One Yoga: Chakra Awakening, Dance it out!

By: Mary Cris F. Agbay and Herminlouie T. Cabada

To what reason people could be depressed and what could be the solution of this?

“Through movement, we find health”. This is how Philippe, teacher of NIA, summed up what is Chakra Awakening all about.  Chakra Awakening was conducted on December 4, 2015 in One Yoga Wellness Studio in Cagayan de Oro City. This was led by the black belt teachers of NIA, Sabine Zweig and Philippe Beaufour who came all the way from India.  This was participated by all the women who wanted to experience Chakra Awakening.

Chakra awakening is not really like Yoga but it’s more on dancing.  There are a lot of benefits that Chakra can contribute to the people.  When we move with intent, it is not just our bodies that undergo physical transformation, but our mental, emotional and spiritual states as well. Negative or positive thoughts can influence the body’s complex neuromuscular network.  With their statement during the interview you cannot identify that every movement you made was already a dance.

Our body has such an impact on all levels of your being. Your emotions are calmer, your mind is clearer, and your spirit is more open to receiving. Always start with the body. That is your vehicle in life,” said Sabine Zweig, Nia black belt trainer. The couple is one of the world’s most popular Nia instructors, conducted a weeklong training and class session that attracted not only every single Nia instructor in the country, but also from all over Asia. Nia is a movement practice anchored on the principle of moving the body the way it was meant to. It incorporates martial arts, dance, and healing arts in a one-hour class.

In an interview with the instructors, they described Chakra Awakening as a stimulation of harmonizing the seven chakras to get aligned with oneself. Not only young could benefit from this but also people in different ages and sizes. Unlike NIA which follows patterns, Chakra Awakening allows body to move freely in executing the actions as an expression of oneself.

The event was divided into three sessions namely Niamaste & Chakra awakening Workshop, Niamaste Class and Soul Motion.  With a willing heart and active body, the participants executed the movements they were tasked to do so. During the first session, the participants were taught of the basic of chakra awakening along with trusting everyone in the hall.  At first, there was a feeling of awkwardness knowing that the participants seemed to be a stranger from each other. Along the way, the barriers that hinder the participants to freely execute their movement were gone.  They were able to move their body and express their emotion as they desired to.  After the workshop, a short break was given.  During this time, the participants had a little chitchat that enabled them to get to know each other. Everybody in the hall was very excited to experience the next class.  Sweats were visible on every participants but they ignored it.  Furthermore, they were glad that their execution came out to be very effective and successful.

The last session was soul motion which was comprises of free movement and dancing along with meditation.  This enables the participants to dance out all their emotion may it be sorrow, joy, heartaches, desperation and fulfillment. The floor was filled with feet that expressed passion of being healed.  The whole session ended with satisfaction as seen in the participants’ faces.  All the emotions were brought out and the emptiness was filled.

Maybe we are not aware about sensory intelligence said Philippe, but there’s a sensory intelligence connected to a movement that the body can recognize. When all joints move together in support of each other, a self-healing practice begins.

Sabine has a great testimony to all the people around the world that she would like to share.  Zweig knows this by experience. An architect by profession in Germany, was born with a lymphatic disease, a genetic, progressive illness. The left side of her body, she said, did not develop enough lymph nodes and lymph capillaries.  She would like the people to know that despite of the illness in her that she would never give up and to continue life as it is, she still encourages people to dance with assurance that through dancing people can achieve a healthy life style.  She turned to dancing for comfort, but it was not until she was 25 that she stumbled into Nia. She had to travel to India for work and discovered yoga, which eventually led her to Nia.

“The body is always looking for comfort and pleasure,” Zweig said. “It is a design piece, with joints, muscles, ligaments. We use the architecture of the body, and move it the way it was designed to move. In Nia we call this a little repair work.”

By movement, Zweig means the fluid movements of dance and martial arts, not the repetitive, almost robotic movement of, say, lifting weights. “There has to be joy when you’re moving,” she said. “When we learn how to access that joy, we love to move.”

Moving with joy, like the movements learned and practiced in Nia, is a natural sensation, like a child jumping around when he or she is happy.   Also they added their message to the people who doesn’t experience Yoga.

“Try this practice and we can assure you that through movement we can find health”.  Therefore come, join and let’s Dance it out!