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Have you heard the term third eye, or intuitive center ?

At the YogaFit MBF Conference that Joanie and I attended in Minneapolis, I was intrigued by something I learned… the Pineal Gland, which lies between the two hemispheres of the brain, is made of the same genetic structure as the eyes. It is considered a dormant photoreceptor, and its primary responsibility is to produce melatonin, a hormone we need to sleep.

It is literally located between the our two ‘seeing’ eyes.  The third eye is actually an eye, responsible for absorbing light and dark to turn on and off our body.

How cool is that???!!!

One of the 52 Moves in Nia, called Head and Eye Movement, means using three eyes?! I LOVE this!

Bring all three eyes to class this week, and dance the intuitive ‘seeing without seeing’, ‘knowing without knowing.’ Our bodies have sooo much intelligence. We call it Body Wisdom, Body Literacy.

Wise body indeed.

I have more copied below. Read and learn about your fascinating third eye, the principle seat of the soul.

SEE you in class!

Tuesday 7:30am, Wednesday 9:15am, Thursday 9:15am, Friday 9:15am, all at The Synergy Studio!

Adelle

From MindBodyGreen: When sunlight hits your eyes, a message is sent to your brain’s pineal gland to slow down producing your sleepy-time hormone melatonin. As the sun goes down it signals your body to ramp up melatonin for you to get a good nights rest. During darker, winter days the sunlight can’t shut off the melatonin mechanism as much during the day, leading to lower production at night, causing poorer sleep

From Wikipedia: The pineal gland, also known as the pineal body, conarium or epiphysis cerebri, is a small endocrine gland in the vertebrate brain. The shape of the gland resembles a pine cone, hence its name. The pineal gland is located in the epithalamus, near the center of the brain, between the two hemispheres, tucked in a groove where the two halves of the thalamus join. The pineal gland produces melatonin,a serotonin derived hormone which modulates sleep patterns in both circadian and seasonal cycles.

From the point of view of biological evolution, the pineal gland represents a kind of atrophied photoreceptor. In the epithalamus of some species of amphibians and reptiles, it is linked to a light-sensing organ, known as the parietal eye, which is also called the pineal eye or third eye.

René Descartes believed the pineal gland to be the “principal seat of the soul”.

Good morning!

Adaptability… what does it mean to you? 

When I think of adaptability, I think of flow, movement, mobility as well as stability. In my physical body, I relate adaptability to my joints, the movers of energy.

Joints allow us to release the stillness of the night, opening to possibilities with each yawn and stretch, reaching out with flexibility and becoming bigger. They also allow us to draw in closer, to engage our muscles with strength and pull them to the bone, becoming smaller. I am fascinated at the multiple directions that different joints are designed to move. Elbows and knees hinge, shoulders and hips rotate, wrists and ankles circle, hips shimmy, and our spine undulates in all directions. How lucky we are to have these wonderful parts of our body that are metaphors for adaptability!

Join me this week as we hinge, rotate, circle, shimmy, and undulate, dancing our joints to health and well-being.

Joanie and I have a Nia White Belt starting this coming weekend! Join us in classes on on Thursday evening, Friday and Saturday morning, and Sunday afternoon, as we team teach with LOTS of adaptability and plenty of FUN! PS. You can still join in for the entire experience by clicking here!

AND, a reminder that our Tuesday/Thursday morning classes have made the shift to a 7:30am start. Dance with YOU soon in our early classes! 🙂

Have an adaptable week, and I’ll see you on the dance floor!

Love Adelle

My classes this week:

Nia: Tuesday 7:30am, Wednesday 9:15am, and Thursday 5:30pm, Friday 9:30am, Saturday 9:30am, and Sunday 4:00pm with Joanie

Nia FreeDance: Thursday 9:15am

Yoga: Thursday 12:00pm, and Sunday 8:45am

Read on for more on adaptability from the wise Madisyn Taylor!

You may have noticed your ability to adapt well to new circumstances, which could have you feeling clever and flexible. Acknowledging your skills, you may look for innovative ways of consciously making the most of these abilities rather than waiting for life to give you more reasons to use them. You may find that you even become somewhat bored without new challenges, so you might want to seek a situation that involves a variety of circumstances to keep you engaged. This could mean a different job, living situation, hobby, or volunteer position that allows you to utilize your love for puzzle-solving and defying normalcy. Today, by taking stock of what interests you and what you are good at, you can make choices that make life more fully enjoyable.  *Insert from Adelle: Take a Nia class everyday!

We may not realize that we have the ability to adapt and thrive unless life’s challenges give us the opportunity. But we can take that opportunity and build upon it by making the most of what we’ve learned. By being proactive we are telling the universe that it doesn’t need to send any more challenges our way just to give us the chance to discover our talents and prove our mettle. Instead, we actively co-create with the universe by giving it direction with our thoughts and goals. Just like the irritation of an oyster produces a pearl, we can take life’s challenges to make our lives precious and beautiful. Today, by learning about yourself from life’s experiences, you learn to create even better experiences for your future. *Insert from Adelle: Take a Yoga, JourneyDance, or HoopDance at The Synergy Studio!

200 Hour Yoga Graduates from YogaFit in Minneapolis! Joanie joined me! 🙂

Happy Monday friends!

This morning, as I completed a 45 minute video from Yoga International, I relaxed into shavasana, and reflected on the experience. I was struck by the amazing support of my skeletal system.

With 206 bones constantly shifting and aligning to walk, dance, practice yoga, lift weights, sleep, or whatever else encompasses my day, I’m amazed at how my bones can move in so many directions… vertical, horizontal, and rotational. Bones inspire my 700+ muscles to push, pull, expand, contract, twist and turn, keeping them healthy, strong and flexible.

Moving from the bones provides the support from inside to out, underneath and behind, as we like to say in Nia.

206 Bones inspiring over 700 Muscles… endless potential and possibilities!

Nia White Belt Principle #10: X-ray Anatomy. 

I hope to see you in class this week, as well as in the Nia White Belt that Joanie and I have coming up! There is still time to sign up for June 9, 10, 11 + 23, 24, 25… 6 days just for YOU.  We only have one life this time around, and there are so many juicy, amazing ways to learn and connect to the greatest companion we have… our body!

PLEASE NOTE the time change for Tuesday morning! Consensus was to change the start time to 7:30am. Come on down to The Synergy Studio before the traffic kicks in!

With love,  Adelle

My classes this week:

Nia: Tuesday 7:30am, Wednesday 9:15am, Friday 9:15am

Nia FreeDance: Thursday 9:15am

Yoga: Thursday 12:00pm

Happy New Week Friends!

Post Mother’s Day and Granddaughter Nora’s 1st birthday weekend, I have been reflecting on the many ways that all of us are nurturing, supporting, and loving one another. We are all mothers to somebody, whether its a friend, a colleague, a family member, or even a stranger. ‘Mothers’ come in all shapes, sizes and genders. I love our worldwide community!

We exude the energy of the ‘feminine’, the energy of ‘mother,’ when we give another our full presence, listening and accepting without judgement. Through opening our heart to someone else, we are being a leader of peace…  a shape-shifter of love.

When my heart feels closed in and protective, all I have to do is consciously move my chest all directions… front, back, side to side… and my heart chakra shifts into a more open, expansive, and flowing space. I continue to be amazed at the power of movement as medicine. Medicine that moves creative energy and frees my body, mind, emotions and spirit, so that I am truly present for the next moment of my life.

Are you ready to create ART from the heART?

Join me in class this week! Let’s drink the medicine and create!

Tuesday 6:45am, Wednesday 9:15am, Thursday 9:15am, Friday 9:15am, and Sunday 4:00pm

Love! Adelle

I have a few pics below from my heART-filled weekend with all 7 of the precious people that I’m so lucky to have in my life, as well as my special angel Nora. A year has flown past!

Precious angel Nora… one year old!

Emily, Austin, Adelle, Cameron, Nora, Sarah, Louisa, Laura, and Tyler

MoMo and NoNo

Best Friend in Welsh!

Continuing the thread of Mudita…

As Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh points out, even neutral experiences (the touch of the air on our skin, the fact that we have teeth to chew our food with and do not currently have a toothache) can be transformed into pleasant ones simply through the power of our attention.

To encourage this transformation, we can begin our mudita practice by formally “counting our blessings,” as my mother used to call it. In a silent inner litany, we can say “thank you” for the magnificent gifts of a healthy body: lungs that breathe the cool, foggy air; a nose that smells eucalyptus leaves and banana muffins; eyes that see hummingbirds swooping outside the window; a tongue that has just savored a golden, juicy peach. We can express gratitude for friends, family, the beautiful flowers in the garden, and the twitter of birds enjoying the morning sunshine. We can say thank you to the smallest of gifts… so many ways to take the practice of mudita into our daily life.

Fiona Winter and Adelle enJOYing a cup of… !

How about your body, your breath, your dance, your life?

A cup of mudita por favor!

Yes mame!

Loving you, Adelle

Good morning San Antonio! I’ve missed YOU!

Adelle, Antonella, Ananda, Joanie… the AHHH of deep friendship… Mudita!

Joanie and I have just returned from amazing Nia FreeDance trainings in Rome and Wales, and my heart is full of pure joy!  What an experience!!  I am in deep gratitude for our producers and dear friends Antonella Monini in Rome and Fiona Winters in Wales, who opened their hearts to us, and paved the way for 38 radiant beings from across the world to dance together, experiencing mudita!

I’ve very excited to teach my Nia FreeDance class this morning at 9:15 am, and hope you will be joining me. I will also teach tomorrow morning (Friday) at 9:15 am. I’m looking forward to continuing the mudita I am feeling!

Patrick and Fiona Winter, James Asher, Joanie and me, enJoying the mudita!

For me, mudita = pure joy fountain

This is a great excerpt from Yoga Journal about Mudita. Read on, and SEE you in class!

“In Buddhist philosophy, mudita is the third of the four brahmaviharas, the inner “divine abodes” of loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity that are every human being’s true nature. The term mudita is often narrowly translated as “sympathetic” or “altruistic” joy, the pleasure that comes when we delight in other people’s well-being rather than begrudge it.

Since in practice it’s all but impossible to experience happiness for others unless we first develop the capacity to taste it in our own lives, many Buddhist teachers interpret mudita more broadly as referring to the inner fountain of infinite joy that is available to each of us at all times, regardless of our circumstances. The more deeply we drink from this fountain, the more secure we become in our own abundant happiness, and the easier it then becomes for us to relish the joy of other people as well.

We’ve probably all had moments that have shown us that happiness has virtually nothing to do with the external circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the state of our minds and hearts. We can be drinking margaritas on a Caribbean beach, totally miserable; we can be late for work and stuck in freezing sleet in a traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge, overflowing with bliss.” from Yoga Journal

Insert Adelle 🙂 … I can be running from terminal to terminal at London’s Heathrow airport looking for my lost bag, waiting on the tarmac for hours in Houston for the rain to let up, or looking into the eyes of new European friends who are anticipating the excitement of a Nia FreeDance weekend experience! Mudita! 🙂

Join us in Lewisville, Tx. in July 15, 16, and at The Synergy Studio September 9, 10 for Nia FreeDance Mudita weekends!

Overflowing with mudita!  Adelle

Wales! We love you Nia FreeDance DJ’s!

Roma! You are in my heart fellow Nia FreeDance DJ’s!

Beautiful morning sunrise in Wimberley!

Happy Monday friends!

Ahhh! The beauty of Mother Nature herself.

I spent a rejuvenating weekend in Wimberley, enJoying the peace and quiet of the birds, the wind, the gurgling water, and the miracle present in each breath of beauty. There is nothing like the Great Mother to remind me of grace, support, and presence.

When I returned home, my hands immediately went into the dirt in my backyard, pulling up weeds, adjusting tomato plants and watering the new transplants. I LOVE the dance of life called gardening. Everyday appears miraculous and new, as growth, renewal and regeneration happen before my eyes.

Join me this week, as we celebrate the simple things in life… the miracles that are happening moment to moment when we dance. No matter what level we choose, how tiny or big, movement is a medicine miracle. Nia’s philosophy, “Through Movement We Find Health” is right on!

The routine this week? You guessed it! Miracle. 🙂

Speaking of medicine miracles, have you checked out The Synergy Studio, and the upcoming special workshops? Fred Bass, an AMAZING man who LOVES Nia is coming with his story in May. He will be teaching a workshop as well as the Sunday class. Sign up now and BRING the men in your life! A Nia White Belt is also on the horizon… and much more! CHECK IT ALL OUT HERE

See you soon! Adelle

My classes this week:

Nia: Tuesday 6:45am, Wednesday 9:15am, Friday 9:15am, Sunday 4:00pm

Fred Bass with me at Nia SantaFe, before he           taught a wonderful class!

Nia FreeDance: Thursday 9:15am

Yoga: Thursday 12:00pm, Sunday 8:45am

Check out this short video on grounding! Take off your shoes and get into the garden! 🙂 

A wonderful read from DailyOm today…

To co-create we must first begin with a foundation of mutual respect.

Gardens offer us a perfect opportunity to reconnect to our true selves and remember our place in the natural world. Rather than approach our gardens as mere investments of energy, we can look at the entire process of gardening, from planting seeds to harvesting food, as a way of deepening our conscious relationship with the creative force of the universe. If we are willing to shift our intention from dominating, or at least directing nature, to co-creating with nature instead, we may discover a deep peace and renewed sense of wonder.

To co-create we must first begin with a foundation of mutual respect. As you create your garden in partnership with nature, you can respect the earth, water, insects and animals by using organic seeds, soil and fertilizers. You can also communicate with the plants, insects and elements involved in your garden, and create a regular practice of stillness to listen for any messages they may have for you. When it comes time for harvesting fresh vegetables or picking beautiful blooms, you might even ask permission first. If you ask with an open heart, you will always receive an answer.

Imagine what it would be like to surrender certain aspects of your human world to the precision and surety of the natural environment. You might decide, for example, to forego your calendar and plant in rhythm with the cycles of the moon. Or, you might choose to ignore clock time and water your garden when the sun hits a certain position in the sky. By opening your garden experience to more of nature’s input, you can become available to witness a whole universe of miracles, while engendering a greater sense of honor between the two worlds.

When we recognize ourselves as allies, co-creators, with the earth and the natural world, our relationship to our environment begins to change. We no longer feel the need to control the circumstances around us and can relish in the perfection of all that is.

Beautiful Day My Friends!

In Nia, we talk about Your Body’s Way and The Body’s Way.

The body loves yin and yang energy, mobility and stability, and is balanced in its design. The body also thrives on dynamic ease. All of these principles of The Body’s Way can be applied to Your Body’s Way by listening with your intuitive voice and eye, asking your body what it needs and desires.
Does your body want to release a pent-up emotion, self-heal a pain, sing with joy, move with more flexibility and strength?
By listening to our body, we can feed it just the right medicine, the right BALANCE
for health and wellness. Our body knows… it is our oldest friend. Our wisest guide.
I was inspired by an email I received from DailyOm, about an exercise in ‘self.’  Read below and come dance with me this week!
Love in abunDance!
Adelle

When we are in a quandary we can ask our own selves for advice; our previous younger self and our future wise self.

Since we probably know ourselves better than anyone else does, then we may very well be the best person to ask for advice when we are in a quandary. One interesting exercise is to try asking for advice from your past and future selves. There is the younger self that you used to be and the older, more mature self that you will become. You can gain a different perspective when you view present situations through your younger self’s eyes or your mature self’s more experienced point of view. Perhaps, your younger self would view a current dilemma in a more innocent, less cynical way. Likewise, your older, hopefully wiser, self may offer advice from a more compassionate, experienced perspective.

Think back to how you viewed the world when you were younger. What were your thoughts on happiness, love, and injustice? Think about how you would have reacted to a dilemma you are currently facing. The perspective may shed a different light on relationships, money matters, or life decisions. Likewise, think about the person you will become. A more mature version of you might mull a problem or conflict over carefully before taking action right away… or perhaps not. Maybe your older self would be more willing to take risks, care less about what other people think, and want to enjoy life more.

You can even set up an advisory panel of your past, present, and future selves. You might even want to try to have a written dialogue with your selves to record the thoughts, feelings, and advice that your younger and older selves might have for your present self regarding a current situation. Your different selves can give you some invaluable answers. After all, no one can know you better than your selves. You are your wisest guide .

Good morning friends!

I hope you take the opportunity to ‘Dance Daily’ during this beautiful Spring season.

Movement with awareness brings us back to our bodies, and a grounded sensation that keeps us centered. The main signs that we need to center ourselves are scattered thoughts and a feeling of disconnection or numbness, as if we are no longer able to take anything in. In addition, we may feel unfocused and not present in our bodies. Centering ourselves is a way of coming to terms with all the different energies within us and drawing them back into ourselves.
‘Dance Daily’ is a wonderful mantra for centering! Joanie and I just returned from a FABulous 4 days in Santa Fe, where we danced daily, and multiple times a day! 16 Nia DJ’s received their certificate, and many more joined us for Nia FreeDance classes.  We ALL loved it!
Join me in my daily dance this week as we focus on centering.  The center of the body is the hara, located about 2 inches below the navel.  When feeling out of sync and scattered, dance and breathe into your hara…find your center… its all encoded in your body! 

OH! and be sure to go outside often, take off your shoes, and ground yourself. THIS is fascinating, and its science! Read more…
Love! Dancing Daily Dell

Read Dr. Mercola’s article on grounding, and WATCH THE 15 MINUTE DOCUMENTARY: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/02/25/grounding-recharge-immune-system-slow-aging.aspx

If you have Vimeo on your computer or
phone, you can go directly to the documentary… https://vimeo.com/205264910