Astrology and Pilates - whats your Mars sign?

Astrology and Pilates and residing in the Byron shire……cliche right?? Mmmmmm……

I do like Astrology. And have liked it for some time. Well mainly my astrological ways. And I reckon I nailed it cosmically when I was born. I was born a Leo. And I love being a Leo, for my strength. My impenetrable and resilient strength, I attribute that to my Lioness. But its also good to know you Ascendant/Rising and Moon sign and I reckon I just nailed the trifecta…

Sun in Leo

Ascendant in Libra

Moon in Sagittarius.

Awesome, awesome, awesome…….

But Pilates and astrology….well i think Pilates was always meant to come into my life, via destiny at the very minute I was born, and where all the stars and planets lay at that moment in time were unique to me. And as I have learnt more about Astrology and the depth of it all, and with all the fuss of Mars in Aries at this moment in time (and I am lovingly feeling the fire of my fellow fire brethren Aries) it has made me revisit my Mars position in my chart….and Mars is about how you handle life - energy, challenges, sports. My Mars is in Gemini and the following is what I am learning from my excellent little Astrology resource…

“This placing stimulates the mind, although many astrologers have found that Mars in not well placed in this sign, as it is not physically invigorating. We do not necessarily agree, provided that some kind of intellectual motivation for physical activity is shown. It is important for the individual to exercise the body as well as the mind (as is the case with everyone), but she may not be particularly inclined to do so unless some sort of intellectual challenge is involved. Many forms or exercise will be tried, but most will be deemed boring. Encourage her to find one that satisfies her intellectual and physical needs, and to stick to it. If this does not happen, restlessness will build up, bringing a rather sharp bad temper and irritability that will be directed not only towards others but also to the self, through considerable self-criticism. Energy may be dissipated through too many changes of direction, both in life in general and on a day to day basis.”

WHOA. That is very much me…..so, so very happy for the moment in time I entered this world, I feel my universal placing to be incredibly lucky.

I was destined to find Pilates. It was written in the stars…..how cool is that?????

Where is your Mars sign???

Pet Peeves - yep they exist...

Firstly, before I commence writing this, I want you to know that I have been in this position and asked the same thing (before becoming a Pilates Instructor) “Why is Pilates so expensive?”. But, going through the Romana’s training program, which required a full immersion on my part and paying the $$$$$$ to get through the course, having no money, having to rely on family for help, and moving from one side of the country to the other for Pilates training, and leaving my kid (even tho she was an adult, this Lioness still likes having her cub close) is a pretty big effort on my part. I commenced my Classical Pilates in January 2015, and completed in October 2016, so i INVESTED a huge part of my life to learning how to teach the art that is Pilates. I did not do a weekend course in Pilates, and all of a sudden I became a kick arse Pilates Instructor! Hell no! So, at times, when this comment has been made, I have that quick opportunity for my brain to process rapidly thru the memory banks, of what was necessary for me to sacrifice and experience to become a Romana’s Pilates Instructor, yet this person whom I am speaking to about Pilates, has no idea or concept of my training or my experiences during this deep training. So I tell them. I explain to them. One soon hears my passion. One soon learns and understands when they experience True Pilates for the first time. We train and are trained very comprehensively and in depthly. Please don’t downplay this certification. Don’t downplay it, because it isn’t a university degree….this is one helluva experience on all levels. We earned the right to charge (well most of us, like in all industries, there are still hacks out there……) for our value. And we also have bills to pay.

But this brings me to my second point of “why is pilates so expensive?” blog. I am pretty passionate about health and the health of those I love and care about. I have my vices but I am pretty stoked with my health in my mid 40’s. I feel strong and fit. But I consciously choose to invest into my health. I must admit that I am constantly blown away how people will invest huge sums of $$$$ into a car, toy and whatevs will feed the ego initially (and i dont mean the ego in a bad way - to understand how i mean ego requires another post and I cant be naffed doing a post on that…) but without even thinking about spending any $$$ on a Pilates session and investing on the inside of your body. (The old gym membership cracks me up with some people. I know people who still pay their fortnightly membership to their gym without having attended in years, but feel that whilst paying for the membership, it gives them this false sense of security that they are committing to their health - but we all know that they’re not. That’s just how lazy they are…cant even cancel their gym membership). Is it our oxymoron ways, that we spend a shit load of money buying a flash new car (which eventually loses its shine and new car smell and the envy of your friends after a few months), encasing this metal around us externally, to make us feel happy and proud and safe. But the true investment, is the internal investment. Your health. Its a no brainer peoples. What needs to happen for you to realise this? a scalpel to cut thru your flesh on your chest, to peel back tissue to expose your rib cage, which then be sawn thru with some saw type instrument, then ribs butterflied pried open, and your heart operated on, because you invested everywhere externally, but very rarely do you invest into your health and it’s resulted in this moment. Wow. Way to go. This is not the way i chose to go. I don’t want to have to endure any type of surgery that resulted, partly of whatever percentage, of health neglect.

Invest into your damn health. Physically and emotionally. It deserves it after all the shit you put if through. And if there is one thing you cant pay for as you get older, it is good health. But you may be finding yourself buying big operations to keep yourself alive because of genuine lack of self love (because not investing in your health is a huge lack of self love. Yep, no shit)

So you want to be a Pilates Instructor.....

So, as I write this, I want those who read this to know, that this was my experience to become an instructor. My journey was pretty much fueled by pure instinct. And those choices, opportunities etc paid off. As Instructors, we all have our journey as to how we came to be.

I had been doing mat pilates for 8 years, before deciding to look into this Pilates Instructor thing. So i started to look into Joe Pilates and his life, and his work and who he chose to carry on this exercise system, and this person is Romana Kryzanowska. So I googled her, and found Romana’s Pilates, found the Aussie constituent representing Romana’s and I hit GOLD!!!!! I found Cynthia Lochard and learned about her and her training by Romana and then actually being a Grand Master Trainer in the original method! Boom! i knew that I had found my place. I knew and more importantly, I FELT this was the right direction, and then everything just fell into place. Like it was all meant to be. I very much respect this training program with Romana’s Pilates, and I can say that from my experience was thorough, fully immersive, organic and challenging but to be given back so much knowledge, support and absolute expertise from all the Teacher Trainers and Pilates Instructors aussie wide and from Cynthia herself, for me it was a genuine life changing experience. Perhaps comparable to a Mid Life Crisis ( well I was in my late 30’s). It was most excellent. And still turns out to be that way. My mid life crisis is awesome!!!

Pilates is a discipline. To me, it is an art form of exercise. And I firmly believe, that any discipline is a lifelong commitment and learning experience, and Pilates is this. To be able to articulate and understand this work, should never be expected to be learnt - both physically and mentally - in a short time frame (It took me 16 months, pretty much full time, to get certified as an Instructor!!). Patience is always a good virtue to have upfront, or patience is also a skill and lesson learned, along the way (which is my situation) and this patience lesson still challenges me greatly. To be frank, I changed my life for this whole Pilates thing and at the time I didn’t realise it, because I was in the right environment for learning (and I wanted to learn, not study), I could channel all of my focus and energy into Pilates and had incredible inspiration along the way and it just felt natural. It felt right. I feel incredibly lucky and honoured to be trained to an extremely high level and having this direct lineage to Joe Pilates himself.

So I ask you, WHY do you want to become, or WHY did you become a Pilates Instructor?

Dependent on your response, will genuinely determine your level of training that you want or wanted to do, or would be able to do, or have been able to do. I imagine there would be a myriad of different responses. Each story is unique and interesting. But if you truly dig Pilates, you never stop learning.

Ever.

If you are open and humble to this kick arse method, you will always learn, from your mentors, from workshops and seminars, your clients, and yourself. And those self learning epiphanies are magic moments. And I hope that you are passionate about practicing and teaching Pilates. And I hope this passion is found within that Pilates training studio where you were trained or where you are going to be trained. The instructors found within these Teacher Training studios should inspire you to be a better instructor each day. They inspire us as we aspire to be.

So hell yeah, I am one proud Leo woman who is super proud of my training achievements within this Pilates world. But I am even more stoked that I have absolutely brilliant intuition. Following my good old fashioned gut lead me to Romana’s Pilates and Cynthia Lochard, where I flourished and began one helluva journey. Which has serendipitously culminated in me writing on my own blog on my own website because I have my own studio. Yayyyyyy me! Like I said, one helluva journey.

I hope that however you were trained, or how you are going to be trained, that you are fortunate enough to be on this journey too, but actually truly understanding what “that” Pilates journey is. Then you’ll totally get it.

And if I ever get to meet you, and you’re a Pilates Instructor, then I can’t wait to hear your Pilates story!

Mint Pilates? Why mint??

Mint Pilates Mullumbimby.

I can’t take credit for the name.

That honour goes to one of my fave humans - Tim (pictured above) - whom i have the pleasure to teach (and we are soooo guilty for having hilarious moments during his workout) and we also express our deep love for the band Tool.

You see, mint is one of my favourite words. Word, not herb or colour or taste (well taste…mmmm….). I use mint all the time in lieu of awesome, or wicked or epic but as i have discovered, Mint appears to be predominantly a WA word as it hasn’t really been heard over here in NSW and i have been here nearly 4 years….so you could say that I have introduced some east coasters, including some Mullumbytes, to the wonders of the word “Mint”. I am often renowned for shouting out “mint!” when one of my clients do something awesome and it is just so catchy. So Tim named this happy little studio, and it was quite serendipitous, how it all played out with the name, and the positive feedback I received from soooo many folk. Tim bought it to my attention when it was so incredibly obvious from the start yet i didnt see it. So thanks Tim!!!

But Mint and my meaning behind it is one of such positivity and enthusiasm and I will forever use it, and hopefully people who come to Mint Pilates understand why there is such loveliness associated with Mint.

Mint Pilates Mullumbimby

Super mint (or Mintox)

Are you practicing Pilates or Contrology?

ahhhh, this old chestnut! But its such a valid question, and if you want to invest into Pilates, then you should look into what you’re paying for.

Joe Pilates created this amazing exercise system, however Mr Pilates called his work “Contrology”. But over the years, Mr Pilates exquisite surname has been used extensively and surated throughout the fitness industry and from that, comes various interpretations about the work, hence totally deviating from his original work. Contrology or Pilates, is a disciplined workout, and instructors in training are required to go through rigorous training programs, with a genuine, direct lineage to Joe Pilates himself. No watered down versions, not bastardised versions - only the true Pilates. In some places, you could go into a “Pilates class”, do crunches, star jumps, hold planks and all under the assumed name of Pilates - but it isn’t Pilates. Pilates is a discipline and commitment required to truly learn this method You will move, you will be mentally challenged and mostly, you will be physically challenged. It is an incredibly deep and powerful workout in which you are formally introduced to your “powerhouse” - very deep and strong centre muscles in your body that can only be truly felt to be understood and appreciated. Joe Pilates also created incredible apparatus - Reformer, Cadillac, Wunda Chair, Guillotine, Electric/High Chair, Baby chair etc etc, and the dimensions on these machines have not altered over time by original apparatus manufacturers such as Gratz and Pilates Design, LLC. Adjustments made dimensionally on pilates apparatus, by various other manufacturers, totally changes the feel of the exercise but also greatly compromises the prime exercise’s objective. It might sound all a bit boring or weird to the uninitiated, but your apparatus is super important. At Mint Pilates, we are a fully functional studio with the best apparatus, and amazing instructors too.

And take the time to get to know your instructor and their training. You are investing money into your health and putting it into their capable and highly skilled hands. True Pilates Instructors aren’t created over a weekend course, no, no, no….they are committed and take what they do seriously and commit a lifelong learning journey to this method. You should invest into these instructors. And we are those instructors here at Mint Pilates. Phew!