Have you ever had trouble getting through your own workout? What were you thinking? Did you focus on the workout itself or think of all the things you needed to do today? When focusing on Pilates in a private session and only it, you end up forgetting about the time. It’s no longer a question of ‘when will this workout end’ but ‘how did it go by so quickly?’ This feeling happens when you have a connection to your spirit.
Pilates does more than improve posture, create muscle balance, and increase core strength. It helps you develop a deeper understanding of yourself. Pilate sessions help you understand more about the way you think, where you carry stress, and how it translates to tension in the body. It gives more control when handling stressful situations and the ability to diffuse them.
It takes you to a much deeper level than moving your leg in a circle or trying to complete a full push up from the ground. Pilates is called contrology and contrology is the complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit. Body is easy to picture: muscles, bones, fascia, and movement. Let’s travel into a deeper discussion of those three areas.
Mind is learning to control your muscles with your mind. This doesn’t mean tension or holding. This can mean letting go of tension in order to use a muscle to squat or side bend or roll up. The mind can also envision how the movement will feel and look. Such as a slinky expanding and then rolling forward down the stairs the same way your spine will move in a roll down.
But the spirit is another animal. Some have defined the spirit aspect to be when your body and mind work together; you connect more deeply to your spirit. It’s something more than that. It’s the awareness to know when your mind or body is working too hard. The spirit trusts yourself and movement and you don’t have to think about anything else but the present moment. The spirit is the present moment.
Pilates sessions are like an onion. Over time you peel back the layers and get deeper and deeper. Pilates can begin with just knowing where muscles and bones are in your body. Then it develops into feeling muscles engage or tense. When you start moving from a place deep inside and not just from your arms or legs that’s the spirit connection. Your body, mind, and spirit are in harmony together. And when you’re not worried about your to do list or how well you’re doing Pilates, it’s the spirit again.
Spirit is when Luke tries to lift the Millenium Falcon out of the water in Star Wars and fails. Then Yoda shows him how it’s done after Luke says he doesn’t believe he can do it. Spirit is the belief in yourself and Pilates. It’s your trust in the movement.
Tell me if this has helped you and if connecting to your spirit will help you.
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