My movement journey started with dance and gymnastics as a young girl, alas for all my creativity and grace, I had equal parts klutz and I made a habit of hitting my head. I also hyper-extended my knock knees and had a tendency to tuck my tail and stick my rib cage forward. I had dropped arches and forward head. Of course I didn’t realize all this along the journey I just knew I had chronic pain in my neck and upper back with tingling extremities. As soon as I was introduced to Pilates I recognized that moving in this new way could change everything. I had an immediate improvement in pain levels and through these 20 some years I’ve practiced regularly, my body has continued to feel better and better. There is a process of going deeper and understanding more that thrills me every time I step on the mat or apparatus to practice.
I also came into the world with an compulsive desire to straighten things which showed up as a strange obsessive quality. I straightened things on my desk, my feet in line with tiles, I drew imaginary lines between objects everywhere I went. I didn’t realize how powerful this skill could be until I became a Pilates teacher. Aaah, to be able to channel my energy into straightening the bones of others and seeing them transform and get out of pain, too, extremely gratifying.
When I began to incorporate functional movement and gait with my Pilates practice everything shifted and I began to take the work that I was doing in the studio and translate it into my everyday movements. When I shared those insights with my Pilates students, powerful long term change occurred.