You Gotta Have Heart
Being aware that she can't move the way adults do.
Too much caffeine makes my heart palpitate. I feel what would be mild thoughts intensify to sometimes over-reactions on my part. So unless I have to get many things done, I try to stay away from caffeine. And of course, sometimes I just have to have it because I think I need it to perform better. I think I need my heart revved up to be more aware. How ironic, to rely on a drug to become aware. I guess what is happening is that I am alert but not necessarily “More Aware” with caffeine.
Have you not felt it yourself, remembering what you forgot when you get to a relaxed state. Ideas and epiphanies come to you when you are still. I do have these “gotta do it ideas” when I practice Pilates or even when I am teaching Pilates. It must be the extra oxygen that stimulates my brain. I’m not sure, but I am paying attention to my body’s movement. And it’s comforting to hear my heart, the rise and fall of my chest. Is that where the cliche comes from, “Listen to your heart to guide you” or “It’s not worth it if your heart’s not into it.”
You’ve gotta have heart to do anything meaningful. There’s no point in starting an exercise regiment if you ponder quitting. Listen to THE heart and let it get louder and louder. Of course minus the caffeine.
What does it Feel like to be in a Pilates Mat Class?
Being in a Pilates Mat class with a qualified Pilates instructor means you are going to get plenty of attention and corrections. For me I welcome this, because I usually felt I was doing something wrong in a class room setting. My dyslexia caused me anxiety through my formative years. I dreaded math, telling time and reading. I remember how my head would actually ache in trying to solve math equations. I felt I had to work extra hard compared to everyone else to understand complex ideas and concepts. From an early age, I expected to be first chastised and then corrected. I learned to accept that’s the way my life would have to be. I would just have to work twice as hard as everyone else to get.
The gift of dyslexia has given me, is to be so incredibly receptive to correction and learning. Some people have fear of not being right or making a mistake in public. I grew up the opposite. I am usually not right and I will most likely make a mistake in public. Even if I wanted to be a “Know it all”, I simply did not have the intelligence for it. I watched the Mr. and Miss Rights in my class. I more than watched them, I studied their behavior. They were academically smart. However, they are the most loneliest people I have ever seen. I guess when you know everything, life is a closed case because everything is solved.
However, I found being in a Pilates Mat class, you are continuing to open up and find all the idiosyncrasies and bad habits about your body. All the signs your body told you but you chose to ignore, now shows up in a Pilates class. It’s even better when an instructor leads you to your misalignment or improper form. Why? Because now you have someone who acknowledges this in you and you have someone who is going to be accountable for you. Your Pilates instructor will remember you and ask if you are working on correcting your imbalances. That’s what made me come back to class the following week. “Does that instructor really care about my right hip? Is she even going remember which hip it was?”
I stuck with the Pilates class because it did and continues to strengthen my back. But I found a teacher who I trusted. It might sound nominal but it is rewarding when you progress beyond corrections and strive for greater accomplishments liked advanced exercises. So yes, in the beginning you might feel like you have dyslexia. Good! Because if you can be that open minded to what your body needs, which is proper alignment (that’s whole another blog) then what you think you need like a workout that kills your joints, you are at a great start!
I Felt that Warm Butterfly Feeling!
You know when your chest feels warm and it feels heavy yet you welcome it. I guess if we felt this way all the time, we wouldn’t appreciate it as much. Or maybe we are trying to figure out how to get that feeling all the time. I get this every now and then when I look at my toddler. And I think, “I can’t believe she’s really here. She’s a real little person.”
And sometimes, I feel this way when I am very tired driving home and I look at South Mountain and the sky and think, I’m pretty lucky to be working. And that feeling of gratitude soaks up my entire body. Yes, it only lasts a few seconds. But the few seconds makes up for the long day. And then I go back to thinking what I’m going to make for dinner.
When I first set up shop in my garage, I felt so grateful and honored to be teaching in my own home. I am not sure if I am choosing the best word. But I just couldn’t get over the fact that people would really come to my garage to workout. I mean couldn’t get the air conditioning to work in the summer and the heater seemed to kick in after an hour or after my client would leave my garage. Sometimes, I would look at people coming in through my front door and think, “You really want to come back here?”
OH how I don’t miss my garage now. I’m glad to be in a commercial space. “Well, every now and then, I get that warm butterfly feeling across my chest.” Last Saturday, it happened when I was working with my client who is a highly functioning Autistic. His name is Garrett. What I mainly want him to do, is to be aware of what his body is doing. We’ve been working together for over 2 years. And I want him to get his money’s worth in the session. Or I want his parents to get their money’s worth. I made an analogy to Garrett’s work. I said, “There is an order and a process to the way you work. If it is not followed then there is chaos. I said that is the same with your body. Check into your body and to stay in alignment. Your body is really mad at you for your disorderly conduct.”
I guess I have said this in one way or the other. But I must have been more firm this time. I cannot believe it. But something registered. Something so beautiful happened. His blue eyes got larger and the sense of understanding was revealed in every movement he did. And it was an incredible moment for me. I’m not sure what he felt but I felt the warm butterfly feeling across my chest. And I thought “I really love what I do.”
Is Your Pilates Instructor in Love with Herself? Fire her, because your workout needs to be about YOU!
Find a place where the Pilates instructors are not in love with themselves and they don’t have pictures of themselves plastered all over their walls or on their website.
At other spectrum, you need to question why your Pilates instructor’s body is out of shape. But give her a break if she just had a baby. Give her at least one year to bounce back to how she looked before. In fact, all the Pilates instructors at the studio you choose to go to should look damn good. Not like a skinny model. But a healthy and fit person who eats cheesecake and Oreos every now and then. It’s okay to ask where your instructor has been accredited. You can go to the Pilates Method Alliance website to find them. Are you being asked about how you feel during your workout session. Or you just lumped in an automatic program designed for everybody?
Your Pilates instructor should be educated enough to change the workouts according to YOUR needs. Ask the education level of your instructor. If the Pilates instructor becomes defensive in the questioning of their education, this should be a red flag. If you graduated from Harvard, wouldn’t you want someone to ask you were you went for your education? When you find a Pilates instructor who truly enjoys what they do, they should be Pilates nerds. They should be eagerly learning and reinventing themselves. If your studio has not offered you new innovations from the Pilates industry or changed up your exercise routine, FIRE THEM! The focus is about you and you need to get the best Pilates teacher you can find. He or she will challenge you and make you stronger!
Listen, Pilates cannot be taught by getting your own Pilates equipment and getting some DVDs. You need an experienced and caring Pilates instructor that will make sure you “get it”. Really get it! Unless, you fall into this extraordinary group of people who can teach themselves to learn calculus, play golf, swim, ballet, etc. Then more power to you.
I came to Pilates through doing a stupid yoga move. I did a King Cobra; I got my feet to touch the top of my head. Yeah, really stupid. But hey, I was into showing off. The payoff was tremendous back pain. Especially since I had no abs to support my back. It was very hard on me because I was teaching yoga for a living and it put me out financially since I couldn’t teach for 2 weeks. I had a Pilates instructor tell me I needed Pilates. She was right. Unfortunately, I had to find Pilates because I got injured. When I was introduced to Pilates, I realized it was the hardest thing I had ever done. Or maybe I had not done many things too challenging in my life. But whatever, it was difficult for me to do at the time. Now I think about the things in my life I can do because I have Pilates in my life. Swimming, learned how to run better, hike for longer and get teach more Pilates classes. Now exercising is the first thing I want to do when I have free time. Before it felt like a chore, like paying bills. You have to do it or there are repercussions for not doing it. Pilates is like having a debt free body. Financial freedom gives you choices to do more things. Pilates gives your body more choices to do anything physical you want. Really! Try it!
