If you don’t have the energy or are not in the mood for squats or press ups, stretch instead. Stretching is very beneficial and pleasant. Stretch slowly breathing out. This will take the pressure off your back when your belly gets big.
I’m not going to give techniques for squats or strengthening your glutes. I’ll give you something slightly different – the ancient Water Dance which will replace boring repetitions.
Water Dance
Water Dance
The Water Dance is made up of specific dance movements created especially for women by ancient civilizations. They imitate the movement of water. The ancients were very precise in differentiating between male and female movements; men’s and women’s bodies are constructed differently and therefore need different exercises. The same can’t be said for the present where women take up weight lifting just like men.
What happens with a violin when you start playing it like a drum?
The body is an instrument, and if you were given a women’s body then you need to treat it in a female manner. There are special women’s techniques for this. There is not as much information about them as there is about predominantly male techniques: yoga, karate, aikido.
And what about our female path?…
The ancients noticed that woman was very close to the element of Water. They observed water and learned from it; learned its movements, how it changed, how rings formed on its surface, how waves formed in the ocean and how rivers split into separate streams.
When I first saw this dance I fell in love with it. It is so beautiful, feminine and flowing. It doesn’t put as much pressure on the body press ups or squats yet the effect is even more striking. This dance gives you the freedom to be creative. There are no strict rules. Each woman ends up creating her own personal dance. If you don’t want to exhaust yourselves with daily training sessions but want to look fit and beautiful during and after your pregnancy, as every woman does, the Water Dance will be just the thing for you.
Why dance?
Dances pulse through our veins from birth, as do songs. We all know how to sing and dance from birth. Only later these natural abilities are often blocked in us, particularly in boys. We are taught to be embarrassed and even ashamed of them.
Dance is one of the best ways to get rid of tension. We have all been created from the dance of Love – the rhythm of two bodies.
Dance is spontaneity and space for creativity. Monotonous movements quickly become boring. According to scientific studies, people who dance live the longest. And most importantly of all, it is dance that gives us the feeling of connection with our baby; inside us the baby is constantly living Life’s dance. So switch the music on and dance with your baby inside you.
I really liked dancing with my belly during pregnancy. I would put my right hand on my stomach, my left hand on my heart area and spin to the rhythm of two heartbeats. Two hearts beat under my palms. This way I would send love from my heart to my baby’s heart through my hands. And I would receive the same in return.
Introduction to the dance
In this dance you will draw circles, spirals, infinity signs and vertical and horizontal figures of eight at different angles with your hands, legs, hips, shoulders and feet. You will learn how to do these movements while spinning round and round. Here you can swim in the ocean of your fantasy without end and experiment with your body, listening to what it suggests and what your baby, who will be dancing in unison with you, suggests…
I will describe the main principle behind each movement.
If you touch water’s surface, rings will begin to form on it. This image applies to the first hip movement we do. Begin by doing the hip rotations at low amplitude, and with every rotation the circles get larger and larger until they reach their maximum radius. Then do the opposite —decrease the radius until you come back to the starting point.
Continue the hip rotations and start turning around your axis. Take it slowly at first so that your head doesn’t start spinning. Now imagine that you are a chamomile flower. Your body is the flower’s centre, and your hips trace its petals with circular movements. Each movement starts from the centre of your stomach; your hip draws a circle and comes back to its starting point. Place your hands on your kidney area. Breathe freely, feel relaxed and happy… Don’t forget to smile!
Chamomile petals exercise
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After each hip movement your body rotates slightly so that when you complete the eighth circular hip movement your whole body will have rotated fully around its axis and come back to the starting point. That’s one chamomile flower drawn. Carry on drawing as many as you feel like.
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The figure of eight is a sign of life and infinity. You can surround your energy field with these symbols, making various movements. Draw figures of eight with your hips at different heights making sure your knees are involved in the movement. Draw vertical, horizontal and diagonal figures of eight in the air with your arms and hands.
Let’s begin with a horizontal figure of eight. Trace it before you with your left hand as shown on the photographs.
It’s not just your arm alone which draws the horizontal figures of eight; your whole body is part of the movement and follows your arm.
Try drawing the figure of eight with your other arm, then with both arms together, and one after the other. You can add gentle hip spirals to accompany your arm movements. Run wild with your imagination!
Go into squatting position and begin to slowly rise with each arm movement. This is a good exercise for your legs.
Vertical figure of eight. Now draw a vertical figure of eight with your body following the movement of your arm.
Change arms.
Draw figures of eight with both arms at the same time and then figures of eight in opposite directions – one arm draws a figure of eight going down while the other draws a figure of eight going up.
Then try joining horizontal and vertical figures of eight together; one arm draws a horizontal figure of eight while the other draws a vertical figure of eight. Do the same on the other side.
This technique harmonizes both cerebral hemispheres. Hands and arms act as the main instruments for the brain’s development and these movements develop both hemispheres.
This is a dance and dance always stands for freedom of movement. Close your eyes. Listen to the music and move in time with the rhythm. Don’t forget about the fluidity and smoothness of each movement. Your baby will help you feel how you should move.
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One day I found myself with a group of pregnant women at an ethnic dance class. First I sat and observed for a long time how each woman was moving and birthing her dance; it would come to her body and light the spark of life in it. I didn’t think I would dance that evening until the drums started playing and my body raised itself off the floor. My baby girl was calling me to dance.
Mexican healers say that the drum is the voice of Mother Earth – an ancient instrument that has come to us from the depths of time which conveys the heartbeat of our planet and the heartbeat of a baby in its mother’s womb. That must be why my baby girl liked the drum rhythms so much.
I was standing among everyone and moving as I had never moved before. I had done ballroom dancing, gone to ballet at Todes dance school, done pantomime but this was nothing like any of those dances. It was the baby who had given me this dance as a gift – it had burst out of my body as a geyser shoots out of Earth’s bowels. I went into a trance. Everything around me started vibrating and became a unified web of shimmering energy. My arms were moving spontaneously of their own accord lifting Earth’s energy upwards and flinging it onto my body, my lower centres, stomach, chest, shoulders. My body was being nurtured by earthly maternal energy. This practice had been given to me, a future mother, by my baby and the Mother of all mothers – Earth.
Lotus unfolding on a lake
This is another beautiful movement (part of the Water Dance), which I would like to share with you. Wonderful flowers of life.
Imagine that you are the smooth surface of a lake on which a wondrous lotus is unfolding… You can do this exercise lying down, just after you have woken up, or standing up. Do it as part of your dance, your morning, day or even evening warm up sessions. Yes, a pregnant woman’s warm up sessions can start even after 6 pm…
And so, your hands are at heart level – on the centre of your source of love. Your hands are the petals of a while lotus cupped together with the left hand on top of the right as shown in the picture.
The petals start unfolding. Turn your wrists to touch each other and then raise your left hand up while bringing your right hand down. Breathe freely.
Rotate your wrists.
And begin the movement back to starting position – the lotus petals are closing.
Here your wrists aren’t touching yet. Now the fingers of your right hand are pointing upwards and the fingers of your left hand pointing downwards. A mirror movement begins. Your right hand goes up and your left down.
If you look carefully, you’ll see that your hands are drawing figures of eight in this lovely movement too. You can start by making small movements and increase the amplitude of the opening and closing lotus petals with each new movement until it reaches its maximum capacity and your lotus unfolds fully on the lake of your femininity…
Try doing this exercise for 5 – 7 minutes. You can choose the tempo according to your character but I would recommend that you don’t rush. Think of the gentleness and wonder of a bud unfolding and try to really go in to those sensations with your dance.
This technique is very good for stretching and relaxing the muscles in your arms, shoulders and back. The wrist rotations strengthen your ligaments. The exercise also synchronizes both cerebral hemispheres.
As well as being beneficial for your physical health, this technique is also energetically useful. Firstly, it helps remove emotional tension from your chest area, secondly, it can switch off restless thoughts in your head by focusing your attention on carrying out the movements correctly, and thirdly, by drawing sacred symbols such as figures of eight around yourselves you are surrounding your biofield with a strong protective layer.
Go, on try it yourself!
Pregnancy as steadiness
All my time is in my belly.
The film In time, where people live in different time zones made an impression on me. In one of the zones people are perpetually short of time. They rush around doing everything as quickly as possible but they still don’t have enough time. Others have tons of time and can do everything at a steady pace.
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Примечания
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Bereginyas – ancient Slavonic goddesses whose name means guardian. These qualities are also attributed to mothers as those who care for the family and keep it intact.