Movement with Thought is not about being better than someone else, it's about being the best that you can be at any given time - it's all about you and your body AT THAT MOMENT.
Movement with Thought Pilates is not about feeling the burn. Anywhere. The muscles you use for most of the movements are deep, stabilising muscles. These muscles don't have a 'voice'. They don't tell us when they're tired, they simply ask one of the bigger, more superficial muscles to work instead. The superficial muscles DO have a voice - they're the ones that feel the burn! It is my belief that, after a good Movement with Thought Pilates class, you shouldn't have any aches, because you have worked primarily the deeper muscles.
Movement with Thought is not about endless, thoughtless repetitions. It is about focussing on the details of each movement and what is going on in your body as you move. Every repetition carries the same amount of focus as the last, if not more!
Movement with Thought Pilates is not a 'stretching' exercise. The muscles are lengthened, but not stretched. They are not forcefully pulled into an elongated state, they are taken to a lengthened position during a movement, and then out of it.
Movement with Thought is not about forcing the body to do anything. It is not even about control. We can't hope to control our body, we can only hope to understand it and work with it. It is always doing its very best to protect us - whether this results in aches, stiffness, tiredness, hayfever or a fever, among others. Stiffness, for example, is a way of protecting us from injury. Sometimes, however, this protection is misguided, or no longer necessary. This is where coaxing the body back into trusting itself is important. The more we can create a dialogue with our body and learn to understand it, the easier it is to live and work with it - like a child, partner or a pet! Just like with an animal, that dialogue can be purely physical.
Movement with Thought is not about crunches and isolated 'abdominal' exercises. Crunches work what I call our 'gym bunny' or 'six pack' muscles. These muscles do not necessarily create a flat stomach. In fact, you can train these muscles to be very solid and strong, but domed - as though you've swallowed a pudding bowl! A flat stomach comes from a healthy diet, plenty of water, and exercise that includes waking-up the deep, stabilising abdominals, which act like a natural corset. These muscles work to stabilise us when we are unstable - without us thinking about it. I believe that the best way of waking these muscles is to 'trick' them into working through de-stabilising the body. There are deep stabilising muscles throughout the body and their optimum functioning is vital to our physical health.
Movement with Thought is not about perfection. What IS perfection anyway? And who says it is so? It is about each body being the best that it can be, with as much awareness as possible and as much ease as possible.
Movement with Thought is not rigid. It is not about maintaining a perfect (see above) posture. It is about knowing where your body's 'home' or most balanced position is and being able to flow in and out of that position as you move. We are never static, even when standing as still as possible. We are always in a state of flux, of change, of possiblity and of movement. Allow your body the freedom to move with fluidity. Remember that we are organic.
Movement with Thought is not serious. But we take movement seriously. Fun, play, learning, smiles and laughter are vital parts of being a happy, whole human being. Laughter is a great way of working your abdominal and pelvic floor muscles! Fun, play and laughter do not mean that we forego awareness, focus and concentration, rather, they add a level of learning to the body - to my mind, the body is more likely to relax and also to be able to remember and replicate something that it associates with positive, happy feelings.
