Hiking, meditating, listening to music, swapping stories, getting massage – there are many paths to healing after an experience like the Waldo Canyon Fire. I embraced many of them in the past week since we were able to come home from eight days of evacuation. I could have gotten right down to business but was grateful to be able to take care of myself before going back to business as usual – if there ever is such a thing.
Friday, after five days of being home after evacuation, I took my first venture into the city. I went to Mel Stahl’s NIA class.
Mel led us in Sanjana, which is a great routine available in the NIA videos I offer. The rocking of the rhythmical movements soothed me, and moving in dynamic new ways energized me. Mel is a perfect teacher for me. It’s not just the movements she leads. So much of her gift is in how she exudes the pure joy of movement as she dances. It’s a bit like a puppy thrilling over a walk or a ride in the car. Her joy and sense of pleasure are infectious in the same way I find NIA co- founder Carlos’ pleasure in movement to be infectious – even on video.
Song by song, bar by bar, I felt myself danced back into life. All the healing work from the previous week had taken me inside to peace. This was my first venture back out into life.
I followed Mel’s NIA class the next day with Communidance free form dancing.. As healing as it was – and it was – while returning, I had a little irrational fear that I would drive home to see an enormous smoke plume behind my house as I had two weeks before. Instead there were flash-flood warnings and neighbors sandbagging. Yes, there is work yet to be done. And bit by bit we’re all stepping back into life in our own ways.
You may not have recently been faced with the liklihood that you would lose everything like we were. But we all have our own traumas, large and small. Before you open your mouth, ask if you’ve done what you can to step into your own life in full empowerment. I use lots of tools to find my center and get my footing so when I speak I won’t pull others off their center and compromise their footing. NIA is high on my list of favorite ways to take myself to a place of having something worth saying. It feels really good to be coming back,.
