Hello, beautiful soul!
I hope you're having a lovely weekend!
This week in class, we’ll be playing with one small aspect of the immense freedom we have to choose how we dance moment to moment.
Specifically, we’ll be sensing our movement intensity/exertion level as a way to nourish our body and help us create more freedom for our body, dance, and life.
To do this, as we dance, we’ll really tune into and sense how intensely or vigorously we are moving. We’ll sense the size and magnitude of our movements, exploring and playing with the entire spectrum available: from little, tiny, itty-bitty movements, to as large of movements as our joints, muscles, and tissues comfortably enjoy. We’ll experiment with and embrace the full range of possibilities, and we’ll notice the benefits the whole spectrum provides.
Why? Four sweet reasons:
1. To connect with the present moment.
Our movement intensity/exertion level is something that is happening right here, right now. To sense it, we must be present. In this way, sensing for intensity will be the meditation that helps anchor us to the present moment.
2. To free our body.
We’ll feed our body small, intricate movements. We’ll feed our body large, sweeping, full range-of-motion movements. And everything in between. We’ll sense what we notice in our muscles, tissues, and joints as we move in all kinds of ways. We’ll sense our breathing. Our heart beating. We’ll sense the deliciousness available in small, detailed movements. We’ll sense the euphoria of moving more vigorously. We’ll play with it all and soak up the full range of nourishing possibilities that this kind of movement variety can provide.
3. To free our dance.
Rather than moving habitually, we’ll play with consciously feeding our body a variety of intensities. We’ll shake things up. This will not only help nourish our joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles, fascia, nervous system, and cardiovascular systems, etc. in a variety of ways, but also will help us free up and expand our movement options in general. Similar to “use it or lose it,” by embracing the whole spectrum, we’ll encourage our bodies to stay pliable and able to move in a large variety of ranges of motion. We’ll reclaim, maintain, or enhance our ability to express ourselves fully, with authenticity and ease
4. To free our self.
With this focus, we’ll continue to embrace the freedom and power we have to choose how we move. This dance is just for you, friend. In this spirit, there will never be any pressure to move more or less vigorously than you desire. We humans are very social creatures. We are really good at adapting to and blending in with a group. And at times we may want to do exactly that — absolutely. Simply join in the delicious hive vibe and flow, baby. AND, that said, on any given day, you may want to move more or less vigorously than me or anyone else in the group. That’s where this practice is really helpful. In Aya, you are free to move however you’d like. It is all good. All intensities are welcome and encouraged. Here, you are always invited to listen to, honor, and care for your unique (and wonderful) body however feels best to you, week to week, song to song, moment to moment. To really embrace the freedom to be and express yourself however you'd like.
How will do this?
In class together, we’ll really focus on sensing this at the physical level. We’ll primarily zoom in on sensing on our size/magnitude of our movements.
As we dance, we’ll sense things like:
• What is your physical intensity right now?
• What do you sense in different areas of your body as you move this way?
• Your feet, your muscles, your face, your shoulder joints, your……?
• What if you were to decrease the intensity? Or increase it?
• How does it change? What do you sense? What do you notice?
• What do you notice as we move together in choreography?
• How about when moving freely?
Outside of class, we might explore:
• What is your physical intensity like doing different things throughout the day?
• Does it differ on different days? Different times of day? Times of year?
• What leads to increases in intensity? Decreases?
How might we expand this further?
Although we’ll be primarily focused on physical (movement) intensity, please feel free to also explore how this might apply to other ares of the self as well. For example:
• What does mental intensity/exertion feel like?
• What is your mental intensity like at this time? Other times?
• What might you do to increase it or decrease it, if desired?
• How about emotional intensity?
• Do you have a spiritual intensity?
• What other thoughts/ideas/questions pop up for you?
As always, I can’t wait to see what we discover together this week. Thanks so much for reading, and see you soon!
💛 Dani
Join us this week for some movement, friendship, and good vibes! ✨
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