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

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 …

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.