Movement: Feeling the Pulse of Life

To close this series on movement and exercise, I offer you this video montage that I have put together.

It’s called Movement: Feeling the Pulse of Life, and it sums up the essence of everything I’ve tried to explain about movement and exercise and its ability to help us feel lighter of body, mind and spirit.

Watch the video and as you do, see if the spirit moves you to get up and start moving. Even if you don’t start moving, see if you start feeling the flow of energy through your body as you watch it.

Movement can help you live a Low Density Lifestyle because it helps you feel the pulse of life course through your body, and can help you get in the zone.

We are all kinesthetic.  All you have to do is find what type of movement fits your temperament, and then just go do it.

Maybe it’s yoga, maybe it’s tai chi, maybe it’s Nia, maybe it’s running barefoot, maybe it’s singing and dancing like Elvis.

But whatever it is, just remember to move. Cause then you’ll be feeling the pulse of life.

Dancing Through Life with Nia

In this series on movement and exercise, I’ve written about yoga and tai chi, two movement forms that fit in well with a Low Density Lifestyle approach to movement.

Another movement approach that is oriented towards enhancing the flow state, and as such is another Low Density Lifestyle movement approach is Nia, which is a lifestyle and movement practice.

Today’s article is guest

written by Katie Capelli, who is a Certified Nia Black Belt Instructor and who has been sharing the joy of Nia with students for 11 years. She has created a holistic movement studio, Bloom, that offers classes in Nia and other movement techniques. She is also a Certified Nutritionist and co-owns a Natural Foods store with her husband in upstate NY.

Here is Katie’s article:

In contrast to a fitness philosophy that pushes us into pain and discomfort to achieve results (“no pain, no gain”), sits the choice of Nia. An expressive movement and lifestyle technique based on a philosophy that Through Movement We Find Health, Nia is guided by the sensation of pleasure.

Nia embodies “The Body’s Way” – that is, everything we do in Nia is supported by the unique design of the body’s own elegant neuromuscular systems. Through this practice we learn how to foster our own body awareness to make movement choices that let the body say “aahhh” in response.

As a unique blend of technical precision and free-form expression, Nia offers the body, mind, emotions and spirit an integrated balanced state of health and is based on nine traditional movement forms: from the healing arts (Yoga, Alexander Technique, The Teachings of Moshe Feldenkrais), from the dance arts (Modern Dance, Duncan Dance, Jazz Dance) and from the martial arts (Aikido, Tae Kwon Do, T’ai Chi).

The goal is not how deep, how fast or how much we can do in class but rather how aware we can become of our own physical sensations. We become our own personal trainers.

As this awareness or inner voice begins to direct our movements, we then are free to adapt the movements to our own body potential. We explore how it feels to move from sharp to fluid, from large to small, from high to low. We learn to listen to our body while having fun, as it tells us how to adjust the movements so we will feel pleasure and joy.

Nia is adaptable to meet the unique needs of all ages, sizes, shapes and fitness levels and acknowledges that the body requires movement and energy variety. Practiced barefoot to all kinds of music, Nia is truly designed for every body.

Through Nia, it is possible to achieve mobility, flexibility, strength, cardiovascular conditioning, agility – all of the components that lead to whole-body conditioning. Most importantly, Nia leads us to a loving, sensory relationship with our own body, a body that holds an innate intelligence on how to live and be healthy.

To learn more about Katie’s Nia work and her studio, check out Bloom, A Movement Space.

And here’s another video that shows you Nia in action:

Nia Promotional Video 2005 from Nia Technique on Vimeo.

Can You Move to the Groove Like a Little Baby?

I’ve been talking about movement and exercise for the last week, and I’ve been saying how the best type of movement is one that allows you to feel that you’re in the flow.

That’s the Low Density Lifestyle approach to movement.

It’s movement that is oriented towards enhancing the mind/body unison, and feels natural and joyous and it increases your mind’s awareness.

Now that’s not to say that exercising in a gym – cardio work or strength training – is not the best approach. It’s all good, and all important.

I am saying that movement that allows you to feel in the flow is essentially spiritual in nature – it allows you to get in touch with the pulse of the universe.

That is the aim of movement forms like yoga, tai chi, some of the martial arts, pilates, and dance, and other approaches that have a similar orientation.

The aim of these approaches are to help you to move in a way that allows you to feel lighter of body and mind. That is why these approaches fit in perfectly with the Low Density Lifestyle.

So can you move to the groove like the baby in the above video? Chances are she hasn’t taken any dance lessons, yet she knows how to move her body effortlessly and without impedance.

She is totally in the flow, as she dances to Beyonce’s song “Single Ladies.”

So why don’t you try moving in this type of way? If the little baby can do it, so can you.

You’ll definitely then feel lighter of body and mind.

Let’s All Get Up and Sing (And Dance)!!

Over the last week I’ve been talking about eating a local, sustainable diet, and how that relates to a Low Density Lifestyle.  And in the last article, I discussed what being a locavore was and how to live that way, even in the wintertime.

I will be continuing on in that vein through this week, but today I am taking a slight detour, in order to show you the above video.

Living a Low Density Lifestyle is really about feeling light of body, mind and soul.  This creates a feeling of healthy living, and a feeling of being in Flow. When you feel this way, everything just seems right.

To feel this way, it’s about doing things that make you feel alive in the depths of your soul. And you know, every time you feel happy and joyous, your soul breathes a little easier and lighter.

So imagine if you were in a public place, and all of a sudden, out of the blue, people started singing and dancing? This is what happened on March 23, 2009 at the central rain station in Antwerp, Belgium.

Now, Antwerp is a city of over 1 million people, which means it’s a large size city. And as we all know, in large cities people are usually rushing around, trying to get from one place to the next, with little time to take a pause. And that can only mean one thing – when people are running around and extremely busy, they’re usually caught up in a High Density Lifestyle.

But when singing and dancing break out in the middle of a busy train station, it makes you have to stop and remind yourself that, yes, this is what really matters.

When you watch the above video, see if it makes your soul sing. It should. And as it does, you’ll know that not only are you experiencing healthy living, but you are experiencing the lightness of being that makes up living a Low Density Lifestyle.

And if you need to do an encore, you can always sing in the rain, like the below video.

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