Mindful Practices for Pilates
Mindfulness is all the rage right now, but why? What makes it so good?
Firstly, let’s just clear up what mindfulness is - at its most basic, it’s about helping you develop an awareness of yourself and how you feel. That may be a massively oversimplified description, but in reality, that really is all mindfulness needs to be. There are many, many different ways to make this happen, but the ones that get the most attention are those that classically envision a budhist monk sitting on top of a hill, looking over some beautiful scene. And although this probably is a fantastic way to reconnect with yourself, it doesn’t have to be that removed from the modern world. The main goal of becoming aware of yourself and how you feel is actually just to draw your brain back to the present moment, so it’s not burning through energy reserves dwelling on the past and future, and leaves you with a bit more clarity on what’s true for you in that present moment. So let’s discuss some options that you can use for yourself, and develop for use with your clients.
Breathing
It really is the simplest way to start to pay attention to your body. Because it’s based in our primal brainstem, we don’t have to give it much thought because unless there is a really strong attack to your brain, breathing will be maintained at all costs to make sure the brain doesn’t die. But because it’s rooted in our subconscious, through the vital reflexes that keep us alive and balanced, we don’t notice when we do weird things with our breathing that may be out of context to the situation we are in. For example, short, panting breathes when just walking slowly. Or holding your breathing when having a difficult conversation. For whatever reason, holding breath or breathing rapidly are determined to be energy efficient at that moment in time, chances are because your brain is already working overtime to deal with situations that are based in the past, present and future. The issue with this is that your conscious brain uses a heap of energy, which could be better utilised if it had a chance to just relax. Well, hello Mindfulness!
Taking some time to focus on how you’re breathing is the first step. Is it fast, or slow? Deep, or shallow? In your stomach, or in your ribs? Smooth, or stuttered? Once you start noticing these things, you can then start on trying to adjust it. We recommend initially just trying to breath through your nose at all times, because that will automatically start to balance out a heap of physiological imbalances without any extra effort, by restricting the airflow through your lungs. It’s counter intuitive, but keeping carbon dioxide in your bloodstream helps drive a more efficient transfusion of blood in your body - learn more by reading Ash’s blog on Breathing here. If breathing through your nose is out of the question, then try breathing through your mouth as quietly as possible. From there, one exercise might be to try slowing your breath out. For example, if you take 3 seconds to breathe in, try taking 6 seconds to breath out. Then try 9 seconds, then 12 seconds… You see where this is going right!?
Self Massage
Probably weren’t expecting that one right? Well here’s the thing, mindfulness is about connecting back in, in whatever shape that is. Our body is jam packed with an incredibly sensory system, and often when we are running around like a headless chook, we don’t pay attention to how our body physically feels. And often we continue like that until the universe ever so kindly forces you to slow down, usually through something getting hurt from tripping, walking into something/someone, or overloading yourself in an exercise and hearing a loud POP!!
So before you find yourself in a position where your body breaks and you have to slow down, how about you voluntarily take some time to massage your body and explore how it’s feeling. Using simple things like a tennis ball, foam roller, or even your hands to gently massage your body can be a fantastic journey of discovery. More often than not, you’ll find all sorts of tension points you had no idea about. Not sure where to start? I also love starting at the feet, and working my way up from there. And there is no wrong way to do it - just gently apply a firm amount of pressure and if there’s something that feels a bit tender, just stay on it for 20 seconds before moving on. Don’t pummel yourself into the ground, but do be consistent and most of those tender spots will start to ease within a few weeks, and you’ll feel like a brand new person!
Movement
Movement is another thing we just take for granted, and although we might pay a little attention to it during our week in terms of making sure we do some exercise, we again run on autopilot for the vast majority of the day. And when we talk about movement, most people assume we are just talking about the big stuff - walking, running, jumping, squatting, lifting weight, doing Pilates. But in reality, anytime your joints are moving, you’re moving.
But how does this relate to mindfulness? Learning to pay attention to movement will help you develop an awareness of all the many parts you use to create even minut movements. A dear friend of mine uses Mindful Walking to sneak their mindfulness into their working day. As they walk between meetings, they pay specific attention to how their foot lands, how it rolls through, and how it takes off. Sounds a bit intense? Try just paying attention to one foot to start with, and then swap after a little while. Build up to paying attention to both. In reality, it really doesn’t matter - it’s about you taking the time to pay attention, and therefore keeping your mind in the present moment, giving your brain that much needed rest, and a moment to recharge before the next big episode of survival kicks in, whether that be a big meeting, or a tough exercise session.
Your homework
You now have three options to start working on your own mindful practices - breathing, massage, and movement. Now does that sound similar to something - Pilates maybe? At least how we do it anyway. So when you do a Pilates session, slow down and actually start to pay attention to how you feel, not on what you have to do that day. Pay attention to your breath, don’t force it. Pay attention to your sore spots, and can you relax them. Pay attention to the movement in all it’s detail - you’ll find you don’t need to do nearly as much to get a kick-ass workout!