule, playing with it to see what works. I want to ensure my students don’t get bored, yet I want them to build a relationship with Nia. I want them to be able to dance and play with the routines.
I love that my student shared her thoughts with me. To me that is me being able to witness her budding relationship with Nia. I love that because of my thoughts about repeatedly doing a routine, I was able to look at this poem and relate it to that. Like many things I might look at it sometime from now and have it relate to something else. My relationship with it might change, just as my relationship with my students and with Nia will change and grow. That is the nature of it all.
Posted in Nia | Tagged: Carlos Rosas, Debbie Rosas, Joy of Movement, Mary Olive, Nature, Nia, Nia choreography, Nia classes in San Jose, Nia experience, Nia locations, Nia Music, Nia relationships, Nia routines, Nia San Jose, Nia students, Nia Teacher, Nia White Belt, poems, poets, Principle #1 of Nia White Belt, San Jose Nia classes, tickle the clouds, Wild Geese | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on January 8, 2013
There is a stance in Nia called the Riding Stance. It is part of Nia’s 52 Moves. I actually think of it as the Sumo Stance. It is called both. I bet if I actually were to really let my body doing the thinking, my riding stance would be taller than my sumo stance. Stop and think about it. Do you picture a rider with legs straddling a horse and sitting up tall? And a sumo wrestler as legs wider than a horse with his body lower to the ground? A sumo wrestler is still upright and “tall”, but he is closer to the ground. with a wider stance than a horse Ha! I love that. As I am typing and thinking, this is what I come up with. An insight. That is what I love about Nia. Even though there is an ideal there is still the way a body does it. And sometimes a body does it the way the mind thinks about it. My body translates sumo stance as low to the ground. I am going to go to class and use the different terms and see what my student’s bodies do! The Nia Technique states the Riding stance is as if you are riding a horse.
As I stated, riding a horse – to me is at a higher level than a sumo wrestler. So, I actually do this stance much lower and that is because I THINK of it as a sumo stance. I am going to practice this stance as a RIDING stance and see where my body goes.
The book says: “your knees slightly bent and your feet apart, as if you were riding a horse”. I think I have always had a really wide horse! Whether the horse is wide or not, the feet are parallel.
Again, to be clear, the Riding Stance in the Nia 52 Moves is with the knees slightly bent and the feet apart. The feet are as far apart as if you are riding a horse. As I recently posted the sound to make while doing this stance is “ha!”
I think that it would be fun to say, “Yehaw!”
This stance is a great way to condition the legs. It is fun to play with this stance and try different levels. By levels I mean both the planes and levels of intensity. A level/intensity 1 would be a high plane. Then a level/intensity 2, could be the middle plane. And the level/intensity 3 could be the low plane and maybe more of what I think of as a sumo stance. With all moves in Nia the key is pleasure. So the move is not meant to be painful. If you are sensing pain in any part of the leg adjust your stance. If you sense pain in the knees, check your feet, are your toes facing forward? Are you evenly distributing your weight over your whole foot (feet)? Ankle pain? Are your legs/feet too wide apart? So it is important to not always go as low or as wide as you CAN, but to go as low and as wide as is reasonably comfortable.
I love that as I write I learn. That is one of the reasons I am writing a blog. It is so helpful to put things in writing. It is helpful to stop and examine what you already know, right? Sometimes you see things differently.
Either way . . . . Riding or sumo stance, the stance is with knees bent, feet apart and parallel. Everyone’s stance, every BODY’s stance is different. Got it? Horse riding. Ride ’em cowboy.
I am fortunate enough to have wonderful students that are willing to pose. Here are the “riders” of the group.
Are you ready to ride?
Posted in 52 Moves (of Nia), Nia | Tagged: levels of intensity, Nia, Nia class, Nia students, Nia Teacher, Nia's 52 Moves, Riding Stance, straddling a horse, Sumo Stance, sumo wrestler, The Nia Technique | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 26, 2012
Oddly enough, most of my Nia Students don’t even celebrate Christmas. Most of them belong to a different religion that does not participate. So why not get together and celebrate the end of the year, the holiday they celebrate, the holiday I celebrate, and just ourselves as a Nia Community! Since today, Wednesday, is a day I have a Nia class regularly we are dancing, just as we did on Christmas Eve . . . . . Joy as Usual (a take off of “Business as usual).
And you? You are here to check in for the 26th day of the December 30 Minute Movement Challenge! Yay you!
I’ll be back with my check in!
Posted in December 2012 30 Minute Movement Challenge | Tagged: Business as usual, celebrate Christmas, Christmas Eve, Day 26, December 30 Minute Movement Challenge, end of the year, Joy as Usual, Nia, Nia class, Nia community, Nia students, religion | 3 Comments »
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