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

Stage 3:  Crawling.  Bear-like.

Crawling.  Now you are on all fours.  Look out to see more of the world around you.  You can easily move in any direction.  You look out into the world and explore.  Your belly hangs.  The nails of your front paws drag on the ground.  Your toes are long and relaxed, so the light of Heaven can shine upon the sole of your feet.

Now there is space between your belly and the Earth.  Your chakras are no longer touching the ground and they begin to engage with your nervous system and your environment in more complex ways. 

This stage is all about mobility.  No longer belly to belly with the Earth, you have more freedom of movement and independence to be in relationship with life.  Crawling.

Stage 2:  Creeping.  Lizard-like.

You are belly to belly with the Earth.  You are moving on solid ground.   Hands feel the Earth.   Pull with hands and forearms.  One arm pulls, the the other.  Drag your pelvis.  Push with feet.  One foot pushes, then the other.

With the support of the Earth, you are learning how to move forward all by yourself.  Eyes look ahead, not down.  Look up and out to perceive life.  Reach into life.  Reach for what you want. 

There is support from the Earth below for the physical body and the energy body.  Your chakras are supported by the ground.  This creates a feeling of safety.  Moving forward stimulates curiosity about the world, desire to explore, and intent.

This stage is all about strength.  You are developing the strength to move toward and attain what you desire — physically, neurologically and energetically.  You are developing the strength to be here on Earth.  Creeping.

The practice of the Five Stages of Self-Healing brings many benefits to the human system.  The movements have a  direct relationship to our everyday activities and how the body is biologically designed to function. They organically condition muscle, bones, nervous system and brain, emotional body and energy body.  The Five Stages of Self-Healing are the body’s natural workout.

Here are some benefits the practice of Embryonic brings to the body, mind, emotions and spirit:

Body:

Core strength to the deep abdominal muscles and spine.
The sensation of support.
Relaxation.
Freedom of motion.

Mind:

Moving and being without thinking or judging.
Embodiment of pure awareness.
Timelessness.
Quietness.

Emotions:

The ability to receive and be nurtured.
The sensation of basking.
Peace in your emotional body.

Spirit:

The ability to be fully in the moment.
Connection to Allness.
Openness of your spirit.

. . .  And Embryonic brings these benefits to the experience and practice of Nia’s three movement arts:

Dance Arts:

The natural ebb and flow of Duncan Dance.
Shapes in space of Modern Dance.

Martial Arts:

Constantly moving from your energetic center.
Moving in circles and spirals of Aikido.
Tai Chi’s slow dance.

Healing Arts:

Awareness of movement sensation of Feldenkrais.
Floating up of Alexander Technique. 

In my next post, I’ll discuss the nature and benefits of stage two of the Five Stages of Self-Healing, Creeping.

The Five Stages of Self-Healing is a Nia movement practice based on the developmental stages we went through as babies: Embryonic, Creeping, Crawling, Standing and Walking. (See my Blue Belt post, Developmental Anatomy.)

By calling on The Body’s Way, The Five Stages of Self-Healing organically realign your body, helping you reclaim flexibility, agility, mobility, strength and stability in a way exercise alone cannot. They condition muscles, bones, organs, emotions, senses, nervous system and energy body. Because they are pre-verbal, when ou practice them, let instinct and intuition guide you and tell you when to transition to the next stage.

This month we are focusing in class on these developmental stages, practicing one stage each week and incorporating the physical sensation and energetic experience of each into our Nia practice, and into our lives.

Stage 1: Embryonic. Fish-like.

You are floating in water. You are moving in the womb, floating in amniotic fluid. You move fluidly and freely. Limbs float. There are no edges and no separations. There is no up or down. There is no time. You are coiling and uncoiling in continuous movement that is fluid and soft.

There is no thinking. Just awareness. You are pure body and pure spirit. From the energetic center of your navel, you are connected through the universal umbilical cord to all of life. You are integrating your physical body and energy body.

This stage is all about receiving. You are nurtured. You are fed. Everything you need is here.

Nothing is required of you. You are relaxed, alert and waiting. Embryonic.

For more information about Nia and the Five Stages of Self-Healing, please contact Rachael R. Resch at 541/488-1192 or nia-ashland@jeffnet.org.

In Nia the Five Sensations help us develop the art of sensing.  Sensing how your body feels at any given moment — during a Nia class, another movement practice, or in life — is a great way to become your own best teacher.  I teach myself with my senses.  My senses tell me how to move my body’s way.

The Five Sensations are: Flexibility, Agility, Mobility, Strength and Stability.  

The body craves all five in dynamic balance for optimal function and harmony.  Learn to recognize each sensation in your body.   Then you can self-activate each one whenever and however you desire.  You can turn them on or off.  You can turn the volume up or down.

Develop a relationship with each sensation.  For example, I can literally say, "Hello, Strength" to initiate a conversation between myself and the sensation of Strength.  I notice what I bring to my relationship with Strength, and what Strength brings to its relationship with me.

At times I have brought to my relationship with Strength fear, insecurity, frustration, curiosity, love, appreciation and satisfaction.  Strength has brought to its relationship with me timidness, gradualness, encouragement, pain, confidence, grounding, ecstasy and energy.

The Nia book and the glossary on the Nia website give us definitions of each of the Five Sensations, and examples of what they feel like. What’s most important, however, is to get to know each sensation in your body.  This is your personal body language.

Articulate the Five Sensations in your own way to integrate body and mind.  This will help you create a map of your practice of living in a body.  You might say, "Wow, I haven’t been visiting Stability much," or, "Gee, I notice lately my body likes it when I visit Mobility before moving on to Strength."

The Five Sensations guide us in our movement practice and in life.  Each sensation, Flexibility, Agility, Mobility, Strength and Stability, has an energy that brings a gift, a unique usefulness to life’s circumstances and to the practice of dancing through life.

Today’s class focus was on Nia Blue Belt Principle #1, The Joy of Being in Relationship.  The practice is to cultivate relationships with the movements we are doing.  We do this by saying "Hello," either silently or out loud to each movement.  This establishes a relationship so that dialogue can happen.  Then we can notice what we bring to the relationship with the movement, and what the movement brings to the relationship as well.

I left the house this morning feeling cranky and insecure.  My mental realm was telling all sorts of stories, like Wormtongue in The Lord of he Rings, whispering in King Theoden’s ear, causing him to be blind to his own heart and to what is actually before him in the moment.

Part way through the first song I felt time begin to slow down.  Then throughout class, I had the sensation of time having a rhythm or a pulse, sometimes slowing a lot, sometimes being less slow, and then slowing more again. And I had the sensation that the slow time formed a container of spaciousness.  Sometimes the container felt small, other times vast, but always inside there was great space, there was pressure and support, like being under water, and there was a palpable consciousness.

It felt like something greater had come in to the room and was patiently holding us and being with us.  We were all dancing with it, together as a group, yet each of us in our own intimate relationship with it. 

I expected the same from Blue Belt.  But Blue Belt is not the foundation of Nia like White Belt is.  Blue Belt is about communication, relationship and intimacy.  All week long I felt like a lens was at the wrong angle, so that I was not receiving quite as clearly as I might, even though I trusted that all the light was entering.

At the end of the final day, after we received our certificates and our blue belts, I realized why.  I’m Embryonic. 

I have never been a Brown Belt doing the Blue Belt before.  I have never been in this relationship with Blue Belt, or with Nia before.  I’ve never been in this body before.  It’s all new.  I’m wide-eyed.  I’m an immigrant in a new land, staring, wondering, disoriented.  “What’s that?  And what’s that?”  I’m a newborn baby.  I’m not sure what to do with all that I’m sensing or how to respond to things.  I don’t know the language spoken here.  My nervous system is new and very sensitive.

The sensation of being home is new, the sensation of teaching Nia is new, the sensation of being in relationship with myself, with my husband, with my house and with everything is new. Everything feels familiar and strange, beautiful and painful, like a dream.

Blue Belt Principle #12 is Observe, Listen, Guide: Co-Creating Movement Change.  When we did this principle on the final day of Blue Belt, it brought me deep healing.  This was the center of my Blue Belt experience.

Here’s the practice:  As I move, I gather information by observing the teacher but I do not change my own movement as I watch.  I put 100% attention on what the teacher is doing (i.e., I ellipt into the teacher; see post, Split, Ellipt, Blend).  Then I turn my attention inward, away from the teacher (I split).  I take time to listen to my own body and sense my movement — again, without changing the movement at all.  I continue to observe then listen, observe then listen, and eventually, when I’m ready, without looking at the teacher, I gently guide my body to change the movement.  I can then go through the process again to fine tune the movement. 

With practice, Observe, Listen, Guide happens quite quickly, but it still slows down the nervous system and brings the bubble of timelessness.  This practice is for Nia teachers when we learn Nia routines, when we take other people’s classes, and in our own classes.  It’s also a practice students can do.

A teacher with a relaxed nervous system brings grounding to the class and co-creates a peaceful and spacious environment in which everyone’s nervous system can relax, learn, sense, move and heal, especially when the class is in high gear.

On a personal level, this slow-motion learning has brought to my relationship with my mental realm a sweet, healing balm.  (See post, The Art of Intimate Listening). 

I feel the sensation of my nervous system slowing down.  I discover there is time and space to sense, be curious and learn my body’s way.  There is no rush; slower is OK.  My mental realm, instead of perfectionism, now brings patience, curiosity, sensitivity to timing and to the moment.   My emotional realm brings relief, wonder, grief.  My physical realm brings relaxation and settling. 

I discover the bubble of timelessness is not just an idea, but a real place inside my body where I can go to co-create and to live.

1. The Joy of Being in Relationship
2. The Power of Two: Communication
3. Awareness, Insight, Clarity
4. Developmental Anatomy
5. The Power of Three: Relationship
6. Split, Ellipt, Blend
7. Nia Class Format: Body, Mind, Spirit
8. The Power of Silence and Sound
9. Form and Freedom
10. FloorPlay
11. Music, Movement and Magic
12. Observe, Listen, Guide
13.  Vertical Routines