Posts

Listen. Connect. Elevate.

/0 Comments/in , /by
Read more

Ep 35: Circle of Trust – LIVE Round Table @ Village Pilates, Chicago

/0 Comments/in /by

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

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

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

Connect With Us

Reach us Individually

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

Thinking Pilates Podcast - Connect with Us

Ep 34: Brain, Mind, Body – The Missing Pieces w/ Anne Bishop

/0 Comments/in /by

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Ep 34 BBCWhat’s your brain got to do with it? What is your mind?

We are taught that Pilates is a body, mind, spirit approach, but one sometimes wonders (in my case a lot of the time) where the mind and spirit fits in when we were being taught.

Our podcast guest, Anne Bishop, founder of Body Brain Connect, is going to help us gain some insight into just how the brain fits into our mind/body approach and I dare say clear a more wide open path to spirit — in that trifecta.

The brain we really just don’t talk about. As for spirit…

We’re often told that the spirit part is subtle, an undertone, not something to be talked about overtly or directly because it’s too out of our scope, or because people are uncomfortable with the idea of what spirit might mean. It’s unfortunate that they’re not totally wrong when it comes to the latter part. However, Anne helps us find a way to connect the brain and the mind with the body in a way that is not only clear and concise, but incredibly powerful.

Hope this blows your mind, changes your movement and elevates your spirit!

Enjoy.

 

Heroes

Our “hero” this week is Vanessa Rodriquez, author of the book “The Teaching Brain: An evolutionary trait at the heart of education.” This book was recommended to me by Anne and it’s also one of the required reading texts for the Master’s Program. AND it’s utterly insightful and delightful.

One of the stand out points for me in this book is how the author explores the importance of awareness of self and others in the teaching paradigm. She lists 5 areas of awareness that are critical for cultivating your craft and becoming an expert teacher. She calls them the Five Awarenesses of The Teaching Brain and they are:

  1. Awareness of self as a teacher
  2. Awareness of learner
  3. Awareness of interaction
  4. Awareness of context
  5. Awareness of teaching practice

Here’s a tidbit from the book for you to enjoy:

She’s quoting Sanjoy Mahajan in this first paragraph:

‘Deliberate practice requires sustained concentration, and the rewards are subtle and apparent only in the long term. Thus, one needs motivation in order to enter into and sustain the hard work of deliberate practice. But the learning happens not simply through putting in the hours, but through doing so intelligently.”

In the most basic way, expert teachers are deliberate about how they reflect on their practice. They are aware of the multiple areas that they must consider in order to hone their craft: the learner, the interaction, the context, their teaching practice, and their overall lens as a teacher. Expert teachers ask themselves: “Why did I become a teacher? What are my assumptions about teaching? How do I approach teaching? What do I expect to get out of this enterprise?”

Wow!!! So good!

I hope you’ll check out this wonderful HERO! Here’s where you can pick up the book: http://www.teachingbrain.org/

Pro Tip

Thanks to Anne, we have a wonderful teaching tool called Visual Enhancement of Touch (VET) based on her work with bridging the gap between brain research and movement practice. This is a tool that Anne introduced to the Skillful Teaching Mentoring cohort last January and not only has it been helpful to me in my teaching of teachers, but to the teachers working with students a all stages.

Here’s how Anne first introduced the technique, although you can use it ANYTIME, ANYWHERE, with ANY EXERCISE.

Teaching/Informing Neutral Spine:

From your normal supine hook-lying position (the most common place for us to teach neutral spine) here’s what you do:

  • Students place their own hands on the ASIS
  • Cue them to rock the pelvis from 6 o’clock to 12 o’clock (anterior/posterior tilting), making sure to tune them into the outer sensations of their pelvis and back touching or not touching the floor, movement under their fingertips, areas of tightness, effort etc.
  • Then have them curl up just enough so that they can SEE their hands on their pelvis and continue the rocking.
  • Cue them to notice what it feels like when it looks a certain way. Where is their body in space when they experience a certain sensation. Trying to draw their attention to the visual experience while coupling the more felt experience (bridging the gap between seeing and feeling = enhanced proprioception)

 

This VET can be done standing as well. One of my favorite ways to teach finding neutral is to have a student place their hands on their ASIS as above, but stand perpendicular to a mirror. They rock their pelvis as before but now turn their head to SEE what the body looks like as they experience what it feels like both from their hands and tracking any “felt sense.”
I tend to use a mirror A LOT for these purposes and get the students to inquire about what they’re experiencing as they move vs what they’re seeing as they move. I find this has a tremendous impact on their spatial awareness as well as their ability to formulate more articulate questions and problem solve for themselves. In short, you’re empowering them to discover their bodies for themselves rather than depending on you to always TELL THEM.

Links and Resources

 

Learn More About Body Brain Connect & Anne Bishop M. Ed

Learn More About The Science & Psychology of Teaching Master’s Program

 

Connect With Us

Reach us Individually

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

Thinking Pilates Podcast - Connect with Us

The Power of Imperfection {Courageous Teaching Part 1}

/1 Comment/in /by

Happy belated New Year, dear teacher.

I guess it’s not too late to say that since it’s still January. How’s it going, anyway? How’s 2017 been so far?

My experience is that typically this time of year has us either feeling hopeful, full of renewed energy, or frustrated and a little overwhelmed (and maybe, just maybe, feeling pretty crappy — not impossible). Sometimes all of of these things simultaneously (which happens to have been my experience these past few weeks).

We do this to ourselves though, don’t we? We get jazzed up and excited about fresh starts and big plans, but too often hold ourselves to some unacknowledged and unrealistic expectation that it’s all going to be great (and maybe easier than last time). Deep down we expect that we’ll live up to the demon voice in our heads that’s telling us “you should be able to do this,” or “you’re supposed to be able to do this,” or “you’re supposed to be better than this!” Better than what? Supposed to be able to do what, according to whom?

What it often comes down to is that we think we should be perfect. And maybe “perfect” is not your word exactly. My word is “better” — I’m supposed to be better than this/at this/at this by now… . It’s still a product of expecting something that is out of alignment with our desires, experience, or our history, the situation at hand, and certainly reality. It makes us anxious, worried, agitated, depressed, and turns all of our thoughts inward — not in a good way.

When we don’t meet these expectations of should-ness and better-ness we begin to analyze our every (mis)step, (missed) opportunity, (mis)spoken word, and (ill planned) action. Because we’re concerned that we’re falling short in some way, we don’t have room or attention to spare — not really — for anyone else. We think we’re dedicated to being our best, but really we’re fixated on not failing, on getting it right, on doing exactly what we said we’d do in the way we said we’d do it. In this iteration of our experience striving for “perfection” turns us against ourselves and away from what we really value: making a positive impact.

If you were perfect, did it all right all the time, met every deadline, could do every Pilates exercises just so, knew all the answers and made all the perfect corrections…YOU’D BE BORING. You’d also have very little, if not nothing at all, to offer anyone — especially your students.

Courageous teaching. What is it? It’s the power of imperfection. It’s the key to creativity and the conduit of curiosity. To be courageous is to be curious (when you don’t have the answer or you’re having a shitty day and you decide to show up fully anyway); to be vulnerable, willing to fail, willing to not know and still love what you do. Courageous teaching is bringing your best-self, NOT YOUR PERFECT SELF, to the moment as often as you’re able to and when you’re not able to to love yourself and what you do regardless.

This is the first part in a 3 or 4 part series (I haven’t decided yet — I often have more to say than I realize, which isn’t surprising to many of you who know me) on courageous teaching. My hope is to leave you with some small tool you can use to help you be more able to show up even on the bad days.

I just recently finished Amy Cuddy’s book “Presence: Bringing your boldest self to your biggest challenges.” Amy is the now famed TED Talk presenter and social psychologist who has dedicated her work to exploring (and proving) the connection between the body and confidence. In Presence she explores different ways we can quickly make positive change in our presence especially when we are facing difficult situations.

So, based on Amy’s work and another technique I was exposed to a long time ago, I’ve got two “pro-tips” for you. Check them out below and look for more in this series soon.

Ep 33: How to break the rules – When questioning is the answer.

/0 Comments/in /by

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Today we proudly bring you episode 33 staring one of our new co-hosts, mentor and teacher, Trinity Minty. Even though we are technically one third of the way to 100 it somehow feels like this is still only our second episode. We’ve gotten so much wonderful feedback as a response to our new and improved production and to the additional elements, that I’m having that same giddy feeling as when we first launched.

I’m particularly excited about today’s podcast because not only do we get to be a part of an interesting discussion that challenges the way we think about some of what teach — it’s all about questioning and not taking things at face value — , we’re also going to witness something that, for me, is truly tremendous, something that deeply reflects the why of what I do…

 

Heroes

As the co-host of today’s show, I asked Trinity to choose who or what she wanted to share with you in this section and her answer was so totally perfect, but not at all where my head was. Her answer was a group of courageous and sincere teachers that are taking big risks and making big changes. To hear Trinity talk about the teachers currently participating in the Skillful Teaching 28-Day Fulfilled & Successful Pilates Teacher online course:

Listen to the podcast at around minute 52:00.

Another hero I thought you’d all enjoy, which in some way totally plays into being able to seek out your own answers and be authentic, is infamous TED Talk presenter and social psychologist Amy Cuddy and her new book “Presence.”

“Presence” is straightforward and insightful, although not entirely astonishing if you’re a movement teacher. What I’ve loved most about the book is learning about the plethora of research that is proving how the state of our body informs and influences, changes even, our sense of self, security, power, confidence, and how in turn these things help us face our most challenging moments.

Here’s a short excerpt I thought might entice you:

 

“The way you carry yourself is a source of personal power — the kind of power that is the key to presence. It’s the key that allows you to unlock yourself — your abilities, your creativity, your courage, and even your generosity. It doesn’t give you skills or talents you don’t have; it helps you to share the ones you do have. It doesn’t make you smarter or better informed; it makes you more resilient and open. It doesn’t change who you are; it allows you to be who you are.”

 

  • Amy’s TED Talk: Your body language shapes who you are – HERE 
  • “Presence” on Amazon – HERE

Pro Tip

Because we wanted to encourage you to explore the idea of questioning after the show, our Pro Tip for this episode looks at how you might change your perspective on one of our most loved and loathed Pilates exercises…(of course you know what I’m talking about, I can practically hear you all saying it from here)…the 100!

Here are our suggestions:

From the starting position, lift and lengthen out reaching the arms long, collarbones wide. Begin pumping the arms, inhaling for a count of five, exhaling for a count of five. With your exhalation, can you curl up a little higher?

The above is a typical way you’d hear the 100s being taught.

What if we simply omitted the cue of reaching the arms and collarbones wide and instead focused on creating spinal flexion that is deeply supported from the back body, which has the potential to relieve some tension in the throat and shoulders and improve breath?

Something like:

When you begin to lengthen the legs out, soften the sternum downward and draw the ribs into the body, curling up from that initiation point. Allow the arms to lengthen and begin your pumps. The arm pumping works in a way that gets the circulation working.

What you may see when cueing with this focus is the ribs moving toward the back body in a way that lends to the appearance of the collarbones narrowing. However, how does the abdominal curl itself look? Does the spine look fully supported in flexion? For me, coming into spinal flexion from supine with a strong cueing of the arms long and collarbones wides, feel like I am working against myself.

Also consider starting the 100 not from supine, which requires so much more of the body and not always in a good way, and come into the position from sitting or balance point, then rolling back, gradually coming into the position with your shoulder blades and ribs completely off the mat (this is reminiscent of a more classical position for hundreds – in a deep imprint). Explore whether or not the flexed position feels more supported from the back of the hips, legs, and spinal extensors and whether or not you still feel like you’re hanging off the front body, the neck especially, in an effort to fight the tireless pull of gravity?

Our experience is that this way of working into the 100 helps people find greater joy and value in the exercise and motivates them to work at it.

We’d absolutely love to hear what you think about this.

 

Links and Resources

 

Connect With Us

Reach us Individually

 

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

Thinking Pilates Podcast - Connect with Us

Ep 32: The Absolutely fabulous women of Primal Movement WORKS

/1 Comment/in /by

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

tpp-ep-32Join me in this fantastic interview with the talented, funny, and successful band of mighty misfits, the founders of Absolute Center in Lafayette, CA: Claudia Moose, Katie Santos, and Louise Johns.

In this episode you’re going to get a lot of laughs (that’s I think par for the course with us), get a ton of great insight into how to make business partnerships not only work, but thrive and discover more about the origins of Primal Movement Works and their upcoming teacher training.

You may have heard Claudia on our last podcast “Live from the PMA”. If you did, then you know that you’re in for a treat. If not, let’s not waste any more time…

Below you’ll find two of our cool new podcast elements: Heroes and Pro tips. We hope you love these new additions and they bring a little more value to your teaching.

 

Heroes

First on our list is one of Claudia’s favorite books:

And if you haven’t checked out what osteopath and acupuncturist Phillip Beach is doing, we highly recommend you investigate his book:

Not only does the Primal Movement Works training program draw from Beach’s work, his archetypal postures and erectorcises are making a huge impact in the Pilates community as we look beyond fixed structure and predetermined movement to something that’s more resilient and truly human.

Our final “hero” is a little self-serving but also deeply in the service of moving our professional industry into the digital health arena. If you’re a regular listener you heard me interview Pilates Metrics founder, Joseph Quinn in Episode 29.

Pilates Metrics is an outstanding and powerful new cloud-based ipad app that is ultimately helping Pilates become more credible and viable as a proven tool for injury prevention and rehabilitation. What it does for you is help you plan, program, track and assess digitally, which provides more concrete data and more motivation for you and the student to stay the course, adapt, build and progress through the Pilates work.

The app itself is incredibly malleable allowing you to choose from 9 or 10 exercise libraries to work from. The libraries provide a technical and philosophical platform from which you teach. Some of them are based solely on a school’s training curriculum like Polestar and Fletcher Pilates. Others, like the one Skillful Teaching created, is based on a teaching philosophy.

The heart and soul of the Skillful Teaching library is a WHOLE PERSON TEACHING approach.

 

Pro Tip

Given all of that, our pro-tip for this episode is Keep it Simple and Let it go. Let go of form and explore what movement potential exists in the body as it is. See if you can find ways to open the body up to it’s own current potential rather than being so focused on what movement should look like. One way I’ve found to do this, working with the spirals of the feet in foot work is to deliberately work off center and to move through the varying angles and positions of the foot as the load of the springs oscillates and progresses. Watch how your student adapts, where they’re compensating in the knees, pelvis, low back and shoulders.

The caveat is that you work on a relatively light spring (1R, 1B to 2R) and the body you’re working with doesn’t have any acute foot, ankle, knee or hip issues. Keep your students safe, of course, but let them see how their bodies can move out of alignment. I think what you’ll find is that they have way more potential than you thought.

I’d love to know how that goes.

 

Links and Resources

Upcoming Primal Movement WORKS Training:

  • Primal Foundations
    • January 28th & 29th
    • Register HERE

Connect With Us

Reach us Individually

 

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

Thinking Pilates Podcast - Connect with Us

Ep 20: So you want to teach teachers? Pilates Education Institute

/0 Comments/in /by

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Ep 21: Zen and the Art of Teaching with Tom McCook

/0 Comments/in /by

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Tom McCook is one of my all time favorite teachers not only to study with but to just be near. There are those rare people who you gravitate toward as if they were pulling you into their orbit – that is Tom. Learn how this deeply calm, compassionate and inquisitive teacher builds his teaching foundation.

Apologies in advance for the poor sound quality. It’s totally worth it.

Ep 18: How The Pilates Philosophy Will Help You Not Be Afraid To Ask For Money

/0 Comments/in /by

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

This brief recording is an exploration of how, by knowing, understanding, and integrating the Pilates philosophy we can more easily and authentically guide our students down a direct path to practicing with us. Learn what you can do to get more comfortable with selling what you do simply by getting excited and being honest about the Pilates method.