Expanding awareness is a subject that comes up often in my Nia classes. When you begin a body mind movement or fitness practice, you will be guided to tap in more and more to the sensations you are experiencing through your physical body.
As you gain skill in this, your awareness leads you naturally to becoming a witness. The power of the witness role is that it allows you the power of choice. It puts you directly in the driver’s seat, the only place where you can consciously create what you desire.
Awareness often has a subtle beginning. You may notice that you sense something and not know how to interpret it and then simply think it’s meaningless. The trick is to simply acknowledge without having to understand everything in the beginning. What happens when you allow yourself to notice is that you become present, in the now, the only place where choice resides.
Awareness of your body will lead you to change that brings in an even better experience. For example, if you begin to stand with balance through your whole foot, rather than leaning back and putting extra weight on the heels or leaning forward to rest more on the front of the foot – you will begin to feel more fully supported. The effect of this will be physical and also emotional.
Being comfortable in our bodies is critical to being comfortable with who we are, which is where empowerment takes flight.
In the realm of fitness, witnessing your body’s movement and experience is vital. It allows you to make choices to develop greater stability, strength, flexibility or any host of healthy results. In Nia, I guide my students to move towards signs of pleasure, good feelings, sensations of fitness; for all of these give clues that the student is moving with the design of their body and is respecting it.
Signs of pain are indicators of going against the design of the body and causing problems, whether in the short term or longer term (often when problems show up). Through awareness and positive choices, this can be reversed. Attending regular classes gives you the insight, guidance, and expertise of the teacher.
Get into a cardio practice that is soft-impact and notice how it’ll actually keep you young, fit, and agile compared to harder impact forms. Or if you’re not ready to let them go, add a class like Nia to your practice (the gym, aerobics, running) and discover how the new body awareness will change how you work out to a way that is more sustainable and joyous. It will multiply your results!
Jasjit Rai achieved her Nia Black Belt certification and taught weekly classes since 2000 in Vancouver. As of 2021, she created her own dance movement practice called Alaia – check it out at http://joiworks.square.site
