Renewal through body awareness & movement

That was the name of this morning's workshop . . . and it was exactly what I needed to kick start my week. A couple of people dropped out so it was a smaller group. For me, it was the perfect group as each of us have been here for at least five or more weeks. It was very interesting - the body awareness part was a guided meditation focusing on the body - called a "body scan" the movement part of the workshop involved a "trust walk" and working in pairs alternating between being a leader and a follower. It really helped that we are all very close so there was a high level of trust. I think the experience would be a lot different if the participants had people that I didn't know so well.

My partner for the trust exercises was my work out buddy (it helped that we're similar in height) so I had no problem being led. I enjoyed being the leader - although our biggest struggle was that my partner really struggled with being led. So I found myself encouraging him to relax - we persevered and got there in the end :-).

This afternoon was filled with physical activity. Immediately after lunch was my one-2-one with Rebecca - today she had me start with movement without music - it felt like a meditative dance. It was an opportunity for me to get a better understanding of my body and how it moves. We ended our session with working on Katrine's dance. I was caught up at first and then Rebecca encouraged me to make it my own - and that made a huge difference and I really felt more connected to it.

I have only one more session with Rebecca - as she's heading off to attend a 6 week dance program with the American Dance Festival. I know that she'll have a great time and do really well. I'll miss her - as I've really enjoyed working with her. I am going to try Pilate's on the machines so will book some time to do that next week.

After my one-2-one, I headed to Dance Fusion, followed by 10 mins on the elliptical and 25 mins on the treadmill. I ended my afternoon with Gyrokinesis which is a great way to end the day.

I have been avoiding the elliptical - but feel it's time to tackle it. I managed 7 minutes on Saturday, my goal is to increase my time over the week and aim to do 30 minutes by next Monday. I am also pleased to report that I can now do 3 mph on the treadmill with ease - and did 5 minutes at 3.2 mph. When I got here I thought 2.4 mph was hard and 3 mph was impossible - it feels great to know that I can now do it - even on hills :-)) PROGRESS!!!

My knees did well today too - so all in all it's been a fantastic day!

Lots of love & hugs,

Norma