V i n a B a r h a m

let's talk about liberation parenting + everyday alchemy + creative joy

Coming Back Home To My Body

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Note: Move Into Bliss is starting very soon and I wanted to devote the next few weeks to sharing with you my experience with movement as medicine for my body and soul. I want to start by sharing an old blog post I wrote on my other blog, A Nourishing Home, two years ago. It was the beginning of my journey as a Nia teacher. I know everyone will experience Nia and movement different but I hope this inspires you to make that step into coming back home to yourself. Starting with movement.

Have you ever experienced a moment so sacred that no words were enough to describe it?

Well, that was how my Nia Intensive experience was so far.

Yes, it was delicious and juicy, with many many moments pulsating with a kind of bliss and freedom I’ve never felt before.

But mostly?

It was Sacred.

TRULY, A HOLY MOMENT.

I don’t know exactly how to share my experience with all of you dear readers, because it feels a bit of a travesty to try to describe it with words. And that feels quite odd to me, being that I process my experience mainly through writing. But I’m learning that perhaps I’ve over-relied on the written word throughout my life. And while much of that has kept me sane, functional and connected to my creative and intellectual capacities all these years,  it has rarely brought me to a state of Bliss, Joy and profound Aliveness the way my body has, especially in this last few days.

I’ve written so much about Being Present on this blog, with Presence as my over-arching life theme for this year. And yet I totally didn’t connect Being Present to Being Present in our Bodies until this past weekend.

And here is what I’m discovering:

OUR BODY IS WHERE ITS AT.

The answers we are searching for, the healing we are seeking, the happiness we are wanting. The life I thought was simple got even simpler: Be In Your Body. Fully Present in Sensation. Em-Body.

We look for spiritual experiences in all the wrong places. The Body is as Sacred as it gets. We look for healing in words, in our wills, in our minds. The Body holds far more wisdom for healing that we can ever imagine.

COMING HOME TO MY BODY

I’ve never crumpled on the floor sobbing like a child with people I just met. And yet I’ve never felt safer, loved and held just as I am, without sharing the slightest bits of the stories I’ve carried throughout my life. I felt a release and a kind of deep healing I didn’t know I still needed. My fellow Nia Intensive trainees and all the Nia instructors embodied the kind of Love and Community I never knew I wanted. I adore each and everyone of them, quirks and all.

I didn’t sign up for this when I said yes to my Nia Intensive. I just wanted to dance. And yet, there it was. A healing moment where my spirit returned to my body in a safe container of community, and it finally felt like home at long last.

Do you feel the tug to say YES and move INTO bliss this May? Read more here and register below. Scholarships available.

Register for Move Into Bliss





Move Into Bliss is Here! Start Your Online Movement Practice in May.

 

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You are on a journey to discover movement as medicine, as meditation and as a metaphor for your brilliant life. You are ready to embody your truth through movement. You seek the path of pleasure, sensation and joy. You desire to express your creative potential. You are curious how to sweat your prayers and dance into your healing. You want to discover more of who you are. And you are open to this medium called the internet to help you experience all of that, in the company of other like-hearted souls on a similar path.

 

Welcome to Move Into Bliss – an online movement practice for those of you who desire privacy, flexibility and more space to make this practice more full your own. Perhaps you don’t have a Nia class nearby. Or your present schedule is not quite accommodating towards classes in your area. Or simply that you desire to dive into this movement practice at your own pace, your way, your time.

Learn more here.

 

The Art of Pleasing Yourself

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If you told me I would be writing a blog post about The Art of Pleasing Yourself five years ago, I would have said you were crazy. Pleasure was not big in my vocabulary, certainly not a guiding word if I knew what guiding words were back then.

But here I am now, writing about me and Pleasure, and how our relationship has evolved over the last five years.

If you are wondering if I am going to talk about sex and orgasm, then let me put your mind at ease.

YES.

Because how could I not? That our clitoris is designed for ONE function and ONE function only (PLEASURE) has always been intriguing for me and pleasure is deliciously tied to our sexuality.

No, not just sensuality.

SEXUALITY.

Most women tend to shy away from talking about our sexuality.

I almost did too.

I was going to touch on it, but planned on focusing on the art of sensuality because well, sensuality we all feel a bit more comfortable with.

And being comfortable with our sensuality is a step towards embracing our sexuality.

Our sexuality.

Or the fact that we have v-a–g-i-n-a-s  and breasts that flow with milk and wombs that grow human beings.

These sacred  parts of our bodies, our selves that  lead us to pleasure.

And POWER.

We cannot talk about pleasure without talking about power.

Because the art of pleasing yourself has to do with owning your power.

With knowing who you really are.

As a woman.

As a spiritual being choosing a body of a woman.

As an orgasmic creature who knows how to receive just as much as she knows how to give.

So we can’t just talk about sensuality.

We have to dive into sexuality too.

We are sexual creatures after all.

:: Pause ::

The Art of Pleasing Yourself is about knowing your WORTH completely.

It’s about knowing that your body has one purpose only: to serve you.

Your body is sacred and exists for you.

FOR YOU.

Yes, we give gestate and give birth and nurse newborns. Our body was meant for nurture. But our body was also meant for pleasure.

Namely, our own.

Our vitality, our ability to show up fully in the world without shame, our capacity to give RESTS in our ability to receive pleasure.

So the question is, how well do you receive pleasure? Do you make it a practice to invite Pleasure into your life? Do you embrace your sexual self as sacred, as something good and an inherent part of who you are? Do you see the link between your wellness and your sexual energy?

I’ll be diving deep into this topic so stay tuned! I’d love to hear what you think! Head over to our Facebook Page to discuss. And please share the love and share this on your Facebook page below. Be kind and spread the good word.

XO,
Vina

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