Funny this was brought up today. I performed one little fie spin last night and my neck is in total spasm today. I tend to lean my head back when neck hooping...guess I like the sound and smell of my burning hair...I'm not sure what the deal is. I'm wondering if there is anything I might need to do to warm my neck mucsles up better before fire hooping. When hooping without fire, I do't tend to put as much speed into it, so I dont come away with as much pain the next day. Today....I'm sitting here with my microwavable neck warmer and I've taken a few (ok a handful) of ibuprofin, just to feel comfortable enough to venture into my office today.

I do have a little neck arthritis so I'm sure that's not a helping....and I'm no spring chicken, though that's really no good excuse.

Caroleeena~ Thanks for re-counting your stories here. They bring of several important points - about hooping in both directions as a preventative measure and letting the body fully heal before jumping back in the hoop. That's surely a difficult one!
Also, thanks for your offer of hospitality and assistance. I'm so excited to plan and play with you, as well as take your class at the Convergence!

Michele~ I don't know if I am technically ADD, and don't feel the need to be tested, but I know i have had a tremendous difficulty focusing through tasks, especially in my adult life. I never had trouble with school as a child so there was no need to test me. Maybe there's a type of adult on-set or just the fact that as you get older, there are more things to think about so the mind gets more cluttered with more time on the planet. There was a time that I couldn't really *commit* to an endeavor b/c before I would finish a project or a class, something else would come along and re-direct my attention. I couldn't finish craft projects, chores, papers. I think this affected a lot of levels of my life, including relationships. After a couple of years of hooping, I went to share the movement with an old friend, a dance therapist. In our discussion, I realized how many more projects I was completing. I would sit and wrap hoops endlessly, make hoop outfits, practice and practice. I even *finally* finished the last essay that was keeping me from graduating college;-) Hooping - and all its disciplined counterparts of craft, writing and self employment madness - is definitely the activity that I have stayed with longest of any in my life. I have found myself taking on more and more projects and seeing them through. YAY! That's way better than a bunch of "loose ends -tying a neuse in the back of my mind" (Beck.)

I absolutely believe/know that the regular practice of hooping could be great assistance to folks with different "learning disabilities" or, as I'd like to think, different "learning styles." The combination of full bodymind focus, exercise and the calming spiraling motion has tremendous potential. I have used the hoops with a autistic children, but not on a regular basis. Spinning, in general, is recommended for some types of autism as it actually re-wires their brains in some way and helps to calm them down. The hoops are helpful to facilitate that, as well as, encouraging the creation of personal space boundaries . (The cute little ones I worked with had no concept...They would come right up and pull up my dress and walk under my skirt...)

My sister has been diagnosed ADD and, for her, sitting and wrapping the hoops was tremendously calming. It was really powerful to see what happened when I "hired" her to help me wrap hoops recently. She got SO focused sitting and wrapping, creating color combinations. At the end of each day of creating, she was also so pleased with herself for making all these beautiful things! Kids with ADD can, in my experience, have trouble with self esteem because they do have trouble learning in the traditional ways and get criticized or separated and labeled. (ugh!) In a home-schooling group I co-designed and taught two years ago, we had many students who were home schooled b/c they wouldn't fit into the modern model of desk learning. Yoga, movement (including hooping, poi and staff spinning), nature walks, art projects and games were the "classes" of our day. One student, the most focus challenged, really zoned in with the practice poi. It's amazing to think that something so simple really affects one's state of mind and, potentially, the course of one's life.

One more account...I traveled to the National Wellness Conference this past summer to teach Hooping from the perspective of healing. I taught a class for adults, but also lead a workshop for the kids' "wellness camp". They all got into hooping, (5 of them even performed with me at the talent show on the last night) but this one teenage boy was amazed at how focused he was. He REALLY loved the blindfold hoop session. He admitted he had ADD and that the blindfold took away all the visual stimulation that tended to lead him from one thing/thought to another. He was truly a unique and imaginative one.

These "ADD" kids are probably the ones who need to be learning in a more traditional way - out in the woods, on the farm or in the home with all the senses and body engaged instead of stuck at a desk for 8 hours. It saddens me that we take PE classes out of school when, in reality, physical activity would help the most for focus and health...

Thanks for bringing this up for discussion. It's a great and important topic.