We’ve just spent some time in South Africa for a friends wedding. I asked my pal Izzy, who is 5, what she wants to do when she’s older and her response was “everything I love doing!” I was blown away at
how obvious it was to her. It made me wonder, where us adult go wrong. Is it that we’re taught in school to go and get a ‘good’ job, which basically means a job thats pays you loads of money, so then you can be happy? As a new human potential coach, after wading through a load of peoples stories and beliefs, what I've found most (so far) is people want most is freedom and love. And often (not always, but often) it’s their work environment that gets in the way of one or both of these. Do we start off like Izzy with passion and love and loose sight of it along the way?
Sir Ken Robinson talks about how creativity is educated out of our children and as adults we live in our brains, disembodied. Only using our body as a form of transport for our brain to arrive at meetings. I think he’s right. In my 15 years of working closely with people in pain and performance, the work has been predominantly been helping the client connect with their body. Sure, the exercises are important, but the main thing is learning how to be ‘in’ your body and understanding ‘where’ you’re moving from. This is how our muscles, joints etc come back ‘online’ and start functioning optimally. It’s the same with coaching, as soon as the client (the Self) resides in the heart or belly, their body wakes up and the client realises what they really want, and know exactly what to do about it. By now however, they’ve spent the better part of their 20’s and 30’s in environments that they dont love, in the name of working hard, making money & saving. And often (not always, but often) it leads to deep unhappiness.
It’s okay though, because in general we are getting closer to our bodies, and neuroscience is a hot topic right which is a huge driving force of our understanding of just how much our bodies communicate to us. Izzy is 5, I hope by the time she is 15 schools are integrating neuroscience, nature and art, so she really does get to do what she loves when she’s older. For the rest of us, well this is where coaching comes in, learning how to ‘get back in touch’ with what we really want, become aware of our belief systems and evaluate what’s stopping us from doing what we really love.
Other then Izzy’s genius words, South Africa was wildly stunning, the weather was spot on, the waves were consistent and safari was one of the best days of my life. Our friends wedding was a laugh, the groom George is part Greek so there was a lot of dancing in a circle and the wine was delicious, we’re on the Rosé tip this summer. It’s been nice to come home though.
I rarely exercise when I’m on holiday, I take my green balls and do some stretches but otherwise
holidays are total break. So, coming back to my reformer was a treat. I also came back to a package at my door. It was Surfgirl Magazine, they published my article about the benefits of Pilates on surfing. Here is a link so can get a copy. It's issue 77!
Up coming 1:1 sessions
I’m back to my normal 2 days a week of 1:1 clients in both movement and now coaching. If you would like a booking email is best.
Spring Classic Festival
I’m going to be teaching at Spring Classic Festival in Devon at 10am Friday 2nd June and 11am Sunday 4th. The basis to the class is BODY AWARENESS and POWER and it will be based around the principles of human movement. We’ll take a deep dive into the working mechanics of your muscles and bones, enhance their function and get to know them better. It’s a great little festival with a good mix of music, food, dancing, surf and wellness. Hope to see you there. Get your ticket!
Youtube
Also, don’t forget, there are morning stretch, strength, mobility & back pain classes on Youtube.
Keep up your practice and stay attuned to you body - it’s got all the answers.
AC X