The First Fundamental of Nia: The Joy of Movement is the Secret to Fitness.
I have found that Nia’s teachings have been guiding principles through the years, on & off the ‘dance’ floor. These practices carry a depth and potential for embodiment that far surpasses any other fitness or workout programs, I’ve ever come across. It’s one of the many reasons it has been one of my passions for decades!
Twenty-three years ago, while living in Portland, Oregon, I took the Nia Technique White Belt training. I was a regular substitute instructor for a couple of teachers in town for a year, as part of my preparation to start my own classes. My dream to teach this amazing body of work crumbled with the beginning of a Kundalini crisis in 2000. That story can be found in my memoir, ‘Awakening from the Dream ~ a Kundalini Memoir.’ Much has happened in these last 23 years!
Over these last decades my devotion has been to my role as a healer & soul guide for those on their awakening journey. Light Language is the primary modality that I use when I work with clients, to create new patterns and raise ones frequency.
When I first began speaking Light Language, over a decade into my awakening, the quality that arose in my heart and became a magical guide for my divine alignment, was Joy. The Thread of Joy has been an underlying guide for me in all areas of life since I was first introduced to Nia.
During one of my first Nia classes as a student in 1998, I had an ecstatic experience during a free-dance segment of class. My heart burst open into qualities of Blissful Joy unlike anything I’d ever encountered and only heard about from far removed realities of spiritual teachings. My face and whole being broke into a smile that exuded child-like, expansive, freedom & Joy!
A couple of months prior to beginning my Nia journey, I had just gone on my first vision quest into the desert of Eastern Oregon. On that journey dragonflies become my constant companions, teacher, and medicine. They introduced me to following whatever made my heart go ‘pitter-patter’ … my Joy. That was the point at which I released the need for my head, intellect or logic to guide my life. I surrendered to the power of my heart-communication of divine inspiration and intuition. It was that pitter-patter that committed me to Nia.
It was in those moments dancing the free-dance, when Joy overtook me, smiling through my dancing body, that Dragonfly medicine energetically imprinted on my heart chakra. As I danced, I knew I had to tattoo that mystical totem creature of earthly & ethereal realms, Light, fairies, and constant transformation, on my heart. Two weeks later, the Joyful Dragonfly was dancing with me.
There is a common thread of Joy between these two sacred paths of embodiment. One of the first principles of Nia, is the Joy of Movement, follow that which feels pleasurable and fulfilling in your body, and supports ease and grace in life.
Nia invites us through this guiding principle to choose pleasure over pain. This encompasses body, mind, emotions, whether on or off the dance floor. And, because Nia is also a ‘workout’ for our mental and emotional patterns that have been stuck in the body, we’re also invited to be present with the pain that needs to be released. It’s not uncommon to experience crying, tears, and grief letting go of us, as we practice the Nia’s Joy of Movement. As a matter of fact, my very first Nia experience, brought me to an outbreak of emotion. I danced with the release and found new space and freedom!
I can’t say that I predicted returning to teaching Nia. Like most of my life, I just listen to the Dragonfly heart and it’s perfectly intertwining my continuous awakening path, with the deep embodied experience that Nia also facilitates.
Returning to dancing Nia, a movement art, two decades later, it’s an wholistic modality of healing & wellness, knowing oneself through movement & sensation, the conscious relationship of music & sound resonance, and each unique body’s wisdom. It is it’s own path of awakening.
This is going to be an exciting, Joy-filled, next phase for what I’m able to share in sacred service. I hope you will feel called to join me at the Yoga Room in Tulsa on April 1st.
Please see the Yoga Room for the Nia Introduction Workshop registration.
InJoy!
Lotus
Lotus Lindley 