Anyone spin poi?
Personally, I love it. An active form of meditation where one creates beautiful mantras around the body, centered at the human heart.
It has done wonders for me emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I won't continue to gush about how much I love this art, I could go on for days.
Here are some videos of my favorite spinners and inspirations:

Cyrille - Melting Poi
Mel -Tech Poi

Peace and Love!!!

i love poi, although i only have some experience with staff. but i have made bio fuel for some fire spinners at a few festivals

the photos can be spectacular with the trails the fire leaves around the body

I have been spinning poi for about five years now. I like staff, hoop and double staff combo's.

Flags and sock poi are my indoor favorites

I like drumming for the beautiful fire spinners

i would love to learn poi with fire though i jam on bongos at a drum circle i go to lots of fire dancing.

For me poi has opened up the magic in movement, tracer's of fire show the flow of the poi's movements and help to align my balance in many planes. Poi spinning is practicality of Tai-Chi theory and a good summery quote by Nick W "They are guides. They are teachers. They are like Yoda, only smaller and on strings."

With some help from our digital tools Poi can be made into wonderful art. Here is my favorite, trippy poi picture of me

Before I start, I highly recommend you watch a few seconds of this video.

Master Ong, Fire Poi


I was wondering if there was anyone here on The Nexus who used Flow as a method of introspection or focusing. I've seen plenty of people who talk about doing yoga or meditation, in addition to working with entheogens, but I've never heard anyone talk about Flow, which is, to me, just as valid a way to find yourself.

For those of you who don't know, Flow might be considered a kind of active meditation or trance. I'm sure some of you know the feeling, even if you weren't seeking it: the body finds a rhythm and begins to act on it's own, which allows the conscious mind to quiet down at take a back seat to physical awareness.

All of the chatter and mundane thoughts that are racing through our heads all the time just sort of turn off, and the body moves completely on instinct. It's like allowing yourself to go back down the evolutionary tree, back to when we were simpler animals with simple brains that just reacted.

It is unbelievably liberating. The realizations that come to you are visceral, emotional, not abstracted or weighed down by philosophical thinking. Many times I have had understanding too fundamental for words just drop into my head as I executed a series of moves.

Oftentimes flow is done with some kind of object manipulation, which makes it into a journey. It takes time to get comfortable enough with a toy that you can make it into an extension of your body, and then your soul, but in the end, it is worth it.

Are there any other flow artists here on The Nexus? Anyone interested in learning?

Here's another personal inspiration of mine.



Blessings
~ND

Flow is often the primary element in my art. A lot of this comes from working on the human body doing large scale tattoo work- the design must flow, then the motion the living body brings to it gives it an additional dimension if life.

This isn't a structured "flow practice" or anything like that, but is more like a vocabulary of movement at the root level that my art practice is built from. The human body is a great teacher, a miracle of natural design. I'm humbled by the responsibility of decorating it.

I personally prefer a V8 and a 5-speed... but this does have better fuel economy.

I feel I do this when I work out I kind of get into a groove and start breathing more in a pattern, I zone out staring at something while doing it and get into a rhythm of slow steady movements and it helps me continue my work out and prolong it more so than I could normally. Also as a child I used to play with my grandmothers cane (when she wans't using it of course) and do similar things as the woman in the second video not so intricate, but similar, mostly spinning it around my hands and balancing it for seemingly LONG TIMES with little to no mental effort once I got into the groove or flow as you're calling it.

Yes, I've experienced flow. I spin poi as well. It feels so good to just get in that flow state and go with it and let it happen. Definitely an active meditation. I'm going to go spin poi now

nunchaku is great for this, but you have to keep up the tempo, which can be a bit difficult as you go deeper.

for deeper experiences i tend to use a staff or myself.

I get my flow through hard climbing, it leads to a completely quite mind.

I especially like the way climbing provides no get out clause, I can achieve a flow with juggling but I know I can always put the balls down or if I drop them it has no consequence.

Finding flow is probably one of the most important aspects to living in the moment/finding yourself that I know of. The act of putting oneself in this stream, imo, is what lifes all about. When there is no "you + the external experience"....there is just "experience", for your not separate from the act. The veil drops between subject and object. There's just one pattern, one flow. The DMT experience has told me this time and time again.

I will usually go run the trails by my house once during the weekend, and im always able to let everything dissolve away as im running. Even just walking the trails I can get to the point where everything just drops away and its no longer "me + experience", it's just "experience".

Although, at this point in my life, i've came to the point where virtually anything I do anymore, im completely absorbed in whatever it is i may be doing. Like work for instance, I tune out any sort of attachment to past or future thoughts, meaning I don't think on what could have been nor do i dwell on what could or should be. No rushing work to hurry to the end result. Having this mindset allows me to be completely absorbed in each and every nook in my day to day job. Everything just flows, like one seamless unfolding.

much love,
tat

ND, can you recommend a good method of making some on-the-cheap poi to start to practice with? Maybe socks with dry beans in the end or something? I got sucked into watching a couple hours worth of poi spinning vids on youtube after the Master Ong one you linked and really dug it.

I have kind of a scattered mind naturally and find it much easier to get into a meditative state with physical flow, especially when breath can be tied in. I use yoga, swimming and throwing in a rhythm to get there now but am totally open to new methods.

I experience this sort of thing on dance floors when the music hits certain rhythms.

Alot of people say a party isn't the place for introspection, but I wholeheartedly disagree. I definitely cycle between periods of extroverted dancing, and then enter states of meditation where I close my eyes or move my head around so fast I can see nothing but my own thoughts. I try the same practice at home to my own music, but it just isn't the same as when I randomly enter a state of "flow" to a certain instrumentalist/DJ.

I'm often told this isn't true meditation, but nothing I've ever experienced can compare to the clarity of thought I experience when I enter these "flow states" if only for 20-30 minutes -- In my brief experiences with Poi/flow arts I just find I'm too focused on the fact I have some toy whirling around me -- wheras dancing with my body alone sends me into myself much more readily.

Perhaps that is only my lack of experience ...

When I first started spinning I took shoe laces and poked a hole in two tennis balls and tied a good knot on one end of the laces and shoved it into the tennis balls. I've made some other homemade poi over the years but those always worked pretty good. You can get a nice pair of sock poi/fabric poi off of homeofpoi for pretty cheap too

You have a few options:

1) Home Of Poi (they're based on of New Zealand) is an excellent warehouse store for any and all flow toys.
http://www.homeofpoi.com/shop/

A cheap pare of sock poi <$10.00 will be fine for a beginner.
The fluffy poi are more expensive (and look kind of kinky), but I love them. Great for practice, and since they're on chains, is a good prep for fire.

2) You could also make your own sock poi: go to the store are buy some long, colorful stockings/long socks, in whatever color you like. Then, take a tennis ball, fill it with pennies and wrap that in tape. Put that down in the end of the sock, tie off the open end, and you have some great impromptu sock poi.

If you're intersted in learning beginner and intermediate moves go to:
http://www.playpoi.com

Blessings
~ND

throwing knives
climbing trees
unicycle
skate/longboard
martial arts
wrestling
drawing
guitar (GUITAR) (guitar)

Beautiful Sport.

Sitting meditation or Zen Meditation is not the only type of meditation. Meditation essentially converts to concentration. You can meditate while doing anything if you are skilled enough. Sitting meditation is usually the easiest for beginners.

Westerners meditate on a daily basis (most of them) without even knowing what they are doing.

I would love to learn poi. The music went amazingly with the video also! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.