Flow Arts As A Journey Into Self Love
BY Maple hung
Sacred Scholarship Video Presentation & Paper
NaiAsa Institute NeuroSomatic Flow™ Teacher Training - May 2022
We are taught at an early age that we reap what we sow. In order to prosper we have to work hard.
The working model of “Work and No Play” is prevalent around many in our Western society. Our western education system is built around the model of progressing through the grades. One must pass and perform at minimum set standards in order to progress into the next level or grade. We live in a society that favors productivity.
As we get older our play time and recess get cut from our regular scholarly schedule. It lessens and decreases as we enter middle school. We are training future professionals that play is no longer a priority. Instead, we instill hard work and study hard. We have to work towards a degree. As we start to enter the post-Secondary years, we are already playing less and working more. We start doing endless hours of research, studying and writing to inform our peers that we are deserving of special letters behind our name. After you obtain your title, you are encouraged to build your work career. We are told we must integrate into society by being successful and working hard.
I followed this route that was mapped out for so many in North America. I obtained my degree in Science from a prestigious well known University. I then got a secondary diploma in health care. I even started to teach Physiology and Pathology to other aspiring Massage Therapists. I was blessed to be working with Olympic Athletes, NHL hockey players, CFL football players and other elite athletes. I worked incessantly as I was trying to prove myself worthy amongst my peers. This seemed to be a recurring theme in my life. Proving to others that I was good enough. If I could work more, work better, and always be there for my students and clients perhaps they would accept me.
Motherhood soon followed and became my next focus. I juggled maintaining the health and bodies of my clients/patients, teaching, and keeping this small energetic human alive. I was left with very little energy for myself at the end of the day. I even stopped doing my own exercise and fitness. I stopped making myself a priority. Something most Mother’s experience.
As my daughter started to grow, I put her into different sports. I wanted her to try different things to see what she gravitated to. Gymnastics, Dance, Cheerleading, Swimming and Figure Skating. My daughter fell in love with figure skating. As she twirled on the ice you could see the pure joy she had. Something I had forgotten existed… JOY.
So that is when I started to try and discover what would bring me joy. I did some painting classes, cooking classes. Even though I enjoyed them it lacked the ecstasy I was searching for.
Then one day unexpectedly as I took my daughter to watch a fire show at the mall. To be honest I had no clue what a fire show was but what I witnessed was mesmerizing. Two women hooping with FIRE. What was this madness I was witnessing? This started my hoop and flow arts journey. This path led into a journey into self-love.
In 2017 I joined my first Hoop Class. This was a struggle for me. The class was too advanced and I struggled to keep up. I however kept pursuing this passion as I was determined to learn to hoop.
By fall my daughter started to get older and started to develop her own passion. She started to do competitive skating. This meant weekend competitions for her and weekend skating lessons. I was required to volunteer to help out the skating club. This was not something new for me. I often prioritized others before myself. My clients come first, my family comes first, my daughter comes first, my work comes first. I put myself last and stopped hooping for over a year. My emotions and sense of self started to decline.
My health started to also decline. My autoimmune condition made itself more prevalent and reminded my body that it was in need. Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune condition where the body attacks its own thyroid. It was depleting me of energy and causing me to experience body pain.
By the fall of 2018 I realized I had made a huge mistake. I needed to put myself as a priority. My soul needed to feel good again and my body needed to heal. I rejoined hoop classes in 2019 and registered myself for anything hoop related I could find.
This brought me to traveling to Toronto to attend my first Hoop Party. Hoopersonic was celebrating four years in business. I was so scared entering the room not knowing anyone. I was immediately greeted with a hug from the owner and welcomed into the pack. I saw how everyone was so inclusive here and talented. I knew I was in the right spot and I quickly felt more inspired to learn. I was starting to feel a sense of excitement and joy.
Gary Chapman, the author of “ The 5 Love Languages; The Secret to Love that Lasts” explains that there were 5 essential characteristics of perceiving love.
The Five Love Languages are:
Words of Affirmation
Quality Time
Giving and Receiving Gifts
Acts of Service
Physical Touch
As I began to pursue my love of the flow arts, I realized I was starting to gift myself . . . . SELF -LOVE.
1.Words of Affirmation
Wendy Suzuki the author of Healthy Brain, Happy Life writes that “brain-body connection is that your brain, including your thoughts, can affect your body. Intentional exercise happens when you make exercise both aerobic in movement and mental with affirmations and mantras. You can trigger a heightened awareness of the brain-body connection.” Incorporating intentional exercise with mantras helps by boosting our moods. It can increase good brain chemicals in the brain with improved levels of norepinephrine, and dopamine and endorphins.
In fact, only doing one superman pose for one to two minutes has the ability to decrease cortisol levels and increase testosterone. We are putting the intention that we can do anything. Now imagine coupling this move with a statement. “I am Strong. I am Worthy. See me in all my Glory”.
Also Dr. Jinju Dasalla, creator of the Neurosomatic Flow Technique explains that you can rewire your brain by incorporating a mantra with a flow movement that you are struggling with. As you slowly learn to release your mental blockages and the new pattern of movement is incorporated into your muscle memory something magical happens. You start to rewire old thought patterns that no longer serve you into a new thought pattern.
For the first time I was learning new moves. I was telling myself that I am capable. As I learned a new flow move, I would tell myself. “You can do this. You are learning something new. Look at you go girl. WOW that is a cool new trick you mastered. I was also hearing praise from my fellow flow friends as I made slow progress. Though there was struggle and many years of practice I was telling myself I am worthy and deserving.
2. Quality Time
As I was starting to learn to hoop, I was carving out time for myself to attend class. This is such a huge thing that I find many new mothers forget. We are also deserving of personal time. I started to spend time learning new moves and new activities. Hoop led to Poi lessons, led to veil fans, which led to flow ropes. I was starting to take more time to play and experience different facets of the Flow Arts. What I once perceived as unattainable was slowly becoming a new reality.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi the author of Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience has documented and studied what makes an experience satisfying is a deep state of flow. During flow people experience joy, creativity and total involvement with life. In the moment of flow, one experiences a place where time no longer exists.
In his chart you can see that as we increase challenge in accordance to an increase in ability, we can experience FLOW. A state where time seems to stop, and feelings of joy can slowly take over. When you have a high challenge and low skill level it can lead to feelings of anxiety. On the flip side, feelings of low challenge and high ability can lead to feelings of boredom and depression. Flow arts is a forever evolving challenge. As you master one skill there are many more skills to master or incorporate into one’s practice. Slowly integrating new moves with music and dance can create a sense of flow where time ceases to exist. I was starting to play and dance not realizing the time was passing.
3. Receiving and Giving Gifts
For the first time since the birth of my daughter I was starting to purchase items for myself. What started off with one hoop slowly grew to making hoops for myself, my daughter and others. I perused the ads for used unloved hoops and I slowly collected them. As people started to see my love of hooping they too wanted to experience the joy I had. I started to share and gift my growing collection of hoops. Hoops then led to Poi props and then veil fan props and eventually some flow ropes were added to the collection. I was giving myself gifts. Eventually I started to gift hoops and other flow props to others. The joy in my face when I receive a new flow toy is undeniable. The joy in my friend’s face when they receive their first hoop from me is also so rewarding.
I also started to share hoop play with my friends. Some would join me on the lawn to play and laugh. Laughter, they say, is the best medicine.
4. Acts of Service
There is also a sense of community that builds within the flow community. There are Flow Festivals and Flow Gatherings. This allows for like-minded individuals to connect and share. These gatherings involve a sharing of play, music and dance. Dancing and movement allow for the release of FEAR. Shiva Rea states FEAR DOESN’T MOVE. When you are afraid it is the absence of movement. Every time we dance there is a cascade of serotonin, natural joy and bliss from our movement. When we gather to dance and play at Flow Festivals, we help each other increase our good chemicals for our bodies. Moving and dancing help combat stress and depression by increasing hippocampal brain neurogenesis. This is an excellent way to possibly avoid or delay dementia later in life. It also helps activate the same reward system as drugs in the brain. As we dance and celebrate, we are also decreasing our chances of having a drug relapse. Flow Arts is a form of exercise and dancing movement. It is like a moving meditation. This increase in aerobic exercise can increase oxygen to the whole body, helping your heart as well as your brain. It can help release stress by allowing us to breathe more. Through our breath we can help activate our Parasympathetic systems and calm our nervous system.
Stuart Brown, the author of Play, states:
“The opposite of play is not work . . . . it is depression.”
Play is essential for our bodies and our minds. It is integral in learning about our environment as well as planning out possibilities. Watching children play in the yard with their great imaginations fascinates me. They sometimes problem solve through their play with their imagination. They slowly master crawling and graduate to climbing every item they can get their hands on. If we allow them to explore their environment safely, they can help integrate their minds and their bodies. It helps children develop a sense of trust and belonging. Something we can carry into our adult years.
Programs like Brain-Gym created by Paul and Gail Dennison and Bal-a-Vis-X created by Bill Hubert incorporate play and movement to help individuals improve their visual, auditory and kinesthetic skills. By using movements that cross the midline of the body many have found that we can have improvements in the communication of our brain hemispheres. This can lead to decrease in anxiety, increased focus in individuals. This may also decrease the progression of dementia in older adults.
For example, the simple figure 8 symbol we often draw with Poi and hoops has been shown to help people:
Think clearer
Relaxes the body
Enhances hand eye coordination
Improve visual tracking
Increase attention span
Balances emotions
Improve memory
We are consistently weaving between the right and left sides of our bodies. We weave and dance many figure patterns. We are coordinating our left and right brain hemispheres of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This can lead to an increase in creativity. We are slowly calming our own nervous systems and helping prevent our own aging. We are turning back time in our minds and in our bodies with our playing. What a gift to oneself.
5. Physical Touch
The hoop and many other flow props offer a physical sensation. Though it does not replace human touch it does still touch the body. Perhaps it is the hand that grips the poi that we feel against our skin. The veils of the fans caressing the body as it rubs up against the skin. Perhaps it is the hoops gently massaging the meridians or chakras as it spins repeatedly around different points of our body. As we look at the meridian chart we see that many of these points can be self-massage by various flow props. Perhaps it is the ball rolling down the arm caressing the heart meridian. Perhaps it is the Hoop rolling and affecting our kidney meridians as we waist hoop. Though I do not have any studies to support this theory this is interesting and a possibility.
Though I have not participated for long in the flow journey it has brought me incredible joy. I have felt like I belong with other playful people. I am feeling a sense of child-like joy again and amazement that I want to share this with everyone.
The Art of Flow – Michael Ravenwood:
“Someone who works with heart, head and hands is an artist.”
References:
Csikszentmihályi M (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York, NY: Harper
Brown, Stuart MD, with Christopher Vaughn (2009). Play: How is Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul
Chapman, Gary (1992). The Five Love Languages: How to Express Heartfelt Commitment to Your Mate
Suzuki PhD, Wendy, with Billlie Fitzpatrick (2016). Healthy Brain, Happy Life: A Personal Program to Activate Your Brain and Do Everything Better
Dennison, Paul E. and Gail Dennison (1992). Grain Gym: Simple Activities for Whole Brain Learning
www.bal-a-vis-x.com/what-is-bal-a-vis-x
Shiva Rea Ted Talk: Tending to the Sacred Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i31gGh9KcAo
knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-2-minute-power-pose-that-can-boost-your-performance/