Regeneration - Connecting to Our 5 Senses!!!

I am grateful for the gift of sight. My ability to to see life in all its glory!!

I am grateful for the gift of touch. My ability to receive life through my skin and embrace a cool morning. My ability to give my love and life to others through touch!!

I am grateful for the gift of taste. My ability to taste life and drink it its majesty!!

I am grateful for the gift of sound. My ability to hear sound and silence, the music of life!!

I am grateful for the gift of smell. My ability to breathe in life and smell the moment!!

Dear FRIENDS!!!
It's spring and I am regenerating my body, mind, spirit and emotions, by placing conscious attention on my senses - sight, taste, smell, touch, and hearing!  It   activates movement and flow of timeless and ageless energy. Senses deeply connect us to our experiences, and increase pleasure and vitality, while integrating our body, mind, spirit and emotions.  So in class and as you dance through life...

Sight:  Use your eyes to see, perceive and feel.  Connect to the visual magic around you.  Give your brain a workout by changing images around you; ones that relax you or stimulate you.  It is a choice!  See and be seen.  Say:  "Now I Am seeing life!"

Smell:  Smell the moment and use your body to breathe in life.  Smell deeply and passionately, and notice the smells around you.  Act as if you are smelling fresh baked bread or your favorite flower.  You body will NOT know the difference.  Say: "Now I Am smelling life!"

Touch:  Touching expands our relationship with our body, with others and the world.  Touch with tenderness, respect and love.  Give your touch and receive touch from others, touch from the space on your skin, the floor touching your feet.  Say:  "Now I AM touching life!"

Taste:  Taste is the sense that internally feeds us.  When we taste, we internally receive color, texture and life force energy. Taste with your feet, your hands, your skin, and your eyes.  Say:  "Now I AM tasting life!"

Hearing:  Hearing is the sense that connects you to all things around you, seen and unseen.  Perceive sound as a sensation you can feel in every cell.  Hear and really listen to another, to silence, to sound, to your breath.  Say:  "Now I Am hearing life!"

Can't wait to dance with you!!! 

My classes this week:

Monday and Thursday at 5:30 pm
and Saturday at 9:30 am

at The Synergy Studio

Interested in the Nia White Belt Intensive? 

Our next training in San Antonio is a split weekend that starts at 3:00 pm on Thursday, June 5 and goes through Sunday June 8. The next weekend is June 13, 14 and 15 (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). This is a PERFECT opportunity to take the Nia White Belt w/out having to take a full week from work. 

7 days dedicated to you, your body and your life.  You go deep into each one of the 13 principles of the Nia White Belt where you create a loving relationship with yourself and your body.  In this intensive you learn tools for managing stress, enhancing your relationships,  and creating a work/life balance. I invite you to explore techniques using your body, voice, intent, mind, emotions and unique spirit to master getting into and living in your body.  Empower yourself, open up to your potential and step into your greatness! Check out all my trainings at: http://www.nianow.com/joanie#trainings.

Love & Light,
Joanie Brooks,
http://www.joaniebrooks.me/
Nia Training Faculty, Nia White Belt Trainer, Nia 1st Degree Black Belt


Nia 5 Stages of Healing Facilitator, Journey Dance Guide, Mindful Change Coach and Laughter Yoga Leader

Nia - Somatic Education for EveryBody.  Nia is an expressive movement form & lifestyle practice that uses The Body's Way to achieve physical, mental, emotional & spiritual fitness & well-being."   

75 trillion cells in your body…Play with them all with Nia!

Sensing Within - 4 Elements of Our Human Nature!

Happy Monday My Sweet Friends and Family!!! 

This week I am "playing" with the number 4 as I send you the 4 elements of love, peace, joy and abundance.  4 is a very prominent number in our world and lives, and is a symbol of exactness and elegance.  4 seasons, 4 phases of the moon, 4 divisions of the day, 4 directions, 4 dimensions (volume, height, width, depth), 4 realms of self (Body, Mind, Emotions and Spirit).  4 also symbolizes the principle of putting ideas into form.  Check out Wikipedia if you are interested in all the fascinating aspects of the number 4:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4_%28number%29

This week we will dance the 4 elements of our human nature:  Earth, Water, Air and Fire, as a way to tap into our movement creativity and connect to the basis of life itself.  

Earth:  Sensation of stability, fullness, weight, weightlessness, core, support, balance, rooting, connection with self, feeling outside/inside edges, breath

Water:  Sensation of mobility, fluid, flowing, circular, no edges, no beginning, no ending, coolness, sensation of dripping, floating, creation, rejuvenation

Air:   Sensation of flexibility, bending, off balance, on balance, controlling, out of control, lifting, swirling, openness, lightness, being, being effected, blowing, filling spaces

Fire:  Sensation of agility, strength, heat, precision, flames, smoldering, intent, intense, sharp, confidence

In the book I am re-reading, A Beginners Guide to Constructing the Universe by Michael S. Schneider, these 4 elements also relate to:

Earth: Nature within us...that which is most dense, most slow to change and transform.

Water:  Emotions...the moods of water:  surging, rising and falling

Air:  Atmosphere within us...where our thoughts fly, soaring flights of fancy, day dreams, clouded thoughts.

Fire: Intuition, our deeper self...flash of insight, seeing the light, idea hitting like a bolt of lightning.

Join me in class this week.  Tonight wear green and we will dance to a fun St. Paddy's day playlist.  On Thursday, Saturday and Sunday we will dance to an older Nia routine called Chakras, as we sense within and connect to Earth, Water, Air and Fire!!!!!

In Sacred Geometry, 4 is the tetrad, the square, giving exactness and volume to the world.  In Nia, 4 represents the holistic workout and life style practice of Nia for your body, mind, emotions and spirit.  Volume and depth, addressing our entire human nature!  See you on the dance floor!

My classes this week:

Monday (today!) and Thursday at 5:30 pm

Wednesday Somatic Awakening at 6:45 am
Saturday at 9:30 am

and Sunday at 4:00 pm all at The Synergy Studio

Interested in the Nia White Belt Intensive? 

Our next training in San Antonio is a split weekend that starts at 3:00 pm on Thursday, June 5 and goes through Sunday June 8. The next weekend is June 13, 14 and 15 (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). This is a PERFECT opportunity to take the Nia White Belt w/out having to take a full week from work. 

7 days dedicated to you, your body and your life.  You go deep into each one of the 13 principles of the Nia White Belt where you create a loving relationship with yourself and your body.  In this intensive you learn tools for managing stress, enhancing your relationships,  and creating a work/life balance. I invite you to explore techniques using your body, voice, intent, mind, emotions and unique spirit to master getting into and living in your body.  Empower yourself, open up to your potential and step into your greatness! Check out all my trainings at: http://www.nianow.com/joanie#trainings.

Love & Light,
Joanie Brooks,
http://www.joaniebrooks.me/
Nia Training Faculty, Nia White Belt Trainer, Nia 1st Degree Black Belt


Nia 5 Stages of Healing Facilitator, Journey Dance Guide, Mindful Change Coach and Laughter Yoga Leader

Nia - Somatic Education for EveryBody.  Nia is an expressive movement form & lifestyle practice that uses The Body's Way to achieve physical, mental, emotional & spiritual fitness & well-being."   

75 trillion cells in your body…Play with them all with Nia!

Sensing 3 Part Harmony!!

 "Wherever there are 3, as in 3 knights, 3 musketeers, 3 wise men or 3 wishes there is 'throughness', rebirth, transformation and success."  Beginners Guide to Constructing the Universe by Michael S. Schneider. 

I love the harmony that 3 represents. In our body, we have 3 body weights, pelvis, chest and head, that can move individually, and when integrated together, create a harmonic dance of power, expression and relaxation.   Nia invites me to explore my body weights separately through pelvic circles, hip bumps, chest isolations, shimmy and head and eye movements, and then to sense the harmonic dance of the 3 through spine undulations and spinal rolls.   This dance conditions my body joyfully, transcending to my breathing and body alignment, and provides a foundation for physical, mental, and emotional well-being.  3 dimensional movement, 3 part harmony that supports my body as a whole. 

Join me this week in dance as we sense 3 part harmony, playing with our pelvis, chest and head.  I will be dancing to the new routine Feeling, that is a wonderful creation by 4 fellow Nia trainers:  Casey Bernstein from Albany New York, Kelle Rae Oien from Sante Fe New Mexico,  Megan MacArthur from Hawaii, Winalee Zeeb from Lansing Michigan.  Some of you met Winalee in November when she was here for the Nia Blue belt intensive.  You will love the music!!!  In Sacred Geometry, 3 is the triad, an inherent tripartite wholeness of the universe.  In Nia we use the triad as a map to place attention on 3 elements that when combined creates wisdom...creates "throughness" rebirth, transformation and success!!!

 See you on the dance floor!

My classes this week:

Monday (today!) and Thursday at 5:30 pm

Wednesday Somatic Awakening at 6:45 am
Saturday at 9:30 am

and Sunday at 4:00 pm all at The Synergy Studio

Interested in the Nia White Belt Intensive? 

Our next training in San Antonio is a split weekend that starts at 3:00 pm on Thursday, June 5 and goes through Sunday June 8. The next weekend is June 13, 14 and 15 (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). This is a PERFECT opportunity to take the Nia White Belt w/out having to take a full week from work. 

7 days dedicated to you, your body and your life.  You go deep into each one of the 13 principles of the Nia White Belt where you create a loving relationship with yourself and your body.  In this intensive you learn tools for managing stress, enhancing your relationships,  and creating a work/life balance. I invite you to explore techniques using your body, voice, intent, mind, emotions and unique spirit to master getting into and living in your body.  Empower yourself, open up to your potential and step into your greatness! Check out all my trainings at: http://www.nianow.com/joanie#trainings.

Love & Light,
Joanie Brooks,
http://www.joaniebrooks.me/
Nia Training Faculty, Nia White Belt Trainer, Nia 1st Degree Black Belt


Nia 5 Stages of Healing Facilitator, Journey Dance Guide, Mindful Change Coach and Laughter Yoga Leader

Nia - Somatic Education for EveryBody.  Nia is an expressive movement form & lifestyle practice that uses The Body's Way to achieve physical, mental, emotional & spiritual fitness & well-being."   

75 trillion cells in your body…Play with them all with Nia!

The Dance of 2 - Polarity Into Manifestation!

"For anything to manifest, however, there must be polarity."
Eileen McKusick, researcher, writer, educator and sound practitioner

How do you visualize Polarity?  Polarity though it means two opposing qualities, really suggests a mirroring of qualities that are interconnected.  What would day be without the dark of night, fast without slow, up without down, hot without cold, Yin without Yang, big without small?  These opposing qualities allow me to be fully present in each of their unique sensations and gifts.  In Nia we play with Polarity every time we dance.  We move slow with the essence of Tai Chi, and then the next moment we are moving fast and explosive with the energy of Tae Kwon Do.  We dance our 206 bones with the sensations of light and heavy, we move big and small, in straight lines and in circles, we use our left and right sides of our brains through patterns and being spontaneous, and the music we dance with is a rich blend and contrast of silence and sound.  The dance of 2, Polarity invites all of us to manifest our dance to its full potential.

I remember when I first started teaching and practicing Nia, I was all big, all fast and all Yang energy!!  I thought I needed to use these qualities in order to get a good workout.  Soon I discovered the gifts of the 'other' and welcomed the change that manifested not only to my movement and body, but also my life.  My teaching improved and so did my relationships - HA!!! 

Lately I have been in the dance of 2 with doing and non-doing.  After 30 years in the corporate world of "doing" with schedules, deadlines and managing others alongside my Nia business and personal practice, I now have more time to spend in "non-doing", and have found peaceful manifestation.  Nia has given me these life skills...Nia has taught me many things.

Join me this week in the Dance of 2 - Polarity into Manifestation as we enJOY moment to moment, movement to movement the beauty that emerges from our dance.  In Sacred Geometry, 2 is the Dyad - the marriage of two circles giving birth to the line - a line that simultaneously divides and binds.  The Dyad has an overlapping space between the two circles known as the vesica piscis.  The principle of the Dyad is Polarity.  See you on the dance floor!!

My classes this week:

Thursday at 5:30 pm

Saturday at 9:30 am

Sunday at 4:00 pm all at The Synergy Studio

Interested in the Nia White Belt Intensive? 

We had an awesome Nia White belt here in San Antonio last week - 5 new Nia White belts walking this earth!

  Our next training in San Antonio is a split weekend that starts at 3:00 pm on Thursday, June 5 and goes through Sunday June 8. The next weekend is June 13, 14 and 15 (Friday, Saturday and Sunday). This is a PERFECT opportunity to take the Nia White Belt w/out having to take a full week from work. 

7 days dedicated to you, your body and your life.  You go deep into each one of the 13 principles of the Nia White Belt where you create a loving relationship with yourself and your body.  In this intensive you learn tools for managing stress, enhancing your relationships,  and creating a work/life balance. I invite you to explore techniques using your body, voice, intent, mind, emotions and unique spirit to master getting into and living in your body.  Empower yourself, open up to your potential and step into your greatness! Check out all my trainings at: http://www.nianow.com/joanie#trainings.

Love & Light,
Joanie Brooks,
http://www.joaniebrooks.me/
Nia Training Faculty, Nia White Belt Trainer, Nia 1st Degree Black Belt


Nia 5 Stages of Healing Facilitator, Journey Dance Guide, Mindful Change Coach and Laughter Yoga Leader

Nia - Somatic Education for EveryBody.  Nia is an expressive movement form & lifestyle practice that uses The Body's Way to achieve physical, mental, emotional & spiritual fitness & well-being."   

75 trillion cells in your body…Play with them all with Nia!