Hello, friend! I hope you are having a lovely weekend!
This week in Aya, we're going to go right to the heart & soul of the practice: moving for the pure joy of it.
This is inspired by a presentation I have coming up for the Cedar Falls Woman's Club January meeting, I've been asked to present about Aya, and I'm really looking forward to it. I absolutely LOVE getting to share Aya with others.... but.... oh man, how on earth do I put all that Aya is into words?
I sat down at my computer on Thursday with pages and pages of ideas, thoughts, & scribbled notes. My mission, to answer the question: "What is Aya?"
What would you say, friend?
Aya is sooooooo much to me. Aya is my BLISS. My meditation practice. My favorite way to workout. My dance party with my friends. My cathartic release. My somatic self-discovery book club. My physical therapy for maintaining & reclaiming abilities. My spiritual practice. My mindfulness training. My embodiment lab. My canvas for artistic, creative self-expression. It's where I find connection, community, and belonging with other friendly humans. My time where I can connect with, integrate, and express my whole self: body, mind, heart, and spirit.
Among many other things, at the heart of it all, Aya is my joy practice. A place where, every time I move my body with music --no matter what is going on in life-- I'm able to reconnect with the energy of PURE JOY, and recenter myself there.
And that, my friend, is the part of Aya we'll be focusing on exploring together this week. The pure JOY of moving our bodies to music.
The joy we feel when it doesn't matter how the movements look...
Where you can dance just for you.
Just because it feels good.
Authentic.
Uninhibited.
Real.
Wholeness.
Aliveness.
Pure.
Light.
Energy.
Aya's not about dancing for others. It's just freedom to be. Freedom to move. Freedom to dance like your 7 year-old self danced. Before the heavy inhibitions set in. Before we cared about what everyone else might think. Getting back to whatever age it was when we just heard music and started wiggling, twirling, bouncing, and flailing about. It's just dancing for the joy of it.
That's it, babe. That uninhibited, authentic connection between body & sound. That oneness. Just getting back to that PURE JOY.
So, how will we do it?
1. We'll move our body.
First, we'll just listen to the music and start to let our bodies move. I'll lead and suggest to step this way or that, to reach or twist, to snap your fingers, or clap your hands. To bend, to kick, to flow, to shake. We'll move together with simple choreography, and we'll also enjoy little bursts of freeform bliss where anything goes.
2. We'll sense our body.
Then, as we move -- and this is where the magic is -- instead of thinking, judging, planning, or worrying about how our dancing looks, we'll practice turning our focus inward into how the dancing FEELS from the inside out. We'll focus on sensing our body. We sense our feet. Our spine. Our skin. Our face. Our wrists and fingers. We sense our muscles. Our layers of tissues. Our bones. We sense this moment.
And that's where the joy is, friend. In this beautiful moment of aliveness. Right here, right now. This step. This undulation. This shake. This kick. This breath. This pure expression of aliveness.
So that's what we'll be playing with this week. Just getting back to that free-spirited, inner 7 year-old dance. Just being wildly alive and fully enjoying this moment right here, right now. It's a practice, for sure, but in my experience, it gets easier and easier with every dance.
As always, I can't wait to see what we discover together. Thanks so much for reading, and see you soon!
💛 Dani
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