Claiming Your Ground – Muladhara

I haven’t been posting or blogging like my usual self due to I’ve been studying chakras.  My intent is to apply chakra healing to my Nia practice, especially since Nia HQ eliminated Chakra Dancer from their routines because of copyright issues.  Luckily, I have a Nia Instructor who is guiding me through the Chakra Dancer process.  I’ve also been studying Anodea Judith’s Chakra System books, mainly because she works off of Arthur Avalon’s book, “The Serpent Power.”  A man I take highly serious, not only because I have studied his teachings for the past 10 years, but also because Ram Dass and Bhagavan Das recommends his teachings.

This blog is dedicated to the root chakra, technical name: Muladhara.  Now, if you want to learn the correspondence to the chakra’s check out the following link: http://oneyogalife.wordpress.com/2008/05/19/a-brief-description-of-the-chakras/

In this blog, I am going beyond the correspondence and discuss the healing emotions relating to the Muladhara chakra, applying it to your Nia practice to strengthen the healing process.

What Creates an Unhealthy Chakra

Muladhara is a chakra about survival instincts, things that we are not thinking about yet we have this innate intelligence ie instinct.  This chakra is molded and shaped starting from the time in the womb till about 12 months of infancy.  So, it’s starts with how your mother feels about her maternity and on.  Complicated birthing process may weaken the Muladhara, where healthy births create a healthy first chakra.

If a mother is unhappy about the pregnancy or she is having complications or she may feel abandoned or alone because she herself is unwanted. Her feelings and fears make her body contract and when her body is contracted, the muscles in the womb contract and feel tight and tense.  Instinct tells the baby being here is uncomfortable.

When baby comes out of the womb and is not greeted by loving touches, kept warm, supported, held comfortably by loved ones, physically abused, malnourished, overfed, and/or if the parents fears are passed down onto the child. The infant will remain contracted and mistrust is developed. Unfortunately, these emotions will naturally be programmed into their minds and can stay with them life long.

The mental state of a person with an unhealthy first chakra are; frequent fear, fear of change, anxiety, spacey, lack of discipline, restlessness and laziness.  Physical states would include either obesity or underweight.  These people will have a tendency to hoard and be materialistic.

Depending on the individual, the chakra can be excessive or deficient and the body reacts creating various illnesses. Excessive means your body will not release energies, deficient means we are not in the body; we don’t want to be in the body, we fear the body.

To go deeper, check out “The Chakra System, A Complete Course in Self-Diagnosis and Healing.” By Anodea Judith. A fantastic course where she breaks down the chakras, what causes excessive or deficient chakra, mental dis-ease and health dis-ease, blockages, the psychology behind each chakra that affects us, plus ways to heal them.

Healing the Muladhara with Nia

 

I have noticed with a lot of the Nia routines, Carlos and Debbie Rosas choreographed movements that work with the chakras as their intentions are to add various holistic practices and apply it to Nia.  This is what makes Nia so unique and you can add anything you have learned here to your Nia practice. As you grow with your Nia practice some these movement will naturally become apparent to you.  If you are taking a Nia class you are on your way to healing or connecting to spirit, healing your mind and body.  You obviously want the change, so we applaud you in your efforts!  A healthy you creates a healthy planet as we are all connected.

So, let’s start with the basics:

Since the Muladhara is connected to the feet, legs and the base of the spine, a lot of the Nia movements deal with those areas.

The Focus and Intent – If your instructor has not set a focus or you just want to set your own focus, think of something about yourself that you want to heal. Concentrate on that focus during your Nia practice.

The “Step In” – Let go of any distractions to help focus.

Connecting To Space/Your Space – Everyone who has taken Nia knows what this means.  Use this as an opportunity to collect and gather thoughts and emotions you want to heal. Visualize yourself connecting to these emotions, loving these emotions no matter how hurtful these emotions are, and then prepare yourself to recycle them into the earth.

Closed Stance/Open Stance – a great opportunity to root yourself, grounding your energy.  When you are in closed stance visualize roots extending from your feet deep into the earth. Here is an opportunity to recycle any emotions or energy needed to heal into the earth.  Visualize all those feelings draining from your body through the roots to be grounded into the earth.  The earth has the power to cleanse that energy, recycle it into something positive.

Creating a Spiral Through Your Legs – Starting from the tailbone, activate your Muladhara by pushing your pelvis in a downward motion.  This will create a spiral of energy through your legs.  Here is a good opportunity to take emotions, that something that needs to heal and spiral it into the earth.

Spinal Rolls and Undulating the Spine – Roll/Undulate as your Nia Instructors instructs you to.  Feeling gravity connecting and rooting you to the earth as you push down with your feet. With your upper body you awaken the chakras as you roll upwards feel yourself lift and grow out of the earth.  Energy anew.

Chanting During Nia – Lam is the mantra for the Muladhara.  While you are practicing any Nia movements or you feel compelled to chant “Lam” vocally or mentally.

Temporary Conclusion

Before this gets any longer, I’m going to conclude here and I will add more in a Part II of Claiming Your Ground – Muladhara.

Expand ~ Contract

The basic function of each being is expanding and contracting. Expanded beings are permeative; contracted beings are dense and impermeative. Therefore each of us, alone or in combination, may appear as space, energy, or mass, depending on the ratio of expansion to contraction chosen, and what kind of vibrations each of us expresses by alternating expansion and contraction. Each being controls his own vibrations. ~ Thaddeus Golas

In Nia we expand and contract during our practice with strength and purpose. We expand to reach out to the community and contract in for self. We expand to stretch out our joints, we contract in for our muscles. We expand to heighten our vibrations, we contract to lower our vibrations. There is purpose to each movement. Each movement has a meaning.

We experience expansion as awareness, comprehension, understanding, or whatever we wish to call it. When we are completely expanded, we have a feeling of total awareness, of being one with all life. At that level we have no resistance to any vibrations or interactions of other beings. It is timeless bliss, with unlimited choice of consciousness, perception, and feeling. ~Thaddeus Golas

There is a time to expand, when you want to attract positive energy, positive people and wealth.

When a being is totally contracted, he is a mass particle, completely imploded. To the degree that he is contracted, a being is unable to be in the same space with others, so contraction is felt as fear, pain, unconsciousness, ignorance, hatred, evil, and a whole host of strange feelings. ~ Thaddeus Golas

There is a time to contract, when you want to feel protected, protect yourself from negative people, places and feelings.

Be like this valley. Accepting sunlight. Accepting rain. Accepting sages and villains. Do this and the Dao will always be with you. Know darkness in this valley. Know the sunlight. The Dao is strong in you. Your tools are from a block of wood. Keep to the block. ~Lao Tzu

Be balanced, use the tools that were given you, there is a time for everything and there is a time for no-thing. This is balance, there is a time to expand and a time to contract but do so in moderation. Know there is a time to expand and a time to contract, but do not have an attachment to either of them.

When a being is alternating expansion and contraction, he is energy. My guess is that at the middle point, fifty percent expansion and fifty percent contraction, a being would be logical, non-subjective, egoless, and predictable. This may be the “zero” which is one side of energy equations in physics, as well as the “ego-death” we go through in expanding to higher levels of awareness.. ~ Thaddeus Golas

Namaste, Tina

Enjoy It Or Don’t Do It

But you now, you wear your soul on your sleeve, exhausting your energy, propping yourself up on a tree, mumbling, or bent over your desk, asleep. Heaven gives you a form and you wear it out by pointless argument. ~ Chuang Tzu (c.360 BC – c. 275 BC)

Before pilates today, I sat for about 5 minutes and sat on the yoga mat and breathed. Breathed thinking to myself, “I am Peace, I am Forgiveness, I am Peace!” When the Pilates Instructor came in, Linda. Love Linda, she is such a joy to be around, I love her pilates class. I also love the music she brings in, she really puts her heart into the class just with the music alone.

Well, before the class some of the people were complaining about exercising. I see it all the time, “Ok, time to work off the donuts.” Glum looks are the faces as their feet pound the treadmills, the super grunts at the weight machines. Half of the time I have this look on my face like, “Ok buddy, the restroom is that way!” Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR! Lift those weights! These people totally sound miserable and I’m like, “Listen, if you don’t enjoy it, don’t do it!”

This is one of the reasons I like Nia, because it’s about enjoyment. Heck, I’ve gotten to the point where I apply the pleasure aspect of Nia to my workout on the treadmill, core exercises and lifting weights. So, instead of sounding as if I am constipated and I’m trying to take a dump as I lift weights, I say, “ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” as if this is wonderful. Or when I hit the treadmills maybe I use some of the 52 moves, particularly the arm exercises on the treadmill. Or when I do ab work, I float up and down and around as I listen to my music.

People don’t even look at me funny, they just admire me for my extra efforts and the beauty and grace I put in every movement.

Well, I suppose the moral of this story is in the title, so, Enjoy It Or Just Don’t Do It!

Namaste!

Lift Those Toes, Love Those Knees

When I started my adventure into Nia I was so excited. The excitement had my adrenaline going and I was like, I’m going to learn these routines, start pounding the pavement and spread the news about this wonderful technique known as Nia. So, I got down to it and started to learn a routine known as, “Opal,” beautiful album and fun routine.

I learned the routine rather quickly, working on it whenever my son took a nap or at night after he went to bed. About a month later, I started noticing some problems; my knees were hurting! “Oh no!” This is not good, then I started getting depressed thinking I spent all this money and now I can’t do this. Well, being the determined person that I am I thought to myself, “Hey, there is got to be a way to solve this problem.”

First, I started to look into yoga, and I found an asana that helps the knees; Uktasana, the Chair pose. One of the articles said, when you are in this pose, lift your toes. Note: It was suggested to do this against a wall. So, I did and it helped a little bit. Then I started to research the Nia site, which I should of done in the first place! I found more articles about instructors having the same problem. One instructor suggested, when ever you are in “A” Stance or “Riding” Stance or even in the “Bow” Stance she suggested to lift your toes.

Give it a try, stand in “A” Stance and keep your toes down, notice where all the weight is. Then try lifting your toes, and notice where all the weight shifts too. It shifts to the back of the leg, which takes less pressure of your knees. Brilliant!

So, three weeks later, my knees feel great! I lift my toes all the time, I lift during Nia and I lift them outside of Nia as I am doing dishes or taking a shower.

So, remember the best cure is prevention! And since, 1 out of 4 people are getting their knees operated on and regretting it. My suggestion is a simple movement change, Lift Those Toes folks, Love Those Knees!

Music in the Soul

“Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.” ~Lao Tzu

The music in the soul can be seen in my Nia practice as I flow with the music. My motions are gentle, graceful yet strong. My intentions are pure, no thought just movement. Completely surrendering to spirit who has come out to play.

This is my soul, my soul claiming flesh that can be seen by the universe. Coming alive, feeling alive, becoming bliss.

I Am…

I Am Heart I Am Love I Am a Butterfly I Am a Healer I Create Change In the World Around Me I Create Love To Those Who Can Hear Me I Am Spirit Bound By Flesh I Am Spirit Identity Real

Why I wrote this…

A long time ago I read a piece from a website,
http://www.babajiskriyayoga.net/english/Who-Am-I.htm

Here’s a part of it, you can read the rest on the website, but read this much:

Declaration of Mahavatar Babaji to Yogi S.A.A.Ramaiah – Mentioned by Marshall Govindan.

“I AM EXISTENCE-KNOWLEDGE-TRUE”

“I am Existence-Knowledge-Bliss absolute. I am That by very nature. I cannot be anything else but that as I am That alone without a beginning and an end. It is My real innate nature. I am the Absolute and Supreme Self, both within and without the finitude.

I am Truth, eternal and everlasting. I am the only One, all in Myself: None exists save I in and through all that exist. I am ever All-Existence itself, I am the changeless One in the midst of all changes. I am the Formless in all forms. Change is linked up with form and form is labeled with change, but I am beyond the two. I am not susceptible to all the ills of the flesh that exist crawling under the feet of form and change. I am the monistic unity here, there, and everywhere and at all times – nay, for all times. Where is happiness except in perfect realization of the One without a second?

I feel I am all happiness itself. All Bliss I am. All joy I am. It is only My Bliss that is being felt and enjoyed by everyone in a dimmer or brighter magnitude, consciously or unconsciously. All Bliss is Infinity and Infinity alone is all Bliss. I am, indeed Brahman, the basic principle, from which the whole universe seems to have come. I am the same in each and everything. I am all peace and all calm within myself. I am of the nature of Being, Brightness and Bliss Absolute. There is not even an iota of doubt about this.”

This is just the start of it, and I was like, this is the most profound thing and healing thing I have ever read in my life. The rest of it, is pretty profound too!

So, I made my short version of a personal declaration, my affirmation perse;

I Am Heart
I Am Love
I Am a Butterfly
I Am a Healer
I Create Change In the World Around Me
I Create Love To Those Who Can Hear Me
I Am Spirit Bound By Flesh
I Am Spirit Identity Real

This is my declaration, this is who I am.

Namaste!