The Joy of Movement
(Nia Exercises)


An abbreviation for Neuromuscular Integrative Action, Nia is also known as “The Joy of Movement”. This fitness fusion phenomenon features expressive movements and imaginative visualizations perfect for sharing with children—especially during storytimes when those wiggle worms could use a stretch break. Stretch your mind, body, and spirit, tap into your inner child and (in the words of Raffi), “shake your sillies out”! (Go to for more information and inspiration.)

Nia’s first principle is “The Joy of Movement”—Open up to the sensation of physical pleasure, the big ‘J’ you connect to regardless of what life presents. It’s like chocolate—you just have to taste it!

It is based on 9 movement forms: tai chi, tae kwon do, aikido, jazz, Duncan dance, modern dance, yoga, Feldenkrais, and The Alexander Technique.

Nia is fun, creative, sensory, expressive, interesting, imaginative, balanced, organic, interactive, grounded, joyful!

Related storytime sources:

Thomas, James. “Wonderful ‘Ones’.”Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children; Spring2008, Vol. 6 Issue 1, p23-27. Accessed via NC Live’s Academic Search Premier.
“This article provides suggestions for librarians seeking to develop programming for one-year-old children. The author notes the importance of creating an appropriate format for working with young toddlers who may not sit still for very long. Objectives for children, parents, and caregivers are provided and expectations of parent behavior are presented. Components of a typical young toddler story time are presented and include an examination of the alphabet, counting, shapes, colors, clapping, and singing. The article also includes comments from parents relating what their children have learned from storytime.” Article includes a “Yoga for Toddlers “ booklist on p. 26 with these titles: Little Yoga, Sleepy Little Yoga, Itsy Bitsy Yoga, Storytime Yoga, A Yoga Parade of Animals, Twist: Yoga Poems, and Babar’s Yoga for Elephants.

Fly Like a Butterfly: Yoga for Childrenby Shakta Kaur Khalsa. “Khalsa is enthusiastic about the exercises she includes but the presentation is uneven. Directions for the movements are mixed with brief stories or images for the participants to focus on. For example, "the yoga mountain story" is presented along with poses that reflect the action of the tale. Appealing black-and-white photographs of Khalsa's young students performing the exercises appear throughout. A separate section explains how each action helps the body and mind.”—School Library Journal

Nia Visualizations(from The Nia Technique—White Belt Manual, March 2001, v.3, pp. 7-37--7-43)
Conjure up images,move the whole body easily, create pictures, stir up feelings. Stay in your body, out of your head!

-Sway like a willow tree standing in the wind to loosen your spine.

-Turn a big steering wheel to work the core of your body and arms.

-Walk through deep sticky mud, feeling the weight of your boots as you lift the feet to strengthen your inner thighs.

-Kick a ball; throw a ball underhand, overhand, or throw a side pitch.

-Stir a big soup pot in front of you or to the side to stimulate the arm, wrist, elbow, and shoulder.

-Paint the wall with imaginary paint brushes to stimulate upper back and abdominal strength.

-Write your name in the air with each hand and feel fluid and loose joints in the arms.

-Fill one of your legs with sand. As you shift weight from left to right feel the sand filling and emptying out.

-Tap dance and feel a loose sensation in your ankles, knees, and hip sockets (bone dance).

-Freeze in place. –Duck under a pole and focus on agility and flexibility within your joints.

-Feel cold and physically shiver to stimulate the small, quick twitch muscles.

-Shake water off of your hands. Feel a tingling looseness in all your joints and through your muscles

-Juggle balls in the air. –Pull taffy off the floor letting it get longer and longer feeling a good stretch along the sides of your body.

-Look and feel surprised. Notice the many contractions in your body from this emotional response.

-Put your foot in a tube of water and stir. --Unscrew the lid off a jar to strengthen the hands and wrists.

-Peek over a fence, rising onto the balls of your feet to find balance, strengthen the calves and ankles and elongate the spine and neck

-Conduct an orchestra. Expressively engage your whole body to move the baton.

-Dust cob webs off the ceiling and feel a full stretch along the sides of your body as you reach.

-Draw a figure eight with your arms, hips, or legs and feel the motion as fluid and loose to connect the spine to circular motions.

-Catch flies with your hands. Notice the stimulation and sensation you feel in your hands.

-Listen to someone behind you, eavesdropping on their conversation as a way to stretch and lengthen your neck.

-Play the guitar, piano, flute, bongos, cymbals, or violin to stimulate and awaken your emotions and spirit.

-Start up a motorcycle and feel balance in the supporting leg as the other leg pumps to start the motor.

-Hold a grapefruit under your chin as you exhale to open the back of your neck.

-Let your head become a windshield wiper and feel a loose, long spine and neck as you move the blade from left to right.

-Sitting in a pretend chair, get up slowly and then sit down slowly and feel your legs supporting you as you lower and raise the body from the seat to strengthen the legs.

-Be a butterfly and feel your arms move from the shoulder blades, the wind moving through your wings.

-Be a panther and stalk your prey quietly, moving with intent and focus to develop staying power and better concentration.

-Look proud, sticking your chest out to stretch the front of your boy and feel a contraction along the back.