I'm not a pain - YOU ARE!

Well, you're not really a pain but if you are currently in pain, then read on my friend :)

Why do images of Pilates make it look like you have to be a contortionist to be able to participate? seriously disgusting imagery out there.

Fact is real bodies do pilates

Fact is movement heals (mostly unless you are trying to move a broken or injured part!)

Fact is many of us through adulting find a point in life where we 'forget' what our body can actually do. I blame cultural and societal norms for setting expectation that an ageing body 'can't' and 'shouldn't' - i'm calling bullshit on that! An aging body needs to move, an aging mind needs to maintain connections to the body to keep it moving well. This is true at ANY age!

So, if you are reading this and have spent another day making yet another excuse for not involving yourself in a regular movement routine - and I'm not saying you all have to be going to the gym, or walking or running - just a regular movement routine.. then shut up that voice in the head - he/she ain't on your side! - it is the peanut brain acting only to keep you safe... fact is - you can engage in a safe regular movement routine that benefits your mind body connection - that shuts up that voice whos saying - your too old, fat, tired, inflexible, unfit, unhealthy, broke, broken, don't have enough time, energy...whatever..stop listening to it because it is not what you would tell your best friend! You'd tell them to do it!, you'd love them enough to believe they can - So I believe you can!

Now, you have conquered being your own best friend lets talk about the pain body... yes, the pain body - We have a physical body, and emotional body, a pain body and etherial layers of our spiritual self. The pain body is a translator - talking to the other layers and interpreting in the only way it knows - giving you pain...... interesting hey!

No, I am not saying your pain is imagined - it is absolutely real - but I am saying you have mechanisms for 'listening' and interpreting the pain... Take for example this scenario.... You have a new job... its the one you have always dreamed of.. you settle in fast and feel like it is definitely the job for you.. but, you wake up one morning in severe pain in your back... you freak out... 'I need to get to work, they need me' - you tell yourself, so you get up, apply a heat pack, dose up on your fav mix of anti-inflammatory and pain relief meds and out the door you go... as you go about your day, you start to improve. when you get home you once again eat some leftovers and fall into bed exhausted, only this time to be woken by the intense back pain during the night..... So what's going on in this scenario?

a quick few questions in the clinic reveals the weight of responsibility is too much, that despite the desire to perform this job the feeling of overwhelm happens many times through the day and the body is simply responding neurologically to keep it safe - it locks down and tightens the jaw, it corresponds to the perceived overwhelm with a reflexive 'locking' response of the lower back, pelvis, calves (that whole back chain) called the tendon guard reflex - the whole body feels stiff! and sore, and every breath instead of lengthening your back it actually clamps it down harder - discs are underpressure, headaches and back pain are common - so what does this pain body need? to quit? absolutely not! it needs to feel safe - to be aware of the overwhelm and manage the emotional body - it needs a mind body connection that has experienced it working together on hard things and achieving it -

You know that adage - use it or loose it... what you use is your mind and your body and what you gain is the ability to learn to do more then just survive.

If you have any questions about this scenario, if it sounds somewhat familiar - get in touch, get moving regularly, get things in your diary that you love to do, get enough sleep, get enough water & sunlight and nourish your body especially when its speaking to you in pain xx

a real person doing pilates... errrr not!