Accredited Nia Instructors with the Nia Australia Association
Deborah Shaw
The Joy of Movement
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a current moving in you, a joy.” - Rumi
My first Nia class was a delight. The sweat told me that I had found a cardio class that I could enjoy. The smile told me I had something I wanted to share. I love that Nia can be whatever I need it to be, slow and soft or loud and pumping.
As a NOW practice, it helps me connect to the present moment and quiet my chattering mind. I love the spontaneity, enjoy the laughs and the sense of play, and value the capacity to include people of all ages, shapes and fitness levels. The range of music, the gestures and the use of language stirs something within me that reminds me to live passionately. It is the basis of a lot of the work I do with groups and gives the frame work and opportunity to be silly and playful in areas often weighed down by ‘deep significance’ and heavy handed structure – self healing and business. This always helps communication, a feeling of energy and connection.
How many chances are there to play and have fun like this, especially as one gets over 40, let alone close to 70?
I see my role as supporting people find their capacity to move themselves out of the “business as usual” mode of operating and into a felt sense of vibrant possibility. This is not just about fitness.
At the core of my work is the baseline - that we live through our bodies. Our felt experience affects our sense of well-being and happiness, our ability to think clearly and perform deftly. Tuning into our somatic experience as a holistic and constantly transforming energy dynamic enhances self-awareness and personal growth. Recognising our needs for movement, nourishment, rest and stimulation help develop robust and creative responses to the complex and challenging environments in which we live.
Our programs include:
- Stimulating Creativity
- Energy@Work and Alert after Lunch
- Embodied Activism
- Girl's Esteem - The WOW Factor
- Classes; Yoga, Nia and ChiBall
- Retreats, Hepburn Retreat Centre in April and Daku Resort, Fiji in July
- Nia and Chiball teacher training and home education
Contact Details
Deborah Shaw
Training and Facilitation
Blue Belt Nia teacher, ChiBall and Yoga teacher
email : info@thejoyofmovement.com.au
web : www.thejoyofmovement.com.au
Term 2 April 19 – June 16
Term 3 July 12 – September 10th
Class Timetable
Monday
9.30 - 10.30am.
Warrandyte Mechanics Institute, Yarra St, Warrandyte
Tuesday
6.30 - 7.30pm.
The Augustine Centre, 2 Minona St, Hawthorn
Wednesday
9.30 - 10.30am.
Hawthorn Civic Youth Club, 241 Auburn Rd, Hawthorn
Monthly classes
2nd Sunday
10 - 11am
The Abbotsford Convent, The Rosina Room, St Heliers St, Abbotsford
18 April, 16 May, 20 June, 18 July, 15 August
These classes have very generous concession rates for pensioners, students and unemployed. Please don’t let a lack of funds limit your access to classes.
Call Deborah to discuss.
Your first class is always free.
Course Prices
Term Courses average at $14 per class, or $10 conc.
$18 casual; $12 concession
$10 children.
Bring water, a towel or soft rug and curiosity
Women’s Retreat @ Hepburn Retreat Centre April 23 – April 26
Over the Anzac Day weekend, we explore the Joy of Movement as a sensation, an act of creation and choice rather than a happen chance or dependant on personal tastes of likes and dislikes. Using body based learning techniques and daily Nia classes we will explore ways to access the art and the craft of nourishing ourselves with JOY.
“To free the body and to sense Joy freely moving through the whole body is a sign of healing... Joy brings into play the entire body, mind, emotions, and spirit of a person. The changes are visible in their eyes, in their hands and in the joints of the body and muscle that move in a more relaxed way.” - Alexander Lowen, M.D., Bioenergetics
The weekend is fully catered for, with sumptuous vegetarian food (vegan is very possible). The accommodation is relaxed but comfortable. Massages can be booked, my suggestion is for a massage on Sunday afternoon and there is a distinct possibility of a spa at Hepburn Spa Centre followed by coffee and something sweet in Daylesford.
$475 - early bird discount $425, if paid by the 5th of April.
No prior experience is necessary.
7 Days in Fiji at Daku Resort
Imagine Nia, Yoga and ChiBall as an everyday part of your 7-day holiday. Fine tune your awareness to the joy of being alive, deepening your experience of the tropical pleasures and the Fijian culture. The sand will feel softer and the sea bluer. Allow yourself to be nourished and leave feeling rejuvenated and animated in a relaxed and vibrant way. Yogainfiji website: http://yogainfiji.com/2009/10/the-joy-of-movement-yoga-nia-and-the-chiball-method/
Contact details
The Joy of Movement
Phone - 0400 529 897
Email – info@thejoyofmovement.com.au
Web - www.thejoyofmovement.com.au
What you do makes a difference,
you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.
Jane Goodall
Students can receive a 6 - 8 weekly newsletter by registering at www.thejoyofmovement.com.au
Student feedback
Deborah brings together grace, energy and great moves with concepts that draw the links between self and community in a powerful way. I feel blessed to contribute to her journey to the USA to share Nia at the Global Gathering and immerse herself in widening the healing applications for this important work. Her take on relating to our bodies as the earth we seek to nurture is so inspiring and brings a vitality to this work that we're hungry for!
Tathra Street. Leadership & Development Trainer for Be the Change Symposium, June 2008
As someone who had begrudgingly dragged myself around various aerobics classes and gyms to force myself to stay fit, discovering Nia saved my life. Because Nia is the exercise you do without it feeling like exercise! It feels just like dancing, and the music is so fantastic you don’t really notice any hard work happening at all.!
I had been doing Nia regularly for a year or so, when I was diagnosed with Breast, then Ovarian cancer, which I am treating with alternative therapies as well as surgery and chemotherapy. In a situation where I was too tired or depleted for any other form of exercise, I went back to Nia as soon as I had healed from surgery. Even during chemotherapy I was generally able to keep it up and there was always the offer of a fit-ball to sit on if I wasn’t up to leaping about. (I never had to take up the offer.)
Doing this class was really vital to both my recovery and my sanity, not only as my only form of exercise, but because it is so much fun, and I really get off on the music, it was a real “upper, (which all the books say you must engage in – “Pamper yourself” they say.) When other forms of exercise - like walking up stairs or even any distance, made me feel ‘down’ as I felt a failure (because I couldn’t do it without feeling exhausted) because you can work to your own pace in Nia, this didn’t happen. In fact on the contrary, I felt terrific afterwards as I was able to keep up and leap about with the best of them (albeit in a limited fashion.) I must say that one of the greatest assets we have in our class is our teacher Deborah Shaw, whose energy and enthusiasm epitomizes the Nia slogan - the joy of movement, and she makes it infectious.
Karen, Nia student and cancer survivor, 2008
I recently did a course with Moving Works and found it very uplifting and energising. It also relieved the stiffness in my back and shoulders- a great way to unwind at the end of the day. Having worked with highly disadvantaged job seekers for over twenty years I can see how “The Joy of Movement” could benefit many of my clients by building self esteem and literally getting them moving in a supportive and fun environment.
Robyn Mioni, Employment Consultant - June 2009.
I have attended several of Deborah’s Joy of Movement classes. On the simplest level it’s just an enormous amount of fun and a great workout. I work as a management consultant with large and multinational organizations in a distinct area of performance. The people I work with are attempting to accomplish something that is beyond what they have historically demonstrated they can do. Taking on that kind of challenge requires them to think and behave in ways they have never done before. I find that if I continue to challenge myself to move and think in ways that are entirely new to me, I am more effective and useful to my clients as a consultant. Nia is one of the ways I do that. It has a wonderful, deep, somatic impact that leaves me more expansive and creative and is of enormous help to me in the kind of work I do.
Leonard McDonald, Management Consultant, January 2009
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