This morning I hooped for an hour while meditating on the second princple of Nia. Principle #2 is called, Natural Time and the Movement Forms. As stated on pages 265-266 of the Nia Technique handbook, natural time is, "movements done in your own personal, natural sense of time. Move the main 13 joints of the body and use your body's sensations to measure movement... witness yourself and notice in every move the joints that are connected or disconnected...visualize each joint as a mouth that can open and close...visualize your joints as windows that move air in and out...imagine creating more space in your joints...imagine sounds coming out of each joint as they open and close...I am more aware of the real me by dancing in my own way and in my own time..." It goes on and on. So I put on Shaman's Dream's new CD "Dance:Dream"Dance", which has really been rocking my hooping lately, and danced!

While the music played I said aloud a joint journey mantra: "ankles, ankles, ankles, ankles, knees, knees, knees, knees, hips, hips, hips, hips, shoulders, shoulders, shoulders, shoulders, elbows, elbows, elbows, elbows, hands, hands, hands, hands, head, head, head, head" and then in reverse. Saying and thinking about specific joints while hooping really helped me let my entire body go in more complex, polyrhythmic movement! It was amazing how my whole body just opened up and so many parts moved at once. I sweat more and felt more ecstatic. Breaks, which I already added a step with, started to include whole body leaps and jumps and alternating hand-to-belly, hand-to-heart gestures in between each swing. My head let go and my knees drew up high. Suddenly what used to be just a rote drill became a pulsating, rhythmic dance. What a gift! I was truely making it my own, letting my body celebrate the sounds with movement which seemed to come from deep inside my bones.

I also allowed myself to explore stalls to the right, second current direction. I did stalls to the left for about 8 rotations and then to the right, simply alternating. While holding the hoop continually with one hand, I let my other hand massage up from my hip, across my belly, up my chest, along the side of my head, over the top and back down and then I would switch to the other hand while switching directions. I was amazed that I felt no dizziness from this continual turning -- I guess we can really develop the muscles of our inner ears! Also, I was amazed how good it felt to move my hand along my body while dancing... it felt as if the "chi" or life force energy was accelerated by this light, moving sensationand my body felt more electric .

I had moments of feeling overwhemled with joy for the focus to commit to my daily practice. Several times I just whirled with my hoop overhead, grinning from ear to ear, thanking the Universe for the gift of hooping! At times I felt a moment of thinking of "all I had to do" today to "catch up", a slight sense of panic in a momentary holding of my breath. But then I breathed in deeply and remembered the principle I was dancing with -- Natural Time! Duh. We can take our dance of natural time into our lives. Life is meant to be lived in natural time, like the flow of our dance in the hoop. I can take natural time into how I walk in the world. Natural time in my life means not comparing myself to anyone and measuring my success by others (which unfortunately I sometimes do). It means trusting that all will unfold in a perfect way at the perfect time. Natural time for me means letting myself respect my sleep cycles by getting enough. It also means being okay with flowing through different parts of the day which need to include play and outside time in addition to work! While obvious to many, this is all deep learning for me. It has been easy for me to forget natural time and instead focus on work-work-work. But what's the point? Especially when my work is about hoopdancing to bring more joy, health and vitality into life! Stressing myself out is not acceptable. So I'm letting my hooping take me back to the natural rhythms inside my bones. Thank you!

p.s. I did this watercolor called, "Seed" two days ago in a about 15 minutes... I am finding that experimenting with art and color is really helping my hooping in some way I cannot yet articulate...