A Nia story
Laura B. Frankenstein, M.D.

NIA gives me greater patience, courage and perspective. NIA makes me, a 46 year-old woman feel playful and alive. It makes it OK to be ambivalent, to feel contradictory feelings. This may be the first time I can tolerate being silly and stern, strong and graceful all at once or sequentially. I started to do NIA regularly 3 months ago, so I am a beginner in many ways. I have had no dance, theater or performing experience – I am not used to being on stage trying new things physically. I come from a fairly rigid background, both my family-of-origin and my professional training as a physician emphasized the rational over the emotional and physical. Both backgrounds were fairly chaotic with confusing rules and rewards. I never learned how to care for myself let alone how to trust myself or how to forgive myself.

I love it when A NIA teacher says, “do what feels good for your body.” I love the music, the variety, and the movement both precise and free. I love the fact that I still am awkward and that I still get confused at times and that is acceptable. I love the other people that come to NIA – very accepting, calm, people who are on their own journeys. I love the fact that no two days are ever the same, they can’t be.

Sometimes I wake up with images of NIA activity and fragments of music in my head. When folding laundry, taking out the garbage or pumping gas I seem to incorporate a few moves or steps. I listen to music and want to dance to it, to turn off the car, get out and start moving. I worry less, I sway and twist more, I tolerate silences and spaces better than I did before NIA.

I know that NIA could be helpful to a variety of people who could benefit from trusting themselves more while experiencing the joy of movement. I think of ordinary and troubled kids I have worked with, people struggling with depression and anxiety, caregivers of people with chronic illnesses, the elders. Even the frail elders, perhaps especially the frailest could move with music, let the music seep into their souls and move even one arthritic hand or allow their upper bodies to sway.

But I am a beginner, a fairly patient one. I look forward to learning more about NIA for myself before I personally consider offering it to others. I know there is a great deal of potential I have yet to experience for myself – potential wisdom and growth and adventure and joy. I have tried lots of other modalities – talk therapy of various types, yoga and tai chi among others – NIA offers a great deal more for me. NIA seems to have started the process of peeling back layers of previously dense, opaque resistance. I can’t wait to see what lies within.

I rediscovered this quote this morning and it seems to capture some of what I am trying to convey.

For everything flowers from within of self-blessing;
Though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on the brow
Of the flower,
And retell it in words and in touch, it is lovely
Until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing.

- Galway Kinnell
from “St. Francis and the Sow”

At my first NIA class, I was hooked. It was exercise! It was dance (even for those with two-left feet)! It was fun! After 4 years (and 3-5 times a week), NIA is more than that! It is strength! It is freedom! It is meditation! It is friendship!

My only regret is that NIA classes are not offered in Miami where I spend January through March. For my one time a week class, I have to drive a half hour north. That’s a bummer!

MaryEllen VanderLinden