From the Founders

The Sensation of Mobility

In the past, Nia was unique, but today there are many more fitness choices that engage the body, mind, emotions and even the spirit. Yet there are still none quite like Nia, none as sensuous, passionate, functional and effective at integrating and touching the whole body and heart. No other fitness choice is as easily adapted to address all levels, ages and needs, and certainly there is nothing better at making people fit and healthy through pleasure and love. So what is it about Nia that makes moving so much fun?

Is it that we make noise and yell “yes” and “no?” Is it that you get to jive and boogie and act as if you are martial artists, kicking and punching? Is it that you are given the freedom and the time to feel what you’re doing? Is it the shifting energy–from soft to hard, big to small and quick to slow? Is it moving in ways that are natural to your body or something even more elusive? It’s all these things and something more, something magically natural and constantly in motion that stimulates the body. It’s called the Sensation of Mobility: a vital energy that is constantly moving through you to keep things healthy. It is what keeps the body’s molecules moving! It is the energy responsible for keeping your heart beating and your lungs filling and emptying even when you’re asleep!

You can sense mobility as energy constantly moving in all directions, at all kinds of speeds, and within a range of motion that varies from slight to great. It is a vibration you can physically recognize as playful tension that never pulls too much or too far in any one direction. Mobility combines both action and rest, providing you with power and grace. It is what you need to sustain moving for short and extended periods of time. It often feels like controlled agitation, and at the same time there is a feeling of relaxation moving around the joints and through the muscles. Mobility engages your muscles, bones and joints and keeps you in motion without starting and stopping the action. Once you find the right speed of mobility for your muscles and joints, you never have to say, “Slow down; I can’t continue or I will lose control and balance!” This perfect speed is what we call Dynamic Mobility, what you sense as the perfect blend between contraction and release. It is the kind of stimulation with push-pull tension that strengthens, stretches and relaxes the body.

To the body, mobility is like juggling. It is what your body does to keep the energy moving to create the environment needed to feel centered, balanced, relaxed and powerful. As one of the body’s five sensations, mobility is important in maintaining heath and fitness, not only for physical health, but also for mental, emotional and spiritual health. It is the energy needed to keep dreams, ideas, and love moving in healthy and healing ways.

The physical sensations of losing mobility are stiffness, pain and fatigue. The physical signs you are losing mobility are a diminishment of power, balance, grace, speed coordination and your body’s inability to remain strong yet relaxed. These signs mean you need to reduce your range of motion and slow down.

 

Mobility - Energy in Constant Motion

Definition of Mobility

Energy in constant motion without stopping once you start.

Sensing for Mobility

• Mobility is sensed as energy in constant motion moving all around and generally within a range of motion that varies slightly.
• Mobility is the physical feeling of juggling power and creates a sensation of continuous energy flow and excitation of the nerves around the joints.
• Mobility is nurtured by continually opening and closing joints, neither opening nor closing them all the way.
• Mobility is cultivated and maintained by balancing the action between stability (non-moving bones and joints) and mobility (moving bones and joints) and the action of muscles working with bones and joints to sustain movement.
• Mobility is a vibration you can physically recognize as playful tension or energy of an elusive quality being moved in ways where you can sustain moving your whole body so the voices of your body say, “I am gaining mobility. I feel free.”
• Mobility feels like controlled agitation and excitation around the joints. It continuously engages muscle with bones and joints.
• Dynamic Mobility is the perfect balance of excitation and relaxation sensed as youthful freedom.
• The benefit of sensing Mobility is in knowing you have the ability to consciously move your body and engage specific muscles to achieve a desired result, such as more mobility in the hip joints.

Losing Mobility is sensed as...

Tightness, stiffness, pain, fatigue, discomfort and loss of power and range of motion. The physical signs you are losing mobility are a diminishment in power, balance, grace, speed, coordination and in your body’s inability to remain strong yet relaxed.

The Voice of Mobility

I am the voice of Mobility. A free spirit, I am energy in constant motion. My sensation is similar to the rolling action of the ocean, constantly alive, moving, undulating, flowing, seeking to fill and empty spaces. I reside in your synovial fluid. You know me in the sway of your hip and in the shifting gaze of your eye. Through me, explore space. Like petals on the breeze, I move effortlessly in twists and arcs, lofting over and spiraling in corkscrews, I eddy and flow like the ebb tide. Go to grasp me and I will slip through your fingers, for confinement extinguishes me. Release your joints to activate me in the spaces between your bones. Soften, and I will slip along the smooth contours of your bones and muscles, releasing energy through the gateways of your body. Like an otter in the surf, I love momentum and dynamic ease. Through me, discover the play of life. Utilize me to get where you want to go. Master me and know the dance of the slow and the gift of the swift.

Mobility Pearls

Constant, alive, front, back, side to side, up, down, in, out, undulating, fluid, sway, corkscrew, momentum, slow, swift, slip, eddy, rolling

How to Use Mobility and the Head to Create Nia Conditioning

With the right tools, you will discover how to release tension from your jaw, neck and shoulders and make your head movements more powerful and efficient.

Tips to Take Mobility and Nia Conditioning Into Your Life

Feather Up: Imagine a feather extending along the back of your neck and head, extending up into the clouds so high that you tickle the clouds. Use the energy of mobility to keep your feather “feathering up.” Feathering up creates movement in your neck to maintain space and to lighten the load of your head. Feathering Up with mobility improves your overall posture, breathing, elimination and digestion.

Lower Jaw Hang: (This issue's tip) Relax and let your lower jaw hang loose. Use mobility to create subtle, small, continuous movement that will release tension in your neck, shoulders and upper back, lighten the head weight and eliminate stress along your entire spinal column.

Listen to Your Voice: From time to time listen to the sound of your voice and listen for ease (powerful and sustained resonance), not effort (weak and on-off sound that can not last). Right alignment of the head opens up air passageways to improve sounds and the ease of transmitting air in and out. Align your head by moving it up and out, away from your torso. This will diminish stress in the vocal chords, making it easy to breathe and speak continuously and effortlessly.

Look to Move: Use your eyes to look before you move, focusing all your energy in the direction you intend to move a body part or the whole body in order to improve speed and efficiency and create stress-free movements. Use mobility energy to keep your eyes active and your head integrated with your whole body.