Bringing intention into action is powerful. Many workouts provide a great workout for the body. But why should we workout the mind? What drives us want to develop the mind, the heart…

We categorize people by sports and the practices they choose in their lives. For instance, people generally get into yoga generally for stress release and flexibility. There is a small percentage of people in the US who practice yoga for uniting the Self with God.  People generally go to the gym and spend tons of money on in home workouts to lose weight and tone muscle. What I’m saying is that there is a small percentage of people who start a workout with the goals of feeling  peaceful and having an endless flow of positive youthful energy. But that really is the goal. It is just working from the inside out.

But what if you start a new exercise program to get a smaller butt and in the process discover that you feel sexy, radiant and complete whether you have a small butt or not.

There is something that happens to the heart during intentional dance. Nia, 5 Rhythms, African, Contact Improv, all provide the space to connect with your true self. You don’t need to be totally into dance or performance to feel the effects. You don’t need to know any steps. You just need to be guided by a good teacher on how to tap into your inner power to heal yourself.

The hula hoop is universal. Many people see the cool tricks and ask to learn them. That is like going into a yoga class and asking to learn to the most advanced move. The idea of executing a 1 legged back bend when you can’t even touch your toes is unrealistic. This holds true for any sport. Your focus as a student should not be to copy cool tricks without learning the fundamentals. The focus as a teacher, in my opinion, is not to teach fancy tricks until students have learned the basics.

Dancing sets the  spirit free. I encourage all who hoop or want to get into hoop dance, to focus on internal rather than external. Feel your mind shift from ‘I want to look like that’ to ‘I want to discover how I look when I move’. Transform the emotion of ‘I can’t do that’ to ‘I can do that & silliness looks cool’. Reach toward the moment when the hoop guides you into rhythms that are so unique and awesome like each snowflake. Don’t desire to learn new tricks. Be in fully present with breath, motion and intention.

You will only get out of your workout what you put into it. Make this workout work in.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 at 8:23 pm and is filed under Mind Body Healing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.