There is always something Nia going on. Often times visting instructors will host a workshop or two. When they are in an area doing a workshop they often tack on a class or two so that even if you are not going to partake in the workshop you still can do Nia with them. It is a great way to other teachers from all over. This weekend there is a workshop that I am able to attend but I was able to go to the Nia class that was held the night before the workshop.
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It was an hour and a half class. Due to the huge amount of commute traffic from San Jose to Concord we missed the first 20 minutes, but we were able to jump right in and get a great workout in the time we had.
The visiting instructor was Winalee Zeeb. She has been doing Nia since 1991. She is a first degree Nia Black Belt, a Nia White Belt Trainer, and she has her own studio in Michigan called Heartdance.
The event is being held at The Big C Athletic Club. The class I went to was also at that location. I had a great time moving on carpeted thick padded floor. We moved fast and slow, and experienced fire and soul. It was a great workout. Always amazing me because it never feels like exercise. I am always amazed when the class ends. It was the first time I had the pleasure of meeting Winalee. She said we did a bit of Aya and a bit of Velvet. I am not sure what other routines were in there, but it was a great time.
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I often post events on my site so if you are interested in attending Nia workshops and events in my area check my site.
I was still trying to get in the swing of things when I decided to snap a few photos. I was planning on taking more, but since we had missed a few minutes already I didn’t want to take time standing around taking the pictures, but I snapped it and a couple more just to give you an idea.
On Wednesday, October 28, 2009, TechKaraoke SV and Silicon Valley Tweet-Up joined forces and held one major party at Rosie McCann’s in Santana Row near the heart San Jose. There was talking, dancing, drinking, eating, singing, laughing, networking, and all of it going on at a very high decibel.
Some great prizes were raffled off:
– a bluetooth headset (a Plantronics Discovery 975)
– a portable storage drive from Seagate
– a cookie basket filled with Halloween cookies from Cookies By Design
– Archos/Viliv Mobile Internet Device (MID) powered by the Intel Atom Processor
There was so much excitement about these prizes that I barely heard the numbers being called and I didn’t hear who won anY of the fabulous prizes. This even was also raising money for Anissa Lopez Foundation / George Mark Children’s House.
Michael Brito, the founder of Silicon Valley Tweetup, announced he was leaving Intel for Edelman Digital.
I met several people and connected with some people I have had the privilege of meeting before. I love tweetups because it shows that the internet’s social media network is really a social network. People coming together in real life after having met and communicated via the internet is really an amazing thing. This was the first SV Tweetup that I was able to attend because I didn’t have a class. I think I have missed the ones in the past because I was teaching. I knew I had been missing out, but now I truly understand what I was missing. I am hoping that it will workout that I am available for the next one because I really enjoyed myself at this one. Also, I believe I heard Michael announce it will be a book signing for Shel Israel, but then again, it was so loud I could have heard wrong. You will have to stay tuned to see . . . .
There were a lot of great costumes there, but this was my favorite!
My husband and I live in San Jose. We are pretty close to Santa Cruz, I think. It is about 45 minutes away. But usually it takes longer than that to get there due to traffic. We don’t go there often.
Yesterday I went “over the hill”, we call it because we have to go over the hills to get out of the Santa Clara Valley/Silicon Valley to the ocean side.
While there, I thought, I don’t come here enough. This is beautiful. And I took a few shots, thinking I would share them with you. Then I was thinking I should write something to post. But then I was invited to coffee today, when I “should have” been writing my blog, I was having coffee. When I accepted the invitation I had a feeling that going to coffee was where I needed to be and posting the pictures of Santa Cruz was what I would end up doing.
Well, it turned out that I was at coffee for three hours. I had been correct. I needed to be on that coffee date making a connection with someone. And these pictures are beautiful and they really should be shared. Because California is beautiful. Santa Cruz is awesome. Yesterday was the most gorgeous day there.
The pictures are beautiful not because of the skill of the photographer, but because of the skill of the maker—-no one could have taken a bad picture of yesterday’s masterpiece. It has worked out as it should. I have been studying the Nia 5 Stages, it is a “self-healing” movement practice. I took a break from it with friends and wow—the break was another way of self healing. Friends, the ocean, coffee, conversation, an exercise in listening, it is all very healing!
Is there something you do for you that is self-healing?
I have heard many people use it. Recently I was having coffee in Willow Glen and I overheard someone say they were bad for eating something. Or sometimes we say we are eating something bad. For example, “I was bad because I ate four pieces of pizza.” or “I ordered a sandwich and was bad because I got fries.” The use of the word bad gets no reaction. Most of us just shrug and say nothing. Some people even like it when you are bad. Some people even think bad is good. So it really doesn’t have an impact. It really doesn’t matter. Think about it? Is there something you ate today, that you would consider “bad”? Or HOW MUCH you ate, would you consider it bad? If there is, try this exercise, say it out loud. “I was bad because I ate a half dozen cookies.” “I was bad because I ate my chips with my sandwich.” Or whatever . . . . just say it out loud.
What if instead of saying “bad” we identified it a little more clearly? What if instead of saying “bad” we said “unhealthy”? I keep hear “health” lately, so what if we actually said, “unhealthy”? Do you think that would make a difference? Do you think if we actually used a word that is a little more clear and can actually be associated with a huge topic right now, that we might actually NOT eat that unhealthy food item or that extra unhealthy portion?
Do you think people might actually pause and think, “Yeah, that is unhealthy, maybe I won’t.” Instead of giggling because you were “bad”?
Now instead of saying “bad” as you did previously, say, “unhealthy“. “I was unhealthy because I ate a half dozen cookies.” “I was unhealthy because I ate my chips with my sandwich.” If we start saying it differently do you think we might start eating differently?
Maybe the same can go for working out. Haven’t you heard someone say, “I was bad because I didn’t workout.” What if we started saying, “I was unhealthy today, because I didn’t workout.” I’m just wondering if changing how we say it might help us change and care about our health.
Here are the main points to the 12 tips to help you move with Nia. These tips are taken from The Nia Technique a book written by the creators of Nia, Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas. The book can help you better understand how Nia can be is a great workout and can be just a workout or practice, like yoga and Pilates are practices.
~Use visual imagery to make movements feel natural.
~Combine small movements with large movements.
~Use your Base, Core, Upper Extremities, breath and voice to add energy and power to your moves.
~Use a variety of speeds.
~Use your joints to move energy.
~Use breath to start and stop the flow of energy.
~Add intensity to your movements by sinking lower and rising higher.
~Shift your body weight–don’t drop it—
~Add emotion to every motion.
~Use your fingers and hands to express how movements make you feel.
~Use your voice as you move, to activate your abdominal muscles.
~Lead your head movements with your eye movements.
While nothing compares to the energy of a live class, the book is a great way to get started or to get you acquainted with Nia.
These are great tips to help you get more from your workout yet also help it feel less like exercise.
We have recently had baby blue jays surface. For the most part I don’t even know they are there. When they do make noise it is hilarious. I can’t tell how many there are. I think there are at least two, maybe three, but at least one has a hilarious voice. It is not the squawk of a blue jay yet. I can’t even describe it, but it makes me laugh. Whatever I am doing I will stop to listen to him. It is so funny. I tried to record it today, but . . . I only have my iPhone and the baby stopped the second I pressed record. Then all the other birds started in and drowned out his little voice.
Anyway, it is Thursday, and I haven’t posted birds once this month so I thought I would share some baby pictures. The babies are deceptively large. At first, you don’t realize that the baby is the baby because he is so much bigger than the adults then it opens its mouth and makes this pathetic noise or it walks and has absolutely no grace.
So, please keep in mind I am not posting this pictures because they are good pictures and I wanted to share, I am posting them because they are our babies and I wanted to share.
Its a beautiful day in San Jose for this bird to sit by the water.
Do you see his brother (sister?) on the rock behind him?
I think the one on the rock is the one that is has the funny little voice. It is so funny.
Babies just stand different. They are still learning. It is so funny to watch them move.
I think the one on the rock still wants to be fed because he will open his wings and make his little noise. He “screams” at the top of his voice. But scream is a harsh word since it sounds so cute, but . . . you can tell it is a workout for him. He puts a lot of effort into it.
It is funny to me because when we first moved to San Jose, this rose bush had JUST orange roses. Bright orange. Now some come in pink. The ones that do come in orange turn pink.
All of our rose bushes are multi-colored now. Funny how it worked out that way.
I love to watch our hummingbirds. I have always wanted to try to film them. I know it is almost impossible given our equipment and our yard, but I thought I would try. Yes, I know I posted hummingbird pictures on my last “whatever” Thursday, but remember, my blog, my rules—and a lot of people seemed to enjoy the hummingbirds–maybe it was the tongue.
I think this is getting to be their kind of weather. I am going to warn you, you will probably see a lot of them on my blog—hopefully you’ll come back. They are so entertaining. And as I always say since we are in San Jose we have them for a long period of time. It just works out that way with our wonderful weather.
So I was outside for about an hour and a half. I shot about 100 videos. Most of them were just a few seconds long because that is how fast the hummingbirds are. A lot of them are clear, a lot of them are not. Our camera auto focuses and it has a difficult time with moving feeders.
My goal was to post a short video of a hummingbird flying and maybe feeding. Well, just as it was getting too dark to film—and the shots started getting grainy—I got this really long sequence of birds eating, flying, fighting, and just all around being the entertaining birds that they are. So I apologize that it is over 5 minutes long. Also, I apologize because I am talking throughout the video, but they actually smack each other. And they do it audibly. You might not be able to hear it on the video but I could hear it. And they would do it right over my head!
At one point, around 3.28 you’ll hear “wrrrrr” that is a bird flying over me and the microphone.
Ok, you might know that I love asparagus. And I love it roasted. Well, even though we live in San Jose and seems like we can get great fruits and veggies all year round sometimes we buy asparagus and it is huge. Usually when it is that big in order to get to the good stuff you basically have to cut off a lot of it. Otherwise you are left with really woodsy-impossible-to-chew asparagus. Well, I don’t wanna give up that much of my yummy veggie, so I peel it. I cut off a little bit—like I normally would and then I peel the bottom portion. This does a few things:
1) it enables me to eat more of the vegetable,
2) it gets rid of the hard to chew part,
3) it reveals the soft insides of the stalk
Yay! I don’t have to get rid of half my asparagus.
Yes, I know that I am getting rid of the green, but I leave the top portion. You can try it yourself and see what works for you. Of course, you don’t have to be having roasted asparagus for this to work out, you can do it with whatever method you best enjoy your asparagus.
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