Today I don’t want to talk about anatomy, movement or Pilates principles.

Today is about what Pilates is for me, and what Pilates has taught me, a not too graceful soccer player who was lucky enough to ‘met’ Pilates long time ago, when I was working as a physio.

1.Motivation

I became an early bird. A few years ago I started waking up early two days a week (5:45am, something I considered it impossible at that time!) to take Pilates classes with my favourite instructor at gym, because I had become addicted to how good I felt after each class. I noticed significant changes to my mental wellbeing, my mood, productivity at work and energy levels. So I was waking up much earlier, and I wasn’t tired throughout the day. How was that possible?

Keeping the motivation high became easy, because if you are passionate about something, it’s easy to add it to your self-care routine consistently. So yes, if you like what you are doing, it’s simple to maintain a regular exercise routine.

Have you found your right activity yet?

2.Grace

The aesthetical beauty of moving better, rather than moving faster and without control.

Many exercise programs promote the idea of extreme sport as the only way to have results. When the body is exhausted, the quality of movement drops drastically putting you at risk of injury. 

Pilates has taught me to show respect and have compassion for the body, to work with it rather than against it.

Moving with ease just looks good and makes you graceful.

3.Self-love

This came naturally with a more holistic approach to my overall well-being.

In the past, I used to look at everything through a scientific lens. We tend to want to explain everything away through science, but then we get affected by things that are unscientific, like getting moody when the weather is terrible. Though I do believe in science, I also believe that we are much more as humans. And we need to embrace this complexity and give ourselves the self love we deserve.

If you are not sixteen anymore, stop counting every single calorie; stop punishing yourself for having bread with your meal; don’t stress if you haven’t run several kilometres this week.

We can go beyond the physical and appreciate the body for the amazing machine that it is. It deserves our love and respect.

4.Mindfulness

In my case, nothing to do with crossed legs and meditation.

Being mindful is being present in the moment.

Learning to breath helps with that. In the same way you can’t have thoughts of any kind during a Pilates class, for the effort of coordinating your breath, movement, form, balance and muscles, you will know how to come back to the moment when your mind feels overwhelmed.

I’ve never arrived to the end of a Pilates class in a bad mood. Never. There must be something there…

5.Be myself but not forgetting to be better

There’s a point where you realise that you are good at Pilates, and you are pretty proud of yourself. Then you will probably put a little less effort in your practice, and guess what? Soon you won’t be that good anymore.

I realised that it also happens in life. The moment that you think you are mastering something you will stop improving, because your mindset changes.

Like I was saying before, it’s not about straining ourselves to excel in everything, but it’s important to not stop improving at what is important for us.

6.Coffee is good, and so is wine

I’m just loving the morning Pilates picture where there’s always a cup of coffee. Or the instructor that walks to class with her coffee in hands.

I don’t have to hide or to pretend that I just had lemon water before the 7am class!

And wine.. If it’s afternoon, it’s acceptable 🙂

What to say, I’m lucky! If I was a yogi I think I would have had to drink tea at any hour of the day.

Jokes aside, I found a community that is so similar to me, and I’m loving it.

When are you starting your Pilates journey? Or if you already do Pilates, what is it for you?

I’m happy to hear your story!

If you have any question, or you’d like to share your experience, please send me an email clicking here.