Blog | Pilates Collective Sebastopol | Pilates Santa Rosa

Blog

Student Recognitions & Upper Body Strength Month
Posted March 28, 2012 By pcollective in Blog, Special Topics, Student Forum, Student/Teacher Forum, Studio Forum With | 1 Comment
We had a fantastic day of celebrating on March 24th and we wanted to share with you a slice of the day. Watch the video below to see the student recognitions we made.

For the next 3 weeks we are going to continue to recognize students and teachers for their contributions and achievements. Use the form below to submit your recognition today! We will post it here on the blog for everyone to appreciate too!
1. The person I'd like to have recognized is
2. I'd like to recognize this person for
3. Your Name(required)
4. Email(valid email required)
5. Additional comments
cforms contact form by delicious:days

Upper Body Strength Month

Join us to continue the celebration as we focus on building upper body health and strength from now till April 21st. Watch this short video from Kristen to learn how you can participate and work on strength when you are not in the studio.
Movement Meditation Class 3 & 4
Posted March 19, 2012 By pcollective in Blog, Student Forum, Studio Forum With | No Comments

Class #3:

Reflecting on Last Week
1. How was your week focusing on labeling sensations? Were you able to spend time distinguishing between pleasant, unpleasant and neutral sensations in your body? When were you most aware of the sensations in your body? Were you more aware of pleasant versus unpleasant or neutral?
2. Did you notice stories or judgements that were associated with your noticing the quality of your sensations?
3. If so, were they strong?
4. Were you able to notice them and come back to the sensation simply as it was?
5. Where were your greatest successes or challenges in this regard?

This Week’s Focus: Breath
The breath is a classic point of focus in meditation. It is also an integral part of Pilates as a movement practice. We are coordinating, controlling, synchronizing and connecting with the breath throughout our practice in order to improve the physiological act of respiration, and to enhance the relaxation quality in the body and balance the nervous system (NS).

It is our goal in movement meditation to not only connect with our breath, but let it become a tool for insight, the motivation for movement rather than just something we do absent-mindedly.

Reflection Questions
1. What is your relationship with your breath?
2. Is it calming and easy or challenging and distracting?
3. What do you notice about your breath when you are moving, exercising or exerting effort? Is it a hinderance or a help?
4. What other observations do you have about your breath: quality, pace, historic relationship (trauma, joy), how much are you aware of it daily?

Your Homework
In you movement practices during the coming week to 10 days make your breathing the primary focus of your attention. See if you can allow the breath to motivate and dictate when, where and how you move. Can you allow your breath to guide you rather than you guiding it. When you loose your focus on the breath simply bring it back as you would do in seated meditation.
Practice using the breath in different ways or to insight different qualities. For instance, what happens if you focus on the exhale only or the inhale only? What does it feel like to breath into the areas of the body you are moving? Can you use the breath as a grounding force, something to keep you coming back into your body over and over again?

Enjoy!

Class #4

Reflecting on Last Week
1. Think back over the course of the past 1 (or 2 since we had a break) and write down anything notable about how you were in relationship with your body. Was there any experience or situation that brought you more or less into your body? Were there moments of heightened awareness or observation? When or why do you think that may be true?
2. What has your relationship to your breath been like? Have you been more aware of it, its effect on your physical or emotional state?
3. How have you used the breath to insight awareness or evoke desired quality such as ease or relaxation?

This Week’s Focus: Connecting Mind & Body
This week we were exploring how the thoughts we hold in our mind are almost always reflected back in our bodies. When we hold an angry or tense thought, our bodies feel tense and hard. When we hold a joyful or happy thought, our bodies feel easy, light or grounded. If that’s true then think about how when we are agitated or lost in stressful thoughts our bodies pay the price. Our movements are affected in a variety of ways from subtle to severe.
We may disconnect from them in order to not feel the associated discomfort or tension, which can put us in danger of injury from lack of attention and awareness. We may be stiff and resistant, which in turn makes every movement or exercise that much more effortful, which in turn perpetuates a sense of dis-ease or discomfort. In this case we can get caught in a never-ending cycle.
But if we are aware of how our thoughts influence our bodies we can gradually become more responsive to what our mental, emotional and physical needs are and bring all three elements into greater harmony.

Reflection Questions
1. Are you aware of how your thoughts and how or what you hold in your attention affects your physical state? Can you think of any specific incidents?
2. Are you more aware of how unpleasant thoughts or points of focus affect you or pleasant ones? What’s the difference in your body specifically?
3. How does this relationship change how you use your body?

Homework
Part one: Continue to notice, and even jot down, when you notice your thoughts are influencing your body or vise versa. Notice when or if there are moments when your thoughts may be neutral but your body distinctly not neutral or the other way around. What is this like and in relationship to what kinds of thoughts or sensations?

Part two: Working with Metta or Loving Kindness Meditation practice using the words as a way of positively influencing your thoughts and therefore your body. Because, in the beginning, Metta is directed inward it is a powerful tool for generating self-compassion, tenderness, openness and love toward ones self and the body. I recommend sitting for 5-10 minutes repeating the phrases below then begin a simple movement practice, one where you can go slow and allow the words to infuse how you are moving.

Metta Meditation
May I be filled with loving kindness. May I be well. May I be free from all internal and external dangers. May I be happy and truly free.

Progression
After working with the “I” statement, you can choose someone else to direct loving kindness toward. Then you move on to someone who is neutral like the kid a the movie theater. Eventually the meditation can be directed toward someone you have negative feelings for.

For more resources on Metta Meditation:
Instructions
Guided Metta – Sharon Salzberg
Meditation on Loving Kindness – Jack Kornfield

Meditation
Celebration Time – 6 Year Anniversary March 24th
Posted March 14, 2012 By pcollective in Blog, Events With | No Comments
Celebration Saturday, March 24th

Join us from 9 am – 4 pm for a fantastic celebration of Pilates, the studio and you!

And find out the punchline to this joke:

How many Pilates teachers does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Don’t you wish you knew…

Well, you can find out. Come and visit us on the 24th for any of our $5 classes or our traditional Champagne Open House from 2- 4 pm!

In celebration of our community:

Community Day Classes 9 am – 2 pm
$5 each
See Schedule - Look for Community Day Classes and Register now!

In celebration of our students:

Champagne Open House 2 – 4 pm
Student Acknowledgements and Recognitions!
We will be giving out special awards to our students. If you’d like to nominate a fellow student for recognition, please submit your choice below:
1. The person I'd like to have recognized is
2. I'd like to recognize this person for
3. Your Name(required)
4. Email(valid email required)
5. Additional comments
cforms contact form by delicious:days

All submission will be recognized because we are just that awesome and so are you!

In celebration of Pilates:

March 24th will kick-off our month of Upper Body Magic!
All month our classes and sessions (where it’s appropriate) will be geared toward building healthy strength and mobility in the arms, neck and shoulders.

We will kick off the 4 weeks of Upper Body Magic with a push-up/plank check-in self-assesment at the anniversary. Anyone who wants to track their progress can do a simple status check any time during the day with one of the teachers. We will keep your forms and help you track your progress throughout the month.
Then at the end of the 4 weeks you will do another check-in with any of your teachers to see how you’ve progressed. This is just about you, no one else. See what kind of progress you can make in 4 weeks.

Impress yourself!

And even more celebrating…

March 24th is also going to be the kick-off of our new student rewards program. We now have an easy and awesome way of rewarding you for your referrals! We can’t wait to tell you all about it.

Wait for it…

Celebration
Movement Meditation Class 1 & 2
Posted February 28, 2012 By pcollective in Blog, Student Forum With | 1 Comment

Movement Meditation

Welcome, students!

Thank you to everyone who has been attending the Sunday Movement Meditation class! It’s been such a pleasure to explore this new format with you. I will post each week reiterating in-class questions/assignments, focus points and other insights or useful material to support your at-home practice. I encourage you to share your insights here on the blog. Your feedback will both facilitate changes in class format and focus and help to support each other along the way.

Please feel to pose your own questions here as well.

Course Objectives:
To use movement as a vehicle for enhancing everyday awareness of ourselves in relationship to our environment, other people, situations and circumstances. To use mindfulness techniques to deepen our body awareness and better understand not only what our body needs, but how it facilitates our understanding and relationship to the rest of our lives. Our overall goal is to bring body and mind in line so we can find greater balance no matter what life sets on our door step. Movement meditation becomes a path of strengthening our ability to know our bodies and minds better.

Tools:
Breath awareness practices, seated meditation, walking meditation, Feldenkrais, Pilates, yoga, roll and release techniques, mantra or word/sound repetition.

Class #1:

Reflection Questions
1.What kind of relationship have you had with your body over the years? How aware of it have you been? What has provokes a deeper awareness or less awareness of your body? Have there been times when you have purposefully ignored or set your body aside?
2.What is your experience of mindfulness in your body?
3. What encourages attentiveness of the body? What interferes?
4. How strong is you identification to your body?
5. How might you extend more kindness to your body?

Focus
Understanding and exploring gross body awareness & sensations versus subtle body awareness & sensations.

Gross body – Refers to the overall quality of the physical body. It is your sense of your muscles, joints, limbs, breath. It is your awareness of tension, softness, pain, fatigue, aching, the environment around you, where you are touching the floor, how the air feels etc. Primarily gross body refers to your physical form.

Subtle body – Refers to what lies beneath the physical body, often reflecting your emotional or psychological state or energy. Sometimes the subtle body is also referred to as the energy body because it is more felt than seen. If you are quiet and notice the tingling or slight vibration of your body you are getting more in touch with your subtle body. You can think of the subtle body almost like electricity. How bright or dim is your subtle body? How aware of it are you? Are you aware of it all over of just in certain places?

Your Homework
Throughout the week, many times per day if possible, stop and check in to see how you can be aware of either the gross body or subtle body. When are you most aware of each of these bodies? Can your awareness of each of these inform how you move, your mood, how you make decision both in terms of moving your body and how you decide to speak and act. Beginning to cultivate a strong attunement to the overall qualities that reside in the body and using this awareness to foster greater balance and responsiveness.

Class #2

Reflection Questions
1. How was your week working with gross and subtle body awareness?
2. What did you notice in terms of these two points of view?
3. What other insights or experiences did you have working with body awareness this week?

Focus
In seated meditation as well as movement how aware are you of judging the experience? We tend to judge everything about our interaction with the world whether with other people, ourselves or our environment. Even if we are not conscious of it we assign a judgment to that experience somewhere on the scale from pleasant to unpleasant.

Your goal for the class is to begin to notice when a body sensation arises what quality you attach to it. Is it neutral, pleasant or unpleasant? What comes up more often? When unpleasant sensations arise notice if there is a story that follows. Do you hear your mother’s voice, your partner’s voice, the latest statistics about exercise? Does your mind spiral into planning or fear or resentment or pride?

Your goal is to begin to simply notice the sensations/qualities that arise as pleasant, unpleasant or neutral without needing them to be different. This allows us to cultivate a sense of contentment with things just as they are. We begin to see that although something is unpleasant we don’t necessarily need to rush to change it. Instead we can just notice it and meet it with gentle curiosity. And when something is pleasant we don’t always need to grasp at it or begin to formulate a plan for holding on to it or recreating it for another “good” experience.

Can you notice if there is a difference between the quality in your body and the quality in your mind? Do they agree or are they often different?

Homework
Throughout the week notice how often you are judging your experience with regard to your body and wanting it to be different or letting it take you down the rabbit hole of planning and future experiences.

Notice if you can also be aware of your mind in this way. Is your mind neutral, pleasant or unpleasant. Does the experience in your body and mind line up? When, why and how?

*I encourage you to either post your insights here or to be keeping an informal journal so that as these insights come you can capture them for future study and reflection.*
Movement Meditation

Movement Meditation
Gratitude Class Audio Download
Posted November 28, 2011 By pcollective in Blog, Student Forum, Studio Forum With | No Comments

It feels like we are really getting tech savvy! We hope you enjoy the abbreviated audio recording our our Gratitude Class from Thanksgiving morning. It is always so a touching and invigorating experience.

Enjoy!

Download and listen here …

Download
Free Sessions Now Being Offered
Posted November 1, 2011 By pcollective in Blog, Events, Special Topics, Student Forum, Studio Forum With | No Comments

Seva Sessions = Seva is a sanscrit word meaning selfless service.

Starting in November Pilates Collective will be offering up to 10 hours of free one-on-one sessions per month to those in need.

Although we will keep the process very informal – no application required — potential Seva students must be referred by current students or teachers and sessions will be given on a first come, first serve basis. Each candidate will be gifted 1-2 sessions. We will have 1 rotating spot that will include up to 10 or more sessions. Please ask us for more information.

We are excited to be offering the tremendous gift Pilates as a service to our community. If you have suggestions about groups or organizations that we might reach out to, please let us know.

In the meantime, here are some loose guidelines.

Read More …
Courage – From Our Fall Newsletter
Posted By pcollective in Blog, Studio Forum With | No Comments

I always feel like these articles are a bit self-indulgent. Today, however, that feels just fine because I want to tell you about someone very special, my friend Fred. (That’s me and Fred in the picture at Shambhala Mountain Center almost three weeks ago.)

On the path

Alfred E. Smith from Tipton, Kansas. I met him on Friday, Oct. 9, at 5:30 pm and by 9 pm knew he was a person I would never forget. Fred is a rancher, a retired cop, the father of four grown children – two boys, two girls – part owner of a restaurant, editor and founder of his small-town newspaper The Tipton Times, a Christian, a seminary school graduate, a gifted writer, and a Buddhist; and since last week, my dear friend.

Fred has a statue of the Buddha sitting by the stream that runs through his property. It sits under a Cottonwood tree you can see from his front porch. Every time he drives his big blue Ford four-door off to Colorado his friends say, “Fred’s gone lookin’ for the Buddha again.” They mean it in jest and yet it is their way of acknowledging they don’t understand, but they don’t mind. They love him. Fred draws strength from his faith in God, but his faith allows him to see the depth of joy and open-heartedness that is fostered by his Buddhism. Like no other person I’ve ever met, Fred knows his own heart.

The fact that he exists in Tipton – an anomaly – speaks infinitely to his boundless sense of self, to his courage to accept himself without shame, quilt, or influence from those who might not understand him or want him to be otherwise.

Read More …
New Mat Classes – Classic and Cardio
Posted October 17, 2011 By pcollective in Studio Forum, Uncategorized With | No Comments

Classic Mat class with Colleen McCarty

Saturdays, 11am – Noon, Starting October 1, 2011.

Class rates: 1/$20, 5/$90/ 10/$150. Group/Springboard class packages can be used.

Classic Mat class is a dynamic, flowing workout utilizing your own body weight for resistance rather than springs and straps. This is a fast paced workout that focuses on centering, breath and precision. It’s great fun and a great challenge. Modifications and advancements will be given for each exercise, keeping the rhythm of class while being appropriate for all levels. This is an excellent way to advance your existing practice plus learn a home practice.

Register online at pilatescollective.com or contact Colleen: 486-0516, colleen@pilatescollective.com

Cardio Mat Class with Michal Victoria

Mondays 12 Noon. Located next door at Core-In-Motion

Special Starter Rate: 10 class package $80, drop-ins $14
Fundamentals Video(s) Ready to View!
Posted September 21, 2011 By pcollective in Blog, Student Forum, Studio Forum With | No Comments

Go To Fundamentals NOW!

Our long awaited Fundamentals Videos are ready for you to watch. This is designed to help beginners learn the foundational movements and concepts of Pilates and to offer an opportunity for those who have been practicing to revisit the fundamental work.

There are 12 exercises, but 16 videos in total including the Intro.

You’ll find links to each one on our Pilates Video Downloads page.

We hope you enjoy them.
Will you be practicing when your 80 years old?
Posted July 9, 2011 By pcollective in Blog, Student Forum With | 1 Comment

Meet Ken and Marty Prouty. I am really excited to introduce you to 2 of my longest standing clients in Sonoma County. I have shared their story with many of you, but wanted to take a moment to really show you 1. That they are real! 2. That they are truly experiencing the benefits of Pilates and 3. That you are never to young or old to start this path!

Share your inspirations with us, too. We want to know can you see yourself practicing when you’re 80 years old? We can.

A true Pilates inspiration! Eighty-years-old and practicing Pilates!
Page 1 of 312 3 »

©2011 Pilates Collective - All Rights Reserved.