In a recent blog, we visited the benefits of exercise for mental health and the influence of certain kinds of movement on our hormones. I wanted to get a little more specific around smaller movement settings, in particular within a Pilates Studio. There is this special connectiveness that people develop with one another, and also with their instructor.
As a Studio owner and instructor, I am finding more and more, that mental health and well-being is the driving factor to attend, and to continue attending, a Pilates session especially within a setting of 3 to 4 clients or in a session where you are the only client during a private setting. The word ‘community’ is thrown about quite often within the movement field and can at time be perceived as cliché (I know that’s what I’m thinking as I type the word).
However, community encompasses so much. It’s about feeling safe and held within a space. Feeling supported and listened to. To a large extent, it is also about feeling able to let yourself be you - unmasked, to share without judgement from peers, and perhaps finding common ground.
Part of working with humans is being able to have empathy for those in your immediate environment. It kind of comes naturally and with the territory of being a teacher. We can
read the room, we know our client’s well enough to make adjustments during the movement session to encourage the Parasympathetic Nervous System to be active. And I am not referring to adjusting your physical position. I am referring to focusing on breath and quality of the movement – therefore bringing you into the present moment. The choice of background white noise/music - generic and calm = less emotive (we all have a song). There is lighting, heating and cooling, oh and scent. There is just so very much that impacts the nervous system.
You may be a career for a loved one, or recovering from being unwell, or not sleeping because you have a brain that wakes you at all hours of the night (personal tangent here), after the past couple of weeks, this has obviously been deep in my mind. 3am and I am typing myself an idea for this blog, feeling pretty smart and on fire. When I woke at an acceptable time this morning and re-read what I’d emailed myself, the subject line read ‘LENTIL HEALTH’. In any case, whatever it may be, we all, at certain times of our lives simply need to be held in a hammock of care.
Go on, ask yourself. What DOES YOUR TIME in your Pilates session mean for you?
Copyright Simmone Cser-Pratzky 2023.