September 2006

Special Feature

Witnessing

Have you ever stood in front of a mirror and really looked at yourself objectively? As you look at yourself – whether during a session of X-ray Anatomy or at other times – it’s very helpful to implement another Nia technique: Witnessing.

Witnessing is simply observing yourself without judging yourself. Witnessing is harder than you may think, because often it’s difficult to be completely objective about your own body. We all tend to be our own toughest critics.

However, you will never gain true, realistic information about your own body until you are able to see yourself as you really are. You’ve got to turn off your self-critical inner dialogue.

Witnessing involves not only assessing yourself visually, but also focusing on how you feel. When you are doing a movement and you see that your arms are too high, you need to connect that information with how it feels. This enables you to fully integrate the new knowledge into your mind and body.

Witnessing creates awareness during exercise, which is one of the most vital components of Nia. Awareness, in Nia, is the starting point of all action.

Article contains excerpts from the book, “The Nia Technique”

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