5 fingers, 5 weeks, Part 2

 We beckon with our index finger, calling what we desire to come closer to us.  I'm beckoning you, right now, to take 5 or 10 minutes to bring your focus to your hands and actively participate in this week's practice.

We use our index fingers and thumbs together to touch and hold what we desire, both with gentleness....

....and with a firm, strong grip.

Take a moment now to become aware of your hands, and especially your index fingers.  Feel the skin at the tips of the fingers and where they are situated in relation to the other fingers on your hands.  Close your eyes for a moment and sense the space around the fingers, or where your fingers might be in connection with another surface.

Sense your index fingers as long extensions of the heart cradled in your chest, safe behind your ribs and breastbone.  Imagine the flame of your heart, its heat and fire and brightness running down the length of your arms and extending right past the physical limit of your skin.  Maybe that warmth and fire drips off, maybe it shoots off like a stream of light...keep sensing the heart as the source of that warmth and let the index fingers lengthen and extend, without necessarily moving muscle, this can be an energetic sensation.  It's like the sensation of flexibility, the sense of energy moving out along the bones.

Take a moment to breathe while sensing the heart's warmth and the arms lengthening through the forefingers.

Now join your fingers and thumbs together to create a triangle, as the woman in black is doing below.

Sense the space created by your hands.  You could close your eyes and let your inner vision fill that space with an intention for your day, or imagine using that space to project loving kindness to another being.  Let the forefingers continue to be the physical extensions of the warmth of the heart.

You can also use this to direct your energy to create a boundary, creating a sense of your own personal space.

Whenever you are ready, let go of that shape and let your hands rest gently and comfortably, laying with palms up.  Sense how the hands naturally curl and cup.

Now bring the thumb and forefinger of each hand together gently and losely, so that you could be holding a silken thread in each hand, while they rest comfortably.  Feel the skin of your thumbs, while also sensing the skin of your fingers, equal attention to both sides of the connection.

Call to mind something that you are grateful for, and hold it there in the space between the thumb and forefinger of each hand. 

The inviation is there to recall this moment of gratitude at any time that you bring your thumb and forefinger into contact throughout this week.  Notice when your thumb and forefinger come into contact - maybe when your hand wraps around a coffee mug, or your steering wheel, the hand of someone you love, and take a moment to sense the circle created by that connection, and to remember what you want to express gratitude for.

Carry the sense that the forefingers are extensions of your true heart, and let them direct your attention to what you desire, inviting it closer.

carlos rosas - nia co-founder

5 fingers, 5 weeks, 5 sensations

Welcome to the first week of preparing for Velvet, the routine we'll be dancing to in the new year. 

Each week I will post an invitation to become aware of your hands and fingers, with a focus each week on a different finger.  That might sound weird, but in Nia the hands are understood as the way we connect our self with the space we live in, how we connect our self to others, and how we become more deeply aware of the connection between our own mind and body.

So, right now, without needing to move any part of you, become aware of the sensations in your hands. 

Where are your fingers?  How are they shaped?

Is there tension in your wrists, or in the palms of your hands?

Are your hands warm, cold, in-between?

Become aware of your fingertips.  What are they touching?  Keyboard, fabric, the table, air?

Notice where your thumb is in relation to the rest of your fingers, and in relation to your palm and wrist. 

In Nia the thumb is seen as the heart finger, "the one that gives you direct nourishment and pleasure like the baby who sucks her thumb.  Use it to nurture your movement, to tightly hold onto and grasp that which makes you feel safe and loved.  In Nia, we use the thumb like a rudder, to direct the rotation of the spiraling motion of the forearm bones and to navigate movement of the hand and arm."  from the book The Nia Technique.

Now bring your hands together in what is called prayer position, bringing the thumbs to touch your chest.  Think of the breastbone and the bones in your thumbs humming to eachother, nurturing your heart with breath and intention.



Now tuck your thumbs into your palms and make light fists around them.  Squeeze just a little, so there is the sensation that your hand is hugging your thumb, gently and with love.  Take time to breath deeply.

Now open your hands and spread the palms and fingers wide, seeing how your thumbs reach from your hand out into space.

Be aware of your thumbs over the next few days, and I invite you to notice how they feel, how you hold them, the ways they reach for and hold what nourishes you - the hand of a loved one, a warm mug of tea, bread fresh from the oven, the slippery soap in the shower, the cozy blanket on the bed.