The Dance of Blending

Happy Holidays Dancing Friends!!Blending: Harmony/Healing/Happiness. Inside, Outside, Universally.  This busy time reminds me how the art of blending with others creates harmony.  I'm all for that!  As we step into the holiday season of Christmas and New Year's, I invite you to use this blending triad of Harmony/Healing/Happiness...on the dance floor, in your car, in the store...Everywhere!  And take time to come and dance which is the best gift to give yourself during the hustle and bustle.  A great time to connect to the sensation of Blending!  In class we will use form and freedom as we blend one movement to the other, one body part to another, blending circular and linear movements and blending the size of our movements.   Beyond the physical we will blend with the space and each other!  The art of Blending will help each of us sense harmony, which promotes healing in our body, mind and spirit, and creates a happy person!! 

See you on The Synergy Studio dance floor. Practice patience as you blend with people around you...use the Shuni Mudra hand mudra, known as “the seal of patience.” Formed by placing the tip of the middle finger on the tip of the thumb.

My classes coming up at The Synergy Studio:

• Thursday at 5:30 pm - Dance to the Nia routine Leap of Faith where we will use spiral energy to BLEND our motions with emotion, power and grace.
  

• Saturday at 9:30 am - Winter Solstice in San Antonio is at 11:11 am Saturday.  The December solstice occurs when the sun reaches its most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees. In other words, it is when the North Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun.  WOW.  We are celebrating and dancing to the Nia routine Mandala.  BLENDING drums, electric guitar, silence, sound!!!!

• Monday (12-23) at 5:30 pm - Christmas music BLENDED in our dance!!!

Interested in the Nia White Belt Intensive?  It is 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 my trainings at: http://www.nianow.com/joanie#trainings.  Next one is in February!

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


Nia 5 Stages of Healing Facilitator, Journey Dance Guide, Mindful Change Coach and Laughter Yoga Leader
Go to my link & get 40% off of Nia clothing, music & much more!!  Look for the 40% off purple button:  http://nianow.com/joanie

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 Balance!

Hello Dancing Friends!

BRRRR!!  I hope you are staying warm.  There is much talk and articles about bringing more balance into our lives, especially this time of year.  Work and life balance, balanced nutrition, balance within relationships, balanced workout, etc.  Balance is a very personal matter and different for everyBody. For me it is a dance, and balance is ultimately a state of being where I feel in harmony with my body and my life, and includes all aspects of my being.  That is why I love my practice of Nia.  Nia is a fitness & lifestyle practice that is based on the design of our body, and our body likes balance - in fact demands it!!  How do I know this?  Besides the obvious of 2 arms, 2 legs/feet, 2 eyes, 2 ears, etc.; I can sense it in my body.  Whenever I am getting a massage and the therapists is working on one side of my body, the other side is constantly talking to me..."don't forget me!!".  When I stretch one side of my body, the other side says "Hey my turn!".  Nia knows this!  In a Nia class we incorporate movements from the Martial Arts, Dance Arts and Healing Arts, offering movement variety that creates a balance within our body, mind and spirit.   It is a dance of masculine and feminine, big and small, fast and slow, up and down, left and right, back, front and diagonal, linear and fluid, form and freedom, lose and tight, silence and sound, giving and receiving, contraction and expansion!!!  I ALWAYS leave a Nia class with the yummy sensation of every part of my body being moved in a variety of patterns, where my mind has been engaged in new and fascinating ways, and where I have been able to express my uniqueness.   I sense balance, and this creates harmony.  AHHH.

The real dance of balance happens though in life, and as I mentioned above, Nia is a lifestyle practice.  These same tools I use in class, I get to use in life.  The balance within my relationships...do I always receive more than I give, use masculine energy and not enough feminine?  What about the balance of silence and sound in my communication?  Do I always do things one way, very linear, or am I fluid and willing to release and let go?  Do I need to slow down, at work, home, while eating?  Am I tight about things in my life and need to loosen my mind, and open to the possibilities of life?  Do I get unbalanced - you better believe - and you can ask my family, friends and work relations - HA!!  And I sense this unbalance, no matter what it is, in my body.  My body reflects who I am. 

So I am choosing to stay with the dance of balance, in class and in life and I invite you to dance with me this week and every week. I have a hand mudra that I will be using to remind me of this dance.  It is called the Maatangi mudra which is a hand mudra of inner harmony.  The technique is to interlock your hands, holding your hands at navel level, and then have your 2 middle fingers (power finger) straight and touching.  This mudra affects the hypothalamus which is a part of the brain, and the seat of the autonomous nervous system, which can establish a state of balance within the body.  Join me!!!

My classes this week:

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

at The Synergy Studio

I invite you to take this path deeper by taking the Nia White Belt Intensive.  It is 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 my trainings at: www.nianow.com/joanie and click on "My Trainings".

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


Nia 5 Stages of Healing Facilitator, Journey Dance Guide, Mindful Change Coach and Laughter Yoga Leader
Go to my link & get 40% off of Nia clothing, music & much more!!  Look for the 40% off purple button:  http://nianow.com/joanie
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!

Exploring Connections!

Everything in our body is connected through a continuous network of connective tissue from our head to our toes. I love the sensation of this and knowing that through all of my movement I am continually conditioning my connective tissue and shaping my body for what she needs NOW. My body is dynamic and is internally supported by a connective system that is fluid, allowing my body to mold and fold, sending messages to my brain in the form of pain and pleasure. I like to visualize my connective tissue as this beautiful piece of fabric that weaves within my body, surrounding my organs, bones, muscles and cells with a protective covering that makes me feel loved and safe. As Linda Hartley in Wisdom of the Body Moving so eloquently states: “When we move in the spaces between the organs, bones, muscles, blood vessels, or cells, we are moving through the connective tissue sheaths. This movement is sensual, internal, flowing, and elastic, like the luxurious stretching of a cat. It flows on and on, rebounds and flows again. It gives vital support to the integrity of the whole in both movement and stillness.”

I was brought into a heightened awareness of my connective tissue and her role in my body’s shape a year into my healing from a cervical spine surgery that was brought on by an accident in 2008. Focused on my healing of my neck and head, I didn’t notice the imbalance on the left side of my body, until the tension manifested as pain in my left knee. I went for months where I was not able to bend my left knee without pain.  Later that year I was at a fitness conference with Debbie Rosas (co-founder of Nia), told her my story and asked her if she would observe my movement and give me feedback. After the session, she came up to me and said “It is your connective tissue. Focus there and you will heal.”  This simple message lead me on a path of discovery and learning, reading and exploring, movement and magic. Through my Nia practice and conscious movement, Nia’s 5 stages of healing, and directed therapy I was able to restore fluidity to my connective tissue and “unglued” my iIliotibial (IT) band (a thick connective tissue that runs from the outside of your hip to the outside of your knee). The pain in my knee vanished and I regained 90% range of motion in my knee. The exploration and healing continues!

Everything is connected. The structure and function of all parts and the body as a whole are supported by connective tissue, that is dedicated to giving me form and freedom of movement as I Dance Through Life. It is a dance of loosening and tightening, sound and silence, mobility and agility, strength and flexibility, opening and surrendering, volume up/down, fast and slow, sinking and rising, hard and soft, masculine and feminine, Martial Arts, Dance Arts and Healing Arts; and it is through awareness that I discover where there is pain and pleasure so I can play with theses dynamics to bring my body to homeostasis. Stability and Peace. I move on this earth with dynamic ease knowing the potential I have for unlimited ways to shape/reshape my body through my awareness of the connections inside. 


As I explore the connections inside, I am awakened to the rhythm of the connective tissue of my thoughts, emotions and spirit. Each of these voices connect to my body as a sensation, and I am connecting in loving ways that bring healing, pleasure, and connection to my purpose in life. 

And then there is the connection between you and me, and all of life.  The connective tissue of life that makes us a part of a Universal connection.  We are all connected.  See you in class this week!! 

EnJoy this video with Gil Hedley on connective tissue:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FtSP-tkSug
It is graphic!!!!

My classes this week:

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

Sunday at 4:00 pm

at The Synergy Studio

I invite you to take this path deeper by taking the Nia White Belt Intensive.  It is 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 my trainings at: www.nianow.com/joanie and click on "My Trainings".   P.S.  Ask me how you can save $500 on our intensive in Portland on May 24, 2014!!

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


Nia 5 Stages of Healing Facilitator, Journey Dance Guide, Mindful Change Coach and Laughter Yoga Leader
Go to my link & get 40% off of Nia clothing, music & much more!!  Look for the 40% off purple button:  http://nianow.com/joanie

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!

Sensation Scientist - Living in Constant Awareness of Sensation

Hello my friends - sending you love and light as we step into November!!

Did you know you were born a Sensation Scientist (SS)?  Yes!  Since the moment you entered this world you have been sensing & exploring your life through your body.  You sensed hunger, the pleasure of being held, or the discomfort of wet diapers, and responded in your unique way to either create change so you could feel better, or to enhance the pleasure sensation.  Being a SS is naturally encoded in our body!  So what is a SS?  A SS is a person who continually explores and investigates their personal health and potential through physical sensation.  In Nia we call sensation the voices of the body.  A SS uses life as their laboratory for exploration of body sensation, and based on information received, makes adjustments to bring their body to peace and well being.  A SS is someone who lives in constant awareness of sensation, who loves their body and desires to live life to its fullest!  WOW!  Please join me in an experience.  Close your eyes and take a nice deep breath as if you are smelling your favorite soup.  Relax your jaw and bring your awareness to your feet.  Notice your toes.  Are they all extended, are any of your toes gripping, do they feel tired, tight, relaxed?  What do you sense?  Now explore through movement with the intent to make your feet feel better.  Maybe it is spreading your toes, pointing your toes, circling your ankles...anything goes.  Just explore and then once you are finished, sense your feet again, and notice what has changed.  This is an example of what a SS does constantly in the NOW moment!

Nia is dedicated to you and helping you live to your potential.  In every Nia class you are invited to be a sensation scientist, to be in constant sensation, and you are given permission to self guide so you can develop a loving relationship with your body.  Nia has many tools and techniques to help your exploration and journey, and the primary tools we will explore this week in class are the FAMSS...the 5 fitness sensations.  FAMSS stands for:

Flexibility = Energy moving outward
Agility = Energy starting and stopping
Mobility = Energy in constant motion
Strength = Energy moving inward
Stability = Energy at rest and support from 360 degrees around you

So join me fellow SS as we move and explore our body, and discover our potential!  On Sunday, Nov. 10, Adelle and I have a fun and exciting 52 moves playshop.  I just returned from Nia HQ in Portland where I took the 52 moves training (again!), and I am excited to dance the 52 moves with you to awesome music!  The Playshop starts at 2:30 where we will learn the 52 moves, and then move and energize the moves at the 4:00 pm class to the Native American Nia Sounds music called Soul.  The Playshop includes the music CD.  Cost is $30...sign up HERE

My classes the rest of this week:

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

Sunday at 4:00 pm

at The Synergy Studio

I invite you to take this path deeper by taking the Nia White Belt Intensive.  It is 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 my trainings at: www.nianow.com/joanie and click on "My Trainings". Adelle and I have  a split weekend December 5th here in San Antonio.  Great opportunity to take the Nia white belt and only take a couple days off from work.  It is also our last training for 2013 and a chance to give yourself a wonderful end of year gift - Join us!
Love & Light,
Joanie Brooks,
http://www.joaniebrooks.me/
Nia Training Faculty, Nia White Belt Trainer


Nia 5 Stages of Healing Facilitator, Journey Dance Guide, Mindful Change Coach and Laughter Yoga Leader
Go to my link & get 40% off of Nia clothing, music & much more!!  Look for the 40% off purple button:  http://nianow.com/joanie

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!

Sailing Towards and Stepping into Your Passion

Sailing towards and stepping into your Passion.  Most of you know I left my full-time corporate world to follow my passion of Nia and fully step into my purpose in life.  Though I had been preparing, when I walked into the office of my human resource Partner to tell her I was leaving, the doubts and tears flowed.  Being the sweet and compassionate soul, she immediately gave me a book titled "The Traveler's Gift" by Andy Andrews, that has proved to be the best gift I could have received at that moment.  You see this book is about following your dreams, believing in yourself, owning decisions, taking action, following your heart and passion...and MORE!.  The book's message is said through the eyes of famous and courageous historical personalities, and one of them is Columbus.  Columbus' part is about passion, following a dream even though others do not believe, to see what others can't see, and to have a decided and committed heart.   "Passion is a product of the heart.  Passion is what helps you when you have a great dream...will motivate others to join you...will overcome insurmountable obstacles.  You will become unstoppable."  And with this passion, you find a committed heart for success no matter what challenges are sent to you.  This book and message will always resonate within me.

Now our focus!  Nia is about Passion.  The passion to become intimate with and knowledgeable about my body, and explore all the unique ways I can move to self heal.  The passion that through movement I can find health.  The passion to chose sensation - the voices of our body - so I can make decisions in the moment to bring peace and joy to my body.  The passion and conviction that I can enhance my life and live to my potential by listening to and loving my body.  The passion to go beyond where I have been, to break habits, to open to my potential and express who I am.  The passion to share my gifts with the world.  And that is what I love to do...share Nia!  So in honor of Columbus day, and to all those who have supported me along my path, let's dance this week and sail towards and step into OUR passion.  Hmmm...I think I will start the week off with the Nia routine, Passion!!!   Dancing to the music and expressing your unique spirit!

My classes:
Monday & Wednesday at 9:00 am (NEW TIME) at
Total Harmony Yoga  (please note...Jan Braun also teaches a Friday 9:00 am class). 1st week of Nia classes is free for new students to this studio

AND

Monday (we will dance the 52 moves to Passion!!!!)
Thursday at 5:30 pm
Saturday at 9:30 am

Sunday at 4:00 pm

at The Synergy Studio

I invite you to take this path deeper by taking the Nia White Belt Intensive.  It is 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 my trainings at: www.nianow.com/joanie and click on "My Trainings". Adelle and I have  a split weekend December 5th here in San Antonio.  Sign up by Nov. 5 and receive a free massage with Rachel Suarez, a gifted massage therapist at The Synergy Studio.  Great opportunity to take the Nia white belt and only take a couple days off from work.  It is also our last training for 2013 and a chance to give yourself a wonderful end of year gift - Join us!
Love & Light,
Joanie Brooks,
http://www.joaniebrooks.me/
Nia Training Faculty, Nia White Belt Trainer



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

Go to my link & get 40% off of Nia clothing, music & much more!!  Look for the 40% off purple button:  http://nianow.com/joanie
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 Empowerment!

Hello Dancing Friends!

I've had the opportunity over the last few weeks to discuss empowerment with someone very close to me, and how I use my dance to activate this sensation, and do my best to move forward in life in all situations.  Let's face it...the world has it's challenges and it is up to me how I choose to react to these challenges.  Empowerment is my ability to make choices. Choices that are good for me, my body and my life, my family and friends, and my world community.  I can get stuck, oh YEAH, I can get stuck, and the best way for me to move forward is in dance.  You see when I'm dancing, I am empowering myself.  I am making the choice to be in my body, to be in sensation, and to chose what I want to bring to my dance.  Do I want to make it a high powered workout, or a soft dance of Tai Chi?  Or do I want to just loose myself in abandonment?  All my choices, and some of my best insights, clarity and understandings have come to me during my dance. 

That is why I love Nia.  Nia empowers me, empowers EveryBODY...even if we did not chose to be empowered or did not start with this intention. The energy magically appears.  The act of sounding YES or NO during the class is activating empowerment.  Making the conscious choice to be in you body, deciding how fast or slow or big or small you want to move is empowerment.  Accepting the invitation to move, explore and create with you body cultivates empowerment.  Choosing to be in the Joy of Movement, taking on the archetype of the warrior, the dancer and the self healer through the 9 movement forms, empowers to break habits and move in unique and different ways.  Having the courage to shimmy and bump our hips, and allow our emotions to enter our dance is empowerment.   And when we choose to take the gifts of Nia out of the studio into our lives, we are showing the world we love our body and our life, and inspire others to seek this dance.  This IS empowerment and this IS the path of the Sacred Athlete.  Our focus this week!

I invite you to take this path deeper by taking the Nia White Belt Intensive.  It is 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 my trainings at: www.nianow.com/joanie and click on "My Trainings". Adelle and I have  a split weekend December 5th here in San Antonio.  Sign up by Nov. 5 and receive a free massage with Rachel Suarez, a gifted massage therapist at The Synergy Studio.  Great opportunity to take the Nia white belt and only take a couple days off from work.  It is also our last training for 2013 and a chance to give yourself a wonderful end of year gift - Join us!

My classes:
Monday & Wednesday at 9:00 am (NEW TIME) at
Total Harmony Yoga  (please note...Jan Braun also teaches a Friday 9:00 am class). 1st week of Nia classes is free for new students to this studio

AND

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

at The Synergy Studio
Love & Light,
Joanie Brooks,
http://www.joaniebrooks.me/
Nia Training Faculty, Nia White Belt Trainer



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

Go to my link & get 40% off of Nia clothing, music & much more!!  Look for the 40% off purple button:  http://nianow.com/joanie

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!

Awareness of our fingers and hands - open to the dance of Receiving and Giving!!

God has given us two hands, one to receive with and the other to give with..Billy Graham 

Happy Fall My Fellow Dancers!
 
What a wonderful, cool day we are having here in San Antonio!  I love this weather and it makes me feel alive and vibrant!  Take a moment with me, close your eyes and reach out with your hands, spread your fingers and Receive the energy of the space around you with your hands.  Through TOUCH, our hands provide an enormous amount of information through highly sensitive Proprioceptors.  AHHH!   Now bring your hands in and Give yourself a big hug.  Our hands and fingers play an essential role in our lives.  They build, create, connect, nurture and heal. They provide warmth and tenderness, as well as protection, and have the power to silently say “stop,” or “stay away", "come towards me" or "go this way".   We can also use our hands to direct energy to an area of our body that needs healing, for ourselves and others...Receiving and Giving.  How wonderful does it feel when a friend or loved one places their hand on your shoulder when you need reassurance; or a soft touch on your cheek that communicates you are loved?  Our hands and fingers have this special form of communication that does not require words. 
In Nia we use our fingers and hands to creatively express and emote our dance.  We have 15 of the 52 moves of Nia dedicated to our hands and fingers, that condition all the muscles and joints, can increase the intensity of our dance, and provide us information to keep us safe as we dance through life.  Join me this week as we bring awareness to our fingers and hands, and open to the dance of Receiving and Giving...endless possibilities to move, explore, create and communicate!

My classes:
Monday & Wednesday at 9:00 am (NEW TIME) at
Total Harmony Yoga  (please note...Jan Braun will start teaching a Friday 9:00 am class this Friday October 4th - Woot!!)

AND

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

and Sunday (Oct. 6) at 4:00 pm - team teaching a surprise Nia class with Adelle!!!

at The Synergy Studio

Considering taking the Nia White belt intensive?  Whether you want to teach Nia or take Nia for personal growth, it is an amazing experience!!!   Check out my trainings at: www.nianow.com/joanie and click on "My Trainings". Adelle and I have  a split weekend December 5th here in San Antonio.  Great opportunity to take the Nia white belt and only take a couple days off from work.  It is also our last training for 2013 and a chance to give yourself a wonderful end of year gift - Join us!

--

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

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

Go to my link & get 40% off of Nia clothing, music & much more!!  Look for the 40% off purple button:  http://nianow.com/joanie
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!