joseph – Skillful Teaching

What is a circle of trust? It’s a gathering of people who honor the process, not the outcome. It’s a coming together of diverse histories, experiences, strengths, skills, motivations, and talents in order to discover…something or maybe nothing.

The first and only place I’ve ever heard of a circle of trust is from author Parker J. Palmer in his book “A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey to an Undivided Life.” He also talks about the COT in one of my all time favorite books, “The Courage to Teach.” Palmer talks about the essence of a COT this way: “Honest, open questions are countercultural…”

Honest and open questioning is what you are about to listen to.

This episode is a very special moment in time with teachers who are exceptional, not for their technical skill, although that is in no short supply, but for their willingness to be vulnerable, to discover, and to be neither right nor wrong but instead aware and awake.

It might sound like I’m over-reaching or over-congratulating them, but if you were there you’d undoubtedly agree that there is something in the community at Village Pilates Studio that far surpasses most of the studio environments that you’ve experienced.

A heartfelt THANK YOU for all of the kindness and generosity extended to me by Regan Zubak and the teachers of Village Pilates, including Len Palomi, Kay Harmon, Julia Haptonstahl, Andy Cox, Cathy Ditto, Krystal Lee, Misti Fredstrom and those who came from afar: Sarah de Guia, Stephanie Constadine, Becky Vento, Becky Lenski, Naydia Miller Kull and so many others.

What an honor.

Heroes

Our “hero” for this episode is the aforementioned Parker J. Palmer and his book “A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey to an Undivided Life.” I’ve “read” (listened to) this book several times now and it never disappoints. Along with his other book “The Courage to Teach” have helped me make some of the greatest shifts in my life and in my teaching and in bringing the two into balance, aligning them along the mobius strip.

A Hidden Wholeness is a relatively short read and is likely to nudge you in a direction that brings you a little closer to cultivating not only a fulfilling and successful teaching career, but a joyful and fulfilling life.

Here are a couple of quotes from A Hidden Wholeness that have been top of mind for me lately:

“Afraid that our inner light will be extinguished or our inner darkness exposed, we hide our true identities from each other. In the process, we become separated from our own souls. We end up living divided lives, so far removed from the truth we hold within that we cannot know the “integrity that comes from being what you are.”

“Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others; rather, it means never living apart from one’s self.”

“First, we all have an inner teacher whose guidance is more reliable than anything we can get from a doctrine, ideology, collective belief system, institution, or leader. Second, we all need other people to invite, amplify, and help us discern the inner teacher’s voice”

I hope you’ll investigate this resource and that it might take you to new and unknown, or rarely frequented, places.

Pro Tip

The Pro Tip for this episode is super simple: Allow your students to LEAD you.

This is different than teaching to the person/body in front of you. It is allowing the student and the body to make decisions independent of you and your feedback, cueing, opinions.

I worked with a wonderful and incredibly talented teacher at VPS who allowed me to help LEAD her out of herself and her present moment stories into a reclaimed sense of joy in movement. You’ll just have to listen to the podcast to get the juicy stuff, but the bottom line is this:

After you’ve cued, aligned, taught, touched, and demonstrated, it’s TIME TO SHUT UP AND BACK UP! Get out of the way. Students can’t find their own path, honor their own journey unless you get out of the way.

Consider the difference between guiding a student toward understanding and allowing a student to let their body guide them. In my experience this is the difference between “telling” our students what and how to be and giving our them permission (and an opportunity) to trust themselves.

Ultimately this is about letting your work migrate from higher brain function where there’s a steady list of things your student needs to accomplish, to lower brain function, where the list dissolves into knowing, intuitive, and responsive.

All it takes is this:

“Now, just move. Allow yourself to move and find the easiest, most enjoyable path into and out of the exercise/movement. Don’t think about the pieces, FEEL the whole. Move when you’re ready and at the pace and within the rhythm that feels organic.”

What would happen?

We risk very little in this moment. In fact, we take US out of the equation entirely and leave it up to the student to truly DISCOVER what is in them.

How could you do this today? Tomorrow?

(Good luck and we’re all counting on you 😉

Links and Resources

Learn More About Village Pilates Studio

VPS website: http://www.villagepilatesstudio.com/

Learn More About Parker J. Palmer and the Center for Courage & Renewal

http://www.couragerenewal.org/

Connect With Us

Email us at thinkingpilatespodcast@gmail.com or use the form below.
Find us on Facebook at The Thinking Pilates Podcast

Reach us Individually

Chantill – chantill@skillfulteaching.com
- Phone – (707) 738-7951
Debora – dkolwey@gmail.com

Thinking Pilates Podcast - Connect with Us

Pilates Origins Workshop with Chantill Lopez

One teacher’s perspective on what Pilates is, was meant to be, and can be…

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: The Fulfilled & Successful Teacher 28-Day Online Workshop starts Jan. 18th. Sign up this week (Jan. 5th-9th ONLY) and receive $250 Bonus Gift! Click HERE!

My first meeting with classical Pilates was a little bit like shaking hands with someone whose grip is just a bit too strong. I admired the boldness and confidence, but interpreted the forcefulness as narrow and limiting.

As an emerging teacher I knew myself well enough to see that my path lie in cultivating a practice that was more malleable and creative, with more options for insight and intuition — or that is what I thought I was doing.

I’ve come a long way since then and have completed the orbit — this one at least — and there is a very beautiful thing that happens when you reach this place.

In this moment there is a pause where you see connections, have a well-earned ounce of clarity, openness, and ease.

What ever you imagined you knew, you realize you may never know, and yet there is a sense of understanding and appreciation that only comes from immersion and experience. You can see from both directions. We come to these places about all kinds of things, and throughout our lives. It’s a super cool place.

In the Pilates Origins Workshop, a portion of which you are about to watch and/or listen to…

THIS IS MY GOAL: To open up the discussion without a classic or contemporary agenda; to offer teachers an opportunity to discern for themselves what it is they are teaching, how it translates into their current understanding and beliefs, and how they might more fully invest themselves in the authenticity of the method they love.

My teacher and mentor, Carol Appel, started me on this path and more recently Amy Taylor Alpers has helped me complete a part of it — understanding the philosophy and crafting a strong point of view around it. I mention this concept quite a bit in the workshop and am grateful to the interview in which Amy first shared it with me. (Listen to the interview here).

Having a strong point of view and knowing WHY we teach is crucial to our own internal satisfaction and sense of service, not to mention for strengthening the practice we help our students cultivate.

AND our point of view can be open and kind and inclusive. Having a strong point of view doesn’t mean — to me — belittling another approach, or perpetuating the belief that my point of view is better or the only “true” perspective.

Intelligence and wisdom are both manifested by willingness:

willingness to be stretched, to be wrong, to be swayed, to listen, and most of all the willingness to discern.

That is what the Pilates Origins workshop is really about. It’s about not only translating Joseph’s writings and in turn better understanding what the method was originally designed to be, but a chance to be stretched, to listen, to question, and to see what point of view feels right for each of us.

I very much hope you enjoy the recordings. You may hate what I have to say, you may respond very strongly to my comments and interpretations OR you may love it and love me (wink, wink). Either way, I applaud you for your passion and hope that in some small way the discussion gets your juices flowing, your heart pumping, and your inspiration bubbling.

I’m open to questions and comments (only nice ones though) below. Enjoy, share and Happy New Year!

With gratitude and joy,
Chantill