Archive for the ‘NIA dance’ Category

Resolutions for 2011

Friday, January 7th, 2011

Well, I’ve been incredibly busy having a great time, which is part of my New Year’s Resolutions. I’m dancing NIA five days a week with an occasional weekend workshop thrown in. I rarely think about my bones any more except to appreciate how strong they are. In fact next week I’m going to try out a class I just found out about on learning trapeze and aerial gymnastics.

So you can see why I’ve been a little remiss in writing in this blog lately. I’m also in the middle of creating a new website selling dance clothing! Inner Dance Clothing. I found there was very little clothing suitable for women of my age who take up dance and NIA, for one, is full of women over 50. So I made myself some clothes and people liked them and now I’m starting something new.

I love getting into new areas of interest and, when I focus my attention on something new, the Universe always brings me whatever I’m thinking about. Do you notice that in your life? It’s the Law of Attraction in action.

Anyway, back to resolutions; I’m being good again and cutting the sugar and wheat back out of my diet. I totally lost control since Thanksgiving. What’s funny is that I was clean for 5 days and then a visitor brought me an almond croissant and I felt so bad after I ate it that it reminded me how bad sugar is for me. If I had continued to eat it that effect would have disappeared from my attention as usual.

My BIG resolution this year though is to love myself totally. You probably know by now that I use the Abraham-Hicks principles to make my life more joyful and he always says the most important thing is to feel good. Check out youtube for numerous videos.

The more I can stream love into my life the better I feel. It’s totally working for me. There is no point in trying to love someone else when you don’t love yourself.  I remembered that one of the things I did long ago when I started my bone journey was to love my bones. It’s counter-productive to think those fear thoughts that the drug-pushers are trying to make you think. Just appreciate the bones you have and then dream big. I dreamed of doing backbends again like I did when I was a kid and I’m doing it!

Your mind/body/Spirit wants to give you exactly what you want and the only way it can tell what you want is what you spend most of your time thinking about. If you think of collapsing bones then that’s what it will give you. Luckily there is a lag time in the creation so you can change your thoughts now before they get manifested. If you can’t think happy thoughts about your bones then just change the subject and get happy some other way, pet your dog or hug your friends. 

So I think I will pass the baton of bone research on to the Betterbones blog. Susan does great research and explains clearly what it all means. She’s had some great articles lately. She doesn’t get into the mind/body connection but that’s kind of risky for a researcher. People tend to think you are nuts if you talk about that. I’m so happy being nuts that I recommend you give it a try. Appreciate your bones just as they are every day, and then visualize yourself radiantly healthy, doing something you’ve always dreamed of doing but never really thought you would.

Maybe I’ll see you hanging from a trapeze someday,
Blessings,
Pam

Posted in About Me, Law of Attraction, Lifestyle, NIA dance, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Stay In Your Body

Saturday, June 19th, 2010

I went through a seven day process to train as a White Belt in NIA dance a couple of weeks ago. It was intense! We were moving for a large part of the day and learning some pretty esoteric stuff about music and movement as well.

It was also an intense self-learning time as we all saw our tendencies in movement come up time and again. We got our buttons pushed in ways that we protect ourselves from in our normal lives. Most humans move within a certain chosen restricted range and we spend a lot of time in our heads instead of our bodies. The more time we can spend actually feeling at home in our body the easier it will be to adjust to the ebb and flow of our lives. As my first transformational teacher said back in the ’70′s, “Our heads and minds are the last to KNOW anything”.

One thing that came up in the sharing was that three of us had been short-sighted as children and that had not been recognized by adults around us for a long time. We had all chosen to adapt in different ways to not being able to see clearly but it clearly isolated all three of us and caused us to become introverts. I also had a movement pattern of holding my chin up trying to see better which I have not lost to this day, after Rolfing, Feldenkrais training and a zillion other bodywork modalities.

After witnessing this pattern so clearly and having the cause pop up in the general sharing I am able to shift it more easily, in my dance and in my life.

We all have traumas and resistances of various kinds that affect our movement. Recognizing them and releasing them through the dance is a hugely healing part of NIA.

I find that now I am dancing for an hour a day, I am less inclined to enjoy long periods on the computer. I WANT to be in my body again. I think I lost that joy of movement after menopause and after giving up on relationship. Dancing in a group of mostly women is a safe place to explore being in my body more fully.

So this is about me, and about the rediscovery of the joy of being in my body, but it’s also about bones. My bones are so happy that I am moving vigorously every day! I am almost able to back bend to the floor again as I did as a child. When I first wanted to do that a voice in my head said, ” Be careful, what about your bones, what about fractured vertebrae.” Now I get it that my body knows what it can do and what it can’t and I just have to be quiet and listen as I move.

Not everyone has access to NIA dance in their community and hardly anyone has as wonderful a teacher as I have found in Kate, but there are videos available and there are other forms of dance like Zumba, the five rythyms and salsa that are becoming more common across the country. See what you can find.

In my whole life I have never enjoyed working out to the point of sweating, never! I really thought I couldn’t sweat. Now I lie in a soggy puddle on the floor at the end of every class and feel connected to Heaven and Earth through every happy cell in my body.

I feel so blessed that this has come into my life when I am still young enough to enjoy it, in fact, I feel twenty years younger than when I started in February.

So please, get your tushes out of your chairs and tear your eyes away from those addicting screens and join me in the dance of life.

Pam

Posted in About Me, Exercise, NIA dance, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Bone Drugs Linked to Broken Femur

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

The New York Times had an article on March 24 about bisphosphonate drugs being linked to the snapping of the femur bone in relatively young women.

After 4 years of telling you about the dangers of these bone drugs I’m probably preaching to the choir and I dislike adding to the fear-mongering that is prevalent in health blogs BUT I guess it’s my job to keep you up with the latest news about this.

“The femur bone was snapping like a twig, sometimes splintering. Often there was no trauma, such as a serious fall, to bring it on. And some of the women were younger, in their 50s, with pre-osteoporosis but without the extremely fragile bones of people with the full-blown condition,” says the NYT.

The fractures are highly unusual because they are occurring in the long bone of the thigh, one of the strongest bones of the body, when ordinarily thighbone fractures occur near the hip socket. Further, because this area does not have a rich blood supply, the fractures are difficult to heal.

Bisphosphonate drugs are poison, they are being given out indescriminately to women who don’t need them and the risks are finally becoming obvious in the bodies of women. That last bit was from me, not the NYTimes. ;-) They were only tested for five years and many doctors will only prescribe them for that length of time. Since most hip fractures occur to women over 80, why are young women under 50 being put on these drugs? It doesn’t make sense. Diet, weight-bearing exercise, supplements and bio-identical hormones can all strengthen women’s bones in a way that benefits the whole body and is not poisonous to the system.

So much for the bad news. The good news is that I am totally loving the NIA dance workout that I started in February. It feels as if every cell in my body has benefitted. I am actually going to 6 classes this week, I’m getting totally addicted. It is dance with martial arts and Feldenkrais thrown in and I have an inspired teacher.

For a person who only did the rebounder in 10 minute segments because of my low boredom threshold, it is amazing to be dancing around for an hour without even noticing the time. At yoga I was always looking at the clock. Dancing NIA makes me happy and I feel more creative than I have in years also. I can honestly say I feel twenty years younger.

So find yourself a NIA class; you can do that at nianow.com and strengthen your bones the happy way.

Namaste
Pam

Posted in About Me, Bone Drugs, Exercise, NIA dance, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Think of What You WANT, Not What You Don’t Want

Friday, February 19th, 2010

I think a key to living a life of joy is to notice our thoughts, especially as we get older. There are so many cultural group-thoughts that are fired at us all day long through the media, other people and our old unexamined beliefs.

In this culture aging is not respected at all and is seen as a downhill path from which there is no escape. Yes, we will get old and die, I’m not arguing with that. What I’m arguing with is the additional piece we’ve added. Now it’s get old, DETERIORATE, and die.

To me that part is unnecessary and can be easily avoided. The trick, according to the Law of Attraction, is to focus on what we DO want and not on what we DON’T want.

In the matter of bones it is entirely clear what the medical emphasis on measuring bones is about. It’s about selling drugs, that don’t help, through fear of the numbers. I can’t tell you how many women call me with their numbers, imagining a catastrophic ending as their bones erode out from under them.

So, it’s a little hard to convince them to turn their backs on the numbers, not to live in fear, and not to push against that negative future. But the real trick, as I said, is to look forward to what we DO WANT.

So how do you want your aging to look? What vision do you have for your future? To have an exciting present we have to have an exciting future to look forward to. When I was 55 and I got sick, I know it was partly because I couldn’t see a way to an exciting future. My second marriage was over and I wasn’t feeling engaged by my work and I couldn’t see anything ahead that was bright and alluring.

Now I have earned my way back to health and I am finally as healthy as I dreamed of being, I am inventing new dreams. Not of finally meeting my soulmate or becoming a millionaire, but of fulfilling my own potential in this lifetime. I have many skills and talents, as do we all, and I want to know when I die that I have used ALL of them to the MAX – and then learned MORE!

So, when I was thinking of what I DO WANT in specifics, I asked my Inner Wisdom to bring me something exciting to do, besides my business and my grandchildren. It brought me this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgfiwVaqNSs  I watched that and I was hooked! Just look at all those powerful older women! I knew immediately that I wanted to go out of this life dancing.

So I found a local group and I went for the third time last night and it was heaven, like coming home. In May I will go for White Belt training and then I will work up through the years ahead to Black Belt. All the women in the video were Black Belts.

So, this is my path, my exciting future. What will yours be? If you are stuck in boring relationships, boring jobs and boring lives then it is time to invent a better future. Start talking with your Inner Being, your connection to Source, and ask for some suggestions. She knows you best, she’s been with you forever and totally loves, accepts and adores you. Ask her for help and then just watch your thoughts during the day. Drop negative thoughts as if they were burning coals and think of your wonderful future instead. That’s the way you can, thought by thought, reinvent yourself.

If you are interested in learning more about the Law of Attraction you can find really good information here – http://www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/index.php Or buy the latest book, “The Vortex” by Jerry and Esther Hicks.

I’ll keep you posted on my journey to Black Belt because it has everything to do with strong bones and a joyful life.

Posted in About Me, Exercise, Law of Attraction, NIA dance, Uncategorized | No Comments »