Finding Our Flow, With Debbie Rosas.

Human beings are intelligent, complex, emotionally rich creatures. The choices we make—especially about how we move—are influenced not just by logic, but by sensation, emotion, memory, and belief. Understanding these internal and external drivers is essential when personalizing movement, and when uncovering what works for us, for our own body, and for the unique rhythm of our life.

When we personalize our movement, it’s like slipping into the perfect skin. It’s not rigid or performative. It’s deeply us—tailored to our energy, our needs, our day. It’s the difference between wearing a one-size-fits-all garment and a handcrafted piece made just for our body and our flow. I’ve always loved research—not just for its facts, but for how it affirms what our bodies already know.

What I’ve learned is that part of finding our flow means letting go of perfection. It means embracing the truth that sometimes, we might move slowly. We’ll wobble. We’ll lose balance. We’ll feel unsure. And that’s okay. That’s part of our becoming. That’s part of our intelligence. Each moment of awkwardness or hesitation is not a failure—it’s a doorway into deeper trust, sensation, and understanding.

Personalization isn’t indulgent—it’s wise. It’s how we come back to our center in a world that constantly pulls us outward. It’s how we listen, how we soften, how we rise. When we stop trying to move like someone else and start moving the way we’re made, something sacred unfolds—we feel whole. And then, there’s a moment in everyone’s movement journey when we abandon someone else’s lead.

When imitating begins to feel empty.  When the cues from the outside no longer speak to what’s happening on the inside. That moment, though often subtle, is revolutionary. Because in that moment, something begins to shift. We stop moving the way we’re told and start moving the way we’re made. A quiet pivot. A stirring inside the body, imitation gives way to intuition. It whispers.

It says, “This no longer fits.” We realize that the rhythm we’ve been chasing isn’t ours—and for the first time, we’re ready to find our own. To claim our pace. Our shape. Our timing. Our way. That’s the moment we begin personalizing movement. To personalize movement is to say: I trust my body. To listen to our body’s needs is to say: I am here. To follow sensation is to step into integrity.

An integrity that goes far beyond fitness. We begin to move not for someone else’s praise, not for appearance or achievement, but for communion. For curiosity. For joy. For a healthy relationship with our body. This is what happens when you stop following the leader and start following your own body. And when you do, something remarkable occurs: your body begins to trust you back.

It recovers more quickly. It becomes more resilient, more expressive, more you. For me, this shift didn’t happen all at once. It came gradually, through sensation. Through listening. Through noticing that my body felt better—not when I copied perfectly—but when I cooperated. When I worked with my body, I worked with its five-foot-one, 112 pound, severe scoliosis and dyslexia design.

When I honored my body’s truth—not someone else’s ideal—my whole world changed. I began to love my body. I built a working relationship with it rooted in knowledge, respect, and understanding. This is what The Body’s Way teaches us: while our bodies may share a similar design blueprint, no two bodies are alike. No one should ever be forced to move in exactly the same way as another.

Our body is in relationship with us. And we—our mind, our personality, our energy—are one of a kind. To unlock the body’s power to heal, adapt, express, and thrive, we must listen and learn. We need time and space to personalize movement. What I’ve learned—and what I teach is that there’s a rhythm that lives inside each of us, and over the years, I’ve learned how to help people find it.

Personalization always begins with how we stand and with the vertical line. I teach people to sense themselves still and moving in space, not just forward or back, but up, down, and everything in between. With The Nia Technique, we explore vertical flow through the three planes: high, middle, and low. And we do this by returning again and again to our body’s energy center, the Hara.

This energetic point from ancient knowledge is two fingers below the navel. I’ve watched bodies soften and steady simply by focusing here. Movements that once felt unstable become grounded. What was once effortful becomes fluid. It’s never about getting low or reaching high. It’s about vertically moving up and down, finding our flow motion by moving in our body’s way in our time.

Then, there’s the invitation to explore our range of motion. Every joint in the body holds a story. Some loud, some quiet. Some haven’t been asked to speak in years. Nia guides students to wake up 13 main joints, sensing not just what they can do, but how they feel doing it. We explore three levels of motion: small, close to the core; middle; in between, and large, expressive at the periphery.

Once people are aware of their vertical flow and range of motion, we can open the door to the full space around them. This is their personal kinesphere bubble space. When Nia teachers ask students to move in every direction, to reach forward into hope, lean back into memory, expand sideways into possibility, rise up into vision, and drop down into truth, they guide students in their own bubble.

In Nia we don’t just move—we personally map. The body becomes our compass, and suddenly people realize, “I have a place. I belong here. I take up space in my own time and way—this is my body’s way.” But the real alchemy for personalizing movement comes in how we move. This is the art of sensation and art of movement dynamics. The dance of time, speed, rhythm, and repetition.

In Nia we don’t tell people how fast to move. We invite them to personalize and discover for themselves when to quicken and when to slow down. When to surge and when to melt. And when they find their rhythm, they find their power and grace. And in that power, and grace there’s healing and their movement becomes medicine, not because it was prescribed, but because it was personalized.

Finally, personalizing movement and moving in our own time and way is how we enter the current of flow motion. Not just as a movement style, but as a state of being and as the systemic flow of our life force energy. When the whole body moves as one; life force energy, bones, muscles, breath, and heart all dancing together, then we move without breaking ourselves into parts and pieces.

Everything recalibrates. Tension releases. Strength meets grace and we remember how to move and be whole. This is what I and all the qualified, certified, and licensed Teachers and Faculty of The Nia Technique offer in classes, programs, and events. We remember personalizing movement is a lifelong practice. A sacred conversation between us and our body. It’s about doing what’s ours.

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