Cross-Training Body Mind Emotions Spirit | Rachael R. Resch

Today we chose the focus from the basket of 2009 focus cards for almost the last time this year.

The focus of our Nia practice today was “moving forward.”

As we move forward toward 2010, we find ourselves in the seven day period between what we call Christmas and what we call the New Year.  This is a liminal time, a threshold between one time and the next.  Some say the veils between the worlds are thin now, and anything can happen.  These are also the seven days of Kwanzaa.

Today’s practice was the routine “Sanctuary,” choreographed by Nia co-founder Debbie Rosas to the beautiful music of Adiemus, “Songs of Sanctuary.”

As we move forward into the new year, as we move forward into the moment, we can take our own sanctuary with us.  How do we do this?

Every Nia class begins with the practice of “Stepping In.”  The purpose of stepping in is to leave behind distractions.  It’s a technique that Debbie and Carlos borrowed from martial arts.  When the martial artist steps out onto the floor to fight, she leaves behind all distractions.

In Nia when we step in, we are stepping in to the present.  We step in with all four realms — body, mind, emotions and spirit.  We step into sensory awareness of the body.  We step into an open mind.  We step into emotional presence.  And we step into spiritual readiness — that is, we step into our connection with everything.

Presence is our sanctuary.  When I’m present I take sanctuary in myself, and I take my sanctuary with me as I cross the threshold into now, as I move forward and step into the moment.

In sanctuary, I can move straight forward or I can move forward in apparent retrograde motion.  I can move forward mentally, physically, emotionally and energetically.  I can move forward in the wild and natural spiral motion of all migrating animals, of plants, galaxies, waters and winds.

It’s a paradox that to be present, I step in.  It’s a paradox that to move forward, I need to be present.  As story teller Gioia Timpanelli says, when we find ourselves in the place of paradox, we are in the presence of truth.

When I’m not present, I’m not really moving forward at all.  I’m actually fleeing the moment, trying to jump over it and into the future.  This creates the sensation of going fast — we see it all around us in our culture — but it’s only the illusion of moving forward.  It’s what astrologer Caroline Casey would call the “toxic mimic” of moving forward.

I find myself is this situation often.  This is why Nia is my practice.

Nia invites us to connect with sensation, and sensation is someting we can only experience in the present moment.

By stepping into the presence sensation again and again, I create for myself a sanctuary, an energetic state of being that is both a shelter to rest in and a vessel in which I am carried and moved forward each moment into the present.

Nia invites us to move forward again and again into the sanctuary of the moment, to move forward again and again into the sanctuary of the joy of movement, and to move forward again and again into the sanctuary of the body’s way.

Come, return again to the sanctuary of your holy, whole self — here, now — and from this very moment, this very body, move forward and step into the precious life awaiting you.

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Come dance with us this New Year’s Eve morning and through body-based inquiry set your intent for moving forward and stepping into the new year and help create the class foci cards for 2010.  Thursday, December 31, 9:30-11:00 am, $12, at The DanceSpace in Ashland, Oregon.