Many of you will know already that I never wanted to teach, and most definitely not a Method I didn’t much care for.
When I was 18 and Pilates was just another class on my college schedule, it was a means to an end, a body conditioning class to make me a stronger dancer, exercises to reduce my risk of injury and improved body awareness to help me do the thing I loved, Dancing.
Had I had the choice I would not have done it, being sent to expensive studios in Highgate to try and fix my body on a Reformer was an alien experience, little guidance at a high price which I barely understood and in truth had little interest in.
I could not have imagined 25 years on I would not only still be teaching but have my own little Studio including the ubiquitous reformer.
As I’ve traversed through a career dancing, through marriage, divorce, love, loss and house moves, through 25 years of volunteering, from being fired as a personal trainer to training as a Yoga teacher during Covid. I’ve navigated the challenges of being a self-employed teacher throughout and taught just about anything to keep a roof over mine and my rescue family’s head. At times it’s been somewhat fraught and navigating these challenges post menopause has been one more interesting phase to find myself traversing.
I deeply regret ever thinking that you could never be too warm in class. I was entirely wrong.
Pilates has taken me to new places, and I’ve met some amazing people along the way. It hasn’t always been pleasant or fun, but it’s always taught me things I needed to learn, often the hard way.
Many of you have known me since the beginning, I’ve changed, we’ve all changed but the thing that hasn’t changed is that whatever exercise Method you choose to commit to doing regularly it is a means to an end, it should never be the most important thing in your life, however much you might love it or extol its virtues.
Methods don’t change lives, people change lives, others and their own. We strengthen, mobilise and breathe to make the daily challenges of live easier be it the stairs you navigate, the tables you dance on, or the gardens you tender.
So, as I reflect, I’m so grateful I disliked Pilates so much, It taught me how to teach people who like me would rather be doing something else, it taught me we don’t all have to move the same, look the same or feel the same way about exercise. And most importantly after 25 years I’ve learned I really know very little.
Your bodies are magnificent; this is an undeniable truth, so move them as often as possible and if its uncomfortable and messy you are probably doing it right. You are not living a filtered life so expect progress to be frequently chaotic and unpredictable not pretty and polished.
If a Lotus can grow through mud, I suspect we can too.
I’m now taking a couple of weeks off to recharge, time to practice what I preach & teach.
And as we sadly lost a true icon of our times this week it seems only right to sign off from the Summer with the uncompromising wisdom & words of Dolly Parton, the world lost a magnificent light.
With Love,
Suzy x
“Don’t get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life.”
― Dolly Parton
