"I Feel Like a Kid Again!"

After taking just two Nia classes, and then the Nia White Belt Intensive, Lynda wanted to quit her fitness job and become a Nia teacher. Nia had changed the way she saw the world.
The first change in her perspective was the way she perceived exercise. Before Nia, she had worked hard at being fit, to the point of developing an exercise addiction, abusing and injuring her body. She liked the results of exercising–her body didn’t. “I was out of balance, not listening to my body. Nia has shaken up my beliefs about traditional fitness,” she says. “I now prefer listening to my body and moving in a way that fits my energy that moment, rather than pushing, forcing, and pounding during workouts. I realized that I had a lot of ideas that were based on what I had learned from experts, but now I view my body as the expert. I honor what my body needs.”
Nia also changed the way she perceived herself. “I changed how I defined myself,” she recalls. “The artistic, creative and expressive parts of me are now present in the world. Emotionally, Nia has reconnected me to the joy of being alive, and enhanced my self-awareness. It brought out the kid inside me.”
Because Lynda is now forthright about who she truly is, she has gained deeper intimacy with others. “Nia has helped me be more present in my friendships,” she says. “Instead of hiding parts of myself, I am letting friends see who I am and what I really think and feel. Doing Nia has also made me more playful in my relationship with my husband. I now see myself as a beautiful, powerful, sexual woman. For me, Nia is about being truly present in the world and being myself one-hundred percent of the time. No more censoring and hiding!”
Nia has even changed elements of her basic personality. “I used to get stressed out a lot,” Lynda recalls, “and have wicked outbursts of anger, with temper tantrums. Since my Nia White Belt training, though, the need to express myself this way has disappeared. Nia grounds me in the present moment, and I find this calming and centering. I focus on sensing the present and enjoying my daily life.”
Most of all, Nia has changed the way she sees her own body. “I feel so beautiful doing
Nia – and I feel beautiful afterwards. Fat days just don’t happen anymore!”