Nia - Fitness for Your Brain!

"In Nia, we help you engage with your left and right brain, teaching you to use both logic and imagination. Self-directing what
you do, mindfully guiding, witnessing, self-reflecting, and visualizing help keep brain activity alive." 
Debbie Rosas, co-founder of Nia.

Hello Friends!
What if you fitness program also conditioned your brain?  I'm in - And I have been IN for 20 years!  Though we may not think about our brain when we step into a fitness class, conditioning our brain is just as important (or maybe more!) as conditioning our heart, lungs, legs, abdominal muscles, etc.  According to Dr. Michael Merzenech, author of Soft-Wired: How the New Science of Brain Plasticity Can Change Your Life, to develop a healthy brain one should partake in activities that provide the following:

1. They should teach you something new.
2. They should be challenging.
3. They should be progressive.
4. They should engage your great brain processing systems.
5. They should be novel or surprising.
6. They should be rewarding.

Does this sound like Nia - YES!! In Nia, our brain is AutoMagically conditioned during the entire class.  In class we bring variety and newness each time through the 9 movement forms of Nia.  One moment you may be kicking and the next creating dramatic shapes with your body.  In Nia we invite you to challenge your workout by moving through your low, middle and high planes of movement and taking your moves to your personal "edge".  We move left and right, front and back, around the room, and look with our eyes to heighten our spatial awareness and direct our attention.  Nia sparks the left brain with patterns and sequences, and with gentle queues of "Let's do 2 more".  Nia feeds our right brain with imagery and dreams, and invites us to be the Martial Artist, the Dancer, the Yogi.  Nia allows us to make choices and decisions (which our brain loves to do) by inviting us to be in Natural Time and allowing pleasure to guide our movements.  We add the element of surprise and fun by saying "YES", "NO", "STOP", "GO", which also connects us to our emotions and to our 2nd brain - our "Gut".  At the end of class, we all step out feeling joyful, relaxed, motivated and inspired.  I call that rewarding - don't you? 

And when we the teachers invite you to move w/out thinking, we not only encourage you to move differently and break habits, think about this time as rest time for your brain.  OH and the music...the Nia brain-list goes on and on!  See you on the dance floor!

     
My classes this week:

Thursday at 5:30 pm

Saturday at 9:30 am

and Sunday at 4:00 pm

all at The Synergy Studio.
 

​Also on Sunday - Heart Opening Yoga Flow:  ​

Discover Your Inner Grace!

​  ​

The Heart Opening Yoga Flow is an warming Hatha flow class that uses essential oils that invite you to soften and open your heart, as you kindle the fires of trust, connection and love for self and others. Open to your authentic self and connect more deeply with life!! Sunday, February 22
9-10:30 pm
$20 and includes:
- Yoga class and oils
- Oil infused water during class
- Gift sample of oil to take home to recreate experience
Pre-Register HERE!

Love & Light,
Joanie Brooks,
http://www.joaniebrooks.com
Nia Training Faculty, Nia White Belt Trainer, Nia 1st Degree Black Belt
MELT Certified Hand & Foot Instructor
Yoga Teacher (certified in the YogaFit Warrior Program)
Journey Dance Facilitator Nia 5 Stages of Healing Facilitator
Mindful Change Coach
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."