Health, Wellness

The Most Important Skills for Physical and Mental Health October 1, 2013Health, Wellness0 Comments

Hello lovely people. Before you rush on, just pause for a moment and observe this great body you’ve got. Are you sitting well? Are your legs crossed? Lower back round? Shoulders hunching forward? Head hanging heavy off the stem of your spine like the Giant Russian sunflower in late August?

Now, I will bet anything that as you read this, you have changed your posture. Have you sat up straighter and uncrossed your legs? If you have, fantastic. And all it took can be summed up in one little but important word: AWARENESS. I brought your attention to the right place, and you automatically did the rest.

Having a high level of awareness, whether it be of our physical bodies or of our mental processes, is a type of skill. It can be cultivated. And it is something that you will gain in my classes and get to take home with you, so even if you aren’t doing yoga or Pilates, you keep on improving your body by choosing to do what is better for it, day by day. It is also a transferable skill, so you can use it in all other aspects of your life.

Both yoga and Pilates are magnificent diagnostic tools. By working the whole body and exercising thoroughly all of your muscles, joints and organs in a systematic, intelligent and controlled way, you quickly find out where any weakness lies, and what can be changed. One of the most common things people say when they finish their first class is “I didn’t know I had all these muscles!” Let me state the obvious: you cannot fix or improve something if you aren’t aware of it.

Modern yoga and Pilates, when taught properly, are also an equally magnificent remedy – precisely because they guide you towards mindfulness and self-discovery. Most sports – and dance can be included, too – are performance oriented. Who cares about your knees, as long as you can kick a football into the post? Who cares about your lower back, as long as you can do a perfect tee shot on the golf course? Who cares about your feet, as long as you can dance on your toes for hours on end? In this sense, however intensely physical they are, yoga and Pilates differ from sport and dance. You can still look beautiful, graceful and skilled while practising – especially after a while, but the emphasis is fully on what is good for your body. What you do in my classes does not have to look great, but it has to feel right.

And this is, in a nutshell, what you will learn – you will learn to become aware, and as a result, gain profound control, of your body. You will become your own monitor. This is where healing begins; this is what paves the way toward progress, in any area of your life. When you are fully aware of your thoughts, you can guide them to serve you. When you are fully aware of what you eat, you will make better food choices, enjoy your food more while eating it, and rarely overeat. When you are fully aware of your emotions, you can manage your relationships better and make yourself and people around you happier. When you are fully aware of how you move in space, you are far less likely to have an accident, or cause yourself an injury. Awareness leads to the right action, each and every time. So come discover your body with us, and start bringing on the changes you want to see.

Stay brave,

 

 

 

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