Peel Back for Growth & Squeeze the Most out of Life!

Juice Your Life!

Do you ever feel raw and exposed and scared of change even though you know it’s for the best?

This thought came to me last night as I grated lemon peel for the risotto that the hubby was making for our dinner (yes, it was delicious, thanks for asking).

I know, my brain, right? Anyhoo, post grating I was left with a pithy half lemon and I thought about how exposed it looked and that it had undergone a transformation of sorts.

Stay with me, I know the connection to a sad looking half lemon and and how we approach our lives is a thin thread but see brain above…

Back to my lemon - I thought about how when you take even just that little bit of peel away it hastens the use by date but that also, not only do you now have delicious lemon rind for your dish, you also have an easier time squeezing the lemon to get at the good, tart, juice. 

Okay so now back to my first question about feeling raw and exposed - I think that you have to be wiling to peel back some layers of you to get to your good interior juice but that it can feel like a vulnerable place to hang out while you’re trying to create your yummiest dish (which would be your life). And that when you’re in that exposed place it behooves you to take some action lest your will starts to decompose.

Okay that lemon metaphor has soured on me. I’m binning it.

 photo by Nick Fewings

60 

My big Six-Oh birthday comes next month so I’ve been pondering:

I see that if we want to progress as a more fully realised version of ourselves there has to be some shedding of what’s not serving us any more.

And guess what, this applies to our Pilates practice too - what are we holding on to that’s getting in the way of our advancement?

Of course advancement is subjective meaning something different for each person - are we a beginning or advanced practitioner? Dealing with a chronic condition? Coming back from injury? Inside a teacher training program? The expectations of progressing are bespoke depending on our unique situation.

Figuring out what limits us and holds us back is a challenge

We all have our ‘life story’ and the way we’ve inhabited our body to date. For sure we’ll come up against resistance when we try to change either of these, our story or our physicality.

Of course I think they’re connected - personal growth and Pilates? Yes, in my mind they go hand in hand, LOL.

The things we tell ourselves about who we are or what we can do, these things become ingrained and dang they’re hard (but not impossible) to change. 

The first step towards change is identifying the beliefs, stories, or feelings that are holding us back.

For example, in our Pilates practice we might say that we’ll never be able to perform a Teaser because we:

• don’t have the ab strength
• our hamstrings are too tight
• our back’s too stiff
• we can never get the timing
• etc. etc. etc.

Our Life Story might tell us that we:

• won’t ever have a successful business
• might never find a partner
• are too disorganised
• are a bad friend, parent, sibling, etc.

Whatever our self imposed limits, in whatever realm of our lives we’re focusing on, the first thing is to identify them otherwise nothing much will ever change.

Here’s how I approach figuring out my limiting stories/beliefs/feelings that keep me from flourishing.

Time and Space

I give myself time and space to listen to my body and what I’m going to call my soul or essence.

How do I do this?

Through daydreaming, meditating, or breathing techniques. I also might go for a walk or play around with something totally unrelated to being ‘productive’ (today I started a new jigsaw puzzle)

It’s like I give myself permission to take a big ole exhale without even realising that I was holding my breath in the first place.

Back to turning 60 and my Limiting Beliefs

I think the main belief relative to my birthday is that I’m too old to start new things - that it’s too late for me to reinvent myself, that who I am is who I am.

When this belief burbled up I was surprised because I truly do feel that age is just a number so I wondered where it’d come from (I’m still figuring that out, but think it has something to do with what ‘heading into retirement’ means?)

So what have I done now that I have identified that limiting belief?

I just called B.S. on it and discarded it. I know I said that change can be hard but it felt surprisingly easy!

Since I let it go I’ve had a have a huge wave of creativity burble up - that was surprising too!

Maybe this is why this belief was so easy to discard? Once I let it go there was space for it to be replaced with a different story about who I am and what I have to offer and what I’m allowed to offer - ooh that’s juicy!

I thought I’d be done and ready to hang up my teaching career about now but instead I’m extremely charged up about creating more content and exploring different ways to share my teachings and ideas. What I love it that our goals and ideas get to change as we age. I’m planning on more retreats, an online course and a podcast - what about you? 

Here’s what almost 60 looks like:

Pilates

Now how can all this goodness be applied to our Pilates Mat? I think in much the same way. First we give ourselves time to really feel what’s going on in our body and this is the most important thing - WITHOUT JUDGEMENT!

I know it’s hard but we’ll get in our own way if we’re not more curious than scolding (I think you know what I mean).

Once we figure out where our limits are then we can make a plan to fill in our movement gaps, or perhaps use a prop or modification so that we can supply our body with a new physical sensation. If we don’t try to change what we are feeling then our brain doesn’t get new input so that we actually can change.

Back to our Teaser (or any challenging exercise)

To move forward it helps to peel an exercise back to its necessary physical skills.

Once those are identified we can tune up those skills in other exercises (generally these other exercises are earlier in the sequence or session). This is where we strengthen the skills and feel new and different sensations which we then apply as best we can to the more challenging work.

Here are some other ideas:

• not enough ab strength? figure out which part of the rolling up sequence you need to focus on (this would be perfect to look at in the 100 or the Roll Up)
• tight hamstrings? soften the knees (when you need to!) as you roll up 
• stiff back? check out your breathing and keep doing Pilates in all it’s bending, extending, twisting glory. Rolling Like A Ball would be great to focus on
• timing not so flash? work with an instructor who understands movement sequencing and can offer you some ideas specific to your body

Here’s my Exercise Dive on the Teaser - it’s pretty detailed plus there’s a video tutorial, I bet you gain some insight.

So, the take homes from this post?

• give yourself time and space to identity what you want to change
• find a new story or feeling to make the change happen more easily
• Pilates connects to life and life connects to Pilates
• we’re never too old to change
• life begins at 60!

I’m off to my jigsaw, thanks for reading,

xBec

The information contained above is provided for information purposes only. The contents of this blog are not intended to amount to advice and Rebecca Forde disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on any of the contents of this post