Aging with grace, elegance and confidence

Aging with grace, elegance and confidence

by | Feb 6, 2023 | Blog, Nervous System Health

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“How Exercise Enhances Aging Brains. Sedentary, older adults who took aerobic dance classes twice a week showed improvements in brain areas critical for memory and thinking.” (Gretchen Reynolds in Phys Ed)

Isn't it interesting how your brain’s health, and vitality are interwoven with your body’s well-being and fitness?

But how to help our bodies and brains really feel fit and well in this fast-paced, stressful, mind-over-body age?

I read the above article out of my professional interest as an NIA holistic fitness teacher, neuro-physical specialist, and somatic energetic coach guiding women of all ages and walks of life to build loving relationships with their bodies and attune better to their innate body wisdom. Discovering how a person moves and what moves this person is an important part of my work to help women reconnect with their physiological, psychological nature. So this question came to mind:

Is it about exercising our being or our body?

I believe that movement has to add to the body not hurt it. In striving, disregard less of the body’s design or the unique preferences of one’s own body. there is no gain, just pain. Our Nervous systems respond to pain with stress and survival programming. 

Unfortunately, many movement practices are intended for working out on the body only. There is hardly any space to slow down, feel, and listen to the sensations in the body. It is as if our minds are training our bodies, guided by their conditioning and social expectations.

Many women have lost alignment with the needs of their bodies. And attunement to feeling and emotion is crucial for women to navigate effortlessly through important biological transitions in life-such as menopause-and age with grace, elegance, and confidence. This Mind-over-Body climate, deprives the female brain of crucial information to stay healthy.

I believe that female bodies in particular need joyful movement, spontaneity, playfulness, care, strength, flexibility, agility, balance, healthy emotional housekeeping, and positive, realistic thinking. And funnily enough, that is exactly what our nervous systems also need.

Probably many dance fitness forms that focus on exercise can really help strengthen our brains and probably improve the quality of aging. But I'm convinced that it takes more than just physical training

In guiding many women toward a loving relationship with their bodies and a deep sense of holistic well-being and vitality, I discovered that it all depends on the nature of the exercises and how they connect to who we are, what we need physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally, and how these exercises contribute to restore the connection between soul, body, and mind. In this way, our nervous system receives the vital information to stay attuned to the body and environment and the brain can continue to function optimally.

Therefore a good fitness-oriented dance form for women should include play, expression, spontaneity, and joy in motion.

In playful, expressive movements, our whole being naturally gains more strength, mobility, agility, flexibility, and stability.

To age with grace and elegance, it is imperative that movement is aimed at breaking mental conditioning. No body becomes more flexible if the mind is not flexible. A flexible mind is open, curious, and willing to listen and attune to sensations and feelings. As a result, our sensory- and bodily awareness improves and we become attuned to what we need to stay healthy and resilient.

This is why I want to advocate for *NIA's holistic approach, which benefits me and my clients - women of all ages and walks of life - so much. An approach grounded in sensory, somatic, and cognitive awareness.

*NIA stands for neuromuscular integrated action and purpose.

A typical NIA class has a balanced mix of freedom and form in dancing and moving. Form comes from many different movement forms that are captured in simple movement phrases or free dance explorations.

A crucial difference with many aerobic and fitness programs is that each NIA class is intended to workout the being instead of only the body.

Meaning that our emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being is equally important in staying healthy and vibrant. Hence, the mix of spontaneous dance and varied simple movement forms helps restore the nervous system and allow the brain to grow and make new connections while giving the body a gentle cardio workout.

NIA helps the nervous system stay healthy and resilient while enhancing the brain areas for memory and thinking.

Consciously creating joy in exercising is a powerful way to nourish the brain. Our brains learn when we are in a relaxed and playful state. Freedance is a powerful tool for joy, play, and spontaneity. It helps to release emotions, open one’s mind to the wonders of the body, and connect with others in a heart-opening way. And when freedance guides us into a somatic and sensory experience, it can help us discover more of ourselves in a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual way.

Form, on the other hand, helps us to discover more of ourselves as we move beyond habitual patterns of preference when we dance. Through the form, the brain trains to memorize, finetune and become accurate in how it organizes itself. It has to ‘rethink’ the ways it wired itself when we dance movements combinations that feel unfamiliar or that are forgotten or unknown to the brain. Brains need variety, quality, intelligent repetition, and quantity to thrive and keep growing.

As we age or move through challenging transitions, our limited thinking patterns have a greater impact on our freedom of movement. Our physical bodies may not feel as strong anymore as we are used to experiencing them. It might cause women to experience fear of falling/failing or have the belief that one is too old to still move freely and spontaneously. Our brain gets slower and starts losing data when we don’t feed it with organic learning, moving, and tasting “new experiences’. This impacts our whole being.

The different movement forms and qualities that are brought to consciousness through form challenge our habitual muscular organization and help us to find strength, stamina, flexibility, fluid mobility, agility, and stability. It can give someone new self-confidence again to feel the ability to move with more of oneself again. To feel more whole and connected with oneself

Exercising that is playful, joyful, and non-striving helps to build awareness about your body’s way and needs through the different stadia of your life. It helps to regain a sense of curious, spontaneous, and playful being in your body. This energizes your nervous system and brain. And it helps restore many movement qualities that we lose over time due to our habits in moving and our preferences in movement.

Aging can be met with emotions of fear, sadness, or frustration. All muscles respond to emotions and vice versa. Movement phrases that are fused with different movement forms and movement qualities change our emotional state by addressing different muscle activities. Becoming aware of how you can change your own emotional states simply by making a different move is really empowering a life of vitality and joy no matter your age.

So now that you know this, what will be your next move, mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually?

Act in spite of fear

Act in spite of fear

by | Jan 22, 2023 | Blog, Somatic Awareness

Looking at this picture that I found on Facebook 3 years ago, I am most touched by the words ‘Act in spite of fear’. I feel that I and with me, many others have firm struggles with overcoming the fear that is holding us back from following our heart. Fear of not being good enough, not being safe in ourselves, not belonging, falling or failing, being visible or invisible, being rejected, fear for our own potential or living a meaningless life, never really doing what we deep in ourselves dreamt of doing… and so on.

Two years ago, when facing the fear that was holding me back from choosing to step out of the cozy prison I had created for myself, I met very old emotional pain that asked for my attention.  I learned that dealing with fear is not only a mindset. I believe there are strong emotional habits behind our mindset, that are responsible for many of our thinking patterns and nowadays beliefs. Emotional patterns,  deeply hidden in our cells, that are responsible for unconscious self-sabotaging beliefs. They were formed when we were still little ones that did not have the words yet to express ourselves nor the social knowledge to understand what was going on in our lives.

These emotional habits are so firmly ingrained in our physical structure -our posture, our way of walking, and our way of moving through life-, that they have become like our signature. Fairly often it is not as simple as letting go of the beliefs they bring to mind. We have become attached to them for better or worse as the struggle with them has become a purpose in itself. We’re not aware that we’re holding on to them by choosing to control, fight them, push them away, and refuse to own them. That we are actually avoiding the even bigger fear of not knowing and not being in control. But isn’t it in the unknowing that our dreams will unfold themselves?

I believe these beliefs and the emotional patterns that form their root, can only be addressed, brought up, and transformed in close collaboration with the body.

I discovered that the body expresses the emotions that we tend to push away through tension and pain in our body tissue, our muscles, joints, and organs, causing an overwhelmed nervous system, fatigue, depression, hormonal disbalance, and ultimately disease. I am talking about psycho-somatic issues in the tissues that most doctors have no answer for but ‘learn to live with them’. Mystery pain and tension that has no name nor a cause in most of the classic medical books.

On my own journey, I learned to dare to not know and stop controlling fear. Staying present with fear in heart and mind amidst the emotional overwhelm is challenging but not impossible. And actually stepping into action in spite of fear brought to the surface my most hidden gifts and talents. I learned to feel and see beyond the physical pain and feel the emotional story behind a posture or physical movement pattern f.e. walking. In short, I learned to walk my talk.

When making choices that were more aligned with who I am, I felt clear how highly tense, sore tissues started to soften over time. I learned to relieve habits of stress by listening to my body’s impulses. My organs got back their motility and mobility and improved function. My immune system is still growing stronger every day. Even to the point where some old food intolerances disappeared. After 30 years of chronic exhaustion, I am now feeling alive and full of zest.

And as I continue following and trusting the voice of my body whether she talks about food, movement, emotions, thoughts, memories, or pain I get to know what my soul craves. Like a shadow guide, I explore the hidden emotions and beliefs behind the physical pain, the constrained movement, the tiredness, and the unhealthy patterns that I created over time.

And as I go there, sad emotions and sheer fear come to the surface like little monsters. Except when connecting with them, they seem more like little children feeling very lost in the dark. In my opinion, the work is about bringing these little ones home as they carry with them so many of our soul’s gifts and talents.

Steadily I am finding ground in my body. And the more I breathe with her in moments of fear, the more she softens, opens, and stops holding on to it.

I dare say that choosing the life you wish for in spite of fear, is a powerful way to dismantle that same fear. It starts with reclaiming your dream step by step: addressing and unraveling old emotional habits and reframing old childhood belief systems while embracing new chosen life experiences, and sensations. To refind our ground in the body releases anxiety and overwhelm. Remembering the body as our earth's home creates the peacefulness and safety from the inside that is so needed to move along unknown paths.

When I set out to fulfill my dream and find my truth, I never dreamed of finding so much potential for healing and growth by owning my fear and stopping controlling it.

I now trust, listen and validate my own instinctual and intuitive wisdom and act upon that wisdom. What a difference that makes! I feel there is calmness in one's own wise words when one speaks them to oneself. There is peace underneath the fear when one allows the body to move with it. To trust that there is silence in the eye of the storm that overwhelms the nervous system and that this silence comes with strength and insight to face the inner storms and showers of rain yet to come.

I believe we can only change mindset when we change the full setting; mind, body, nervous system, and soul. I feel they are all interconnected and can’t be separated in the processes of learning and healing.

The tool needed for change is to become self-aware in sensing, feeling, thinking, and action, owning every aspect of this including the consequences of our choices and actions. In understanding why you are where you are, you will know which way to walk and how to choose your path.

So if you also feel that your comfort zone is a safe prison, it might be time to reconsider if you want to stay there. Why not take the first small step out of your comfort zone… In spite of fear!

In the retreats that I offer, I help you find ground in your body and get ready for new choices and actions. If you are interested you can check my retreats on Bookretreats.com