My wonderful new friend Stefanie (also an amazing and talented life coach) invited me to an event last night called “The Healing Buffet.” It was an evening dedicated to “sampling” different healing modalities, from life coaching to reiki to feng shui to Native American wisdom. (It also happened to be held in a church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, which I just think is funny and not entirely incongruous.)
I was there for less than an hour and various practitioners laid my entire experience at present bare! Stefanie asked me what in my life I was resisting – the next incarnation of me, I said. The Native American healer spoke of animals as guides and of seeing or dreaming of snakes as a sign that we’re “undergoing a transformation, shedding our skin” – a recent dream of a snake popped into my head (seriously). Then she asked us to choose a card to represent one of our (apparently nine) animal totems – mine was the Beaver, in other words the Builder.
At this point I’m thinking, this is wild! I’m in the middle of a major life transition, one that’s often scary and easy to rail against. Nothing in my life is the same as it was six months ago. I’m building EVERYTHING from scratch for my business. Then I started thinking about what I’ve learned from my own “healing modality” of Pilates that’s helped keep me centered on my journey of transformation so far.
So here they are for your healing pleasure – five Pilates principles (of a sort) that I’ve found as applicable to my career and my life as they are to my Pilates practice.
- Pilates isn’t a performance; it’s a practice. In Pilates as in life, achievement and success don’t come from who’s watching but from how you resolutely move towards your own goals, in your own time.
- Quality will always win over quantity. Be present. Engage. Even if you’re anxious and impatient and want to move on to the next person or project, slow it down and just be. Those moments of true engagement are what add to the quality of your life.
- Breath facilitates movement. If you get stuck, take a deep breath and let the movement of the inhale and the exhale propel you forward.
- You have to feel it in your own body before you can teach it to another. Another reason to be fully present – even during the scary moments – so that you can help yourself and others through the next transformation.
- Your body remembers the movement even if your brain cannot. Sometimes we have to let our minds rest to access what our bodies and hearts know is the right way forward.
Feel free to add to the list if you have other things, from Pilates or from practices of your own, that help get you back on track. Would love to hear!
