The focus of today’s Nia practice, chosen at random from the basket of cards, was ‘Loving Movement’.
Loving movement: as in ‘I love to move!’
Loving movement: as in ‘a gesture of love or an offering to a person or to the Holy.’
Loving movement: as in ‘a chapter, an episode, a section of music or life.’
Loving movement: as in ‘a revolution, like the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, the men’s movement, and now, the loving movement of collective consciousness toward more loving.’
The motion of love comes in all sizes, shapes, layers and dimensions.
The body itself has a natural affinity for loving movement, as does the mind, the heart, the spirit and the energy body. We could actually say loving movement is a definition of life.
All life is movement, even if it’s dead or so-called inanimate. Atoms and molecules moving, gravity and electricity moving, the imagination and the spirit spiraling, contracting and expanding. All 75 trillion cells of the body are in constant, loving movement.
All life is love. The movement of heaven’s energy pours down into the flesh. The movement of the Earth’s energy rises up through the feet. These are movements of love. And moving in between heaven and Earth is the mystical third thing, known as life, known as now, known as the human being, known as the love child of heaven and Earth, moving, wriggling, dancing, crawling, reaching, shimmering, intending.
How do I recognize the sensation of loving movement?
I ask my body, ‘Body, precious body, are you experiencing the sensation of loving movement?’ The asking itself is a loving movement. Listening for my body’s reply is loving movement.
Loving movement is a practice. Like Nia’s practice of the joy of movement, loving movement is a practice that can sit right next to any emotion, any thought and any intent. The practice of martial arts is loving movement when we understand the martial arts is the practice of just enough – using just enough force, not too much, not too little, just right.
A path, such as Nia or the martial arts or music, is itself a loving movement. And our response as we move along and toward that path is a loving movement.
Breathe in the loving movement of the breath, in and out, like the ocean tide, and ride the waves of loving movement in the belly. Let the movements of love soar through the body.
Be held by the moving fields of love, moving and being moved. Let the waves of breath carry the body. Let the waves of love carry the body. Rock yourself in your own arms and let the loving movement of the Earth hold the loving movement of who you are from underneath.
Rachael R. Resch is a certified Nia Black Belt and new paradigm physical therapist. She teaches at The DanceSpace in Ashland, Oregon. www.niasomoves.com www.NiaNow.com
