Pilates teaching - it's about awareness. "Feel ..." This one instruction, followed by a reference to the body, or movement, or gravity, or rhythm, or space, is what really sparks the student to begin to understand Pilates. These type of instruction is called "sensory cueing" and requires a certain level of awareness in the student to be effective. The main thing is that the instructor has to have experienced the sensation themselves before they try to use this type of cue. Many times, I hear instructors giving sensory based cueing by "rote". In other words, they heard it said and have memorized it and say it reflexively when they teach. This doesn't work, and can even have the opposite effect by making the student less attentive for an "authentic" direction. An authentic cue is one that the instructor has felt and knows intimately within their own body. This is what is meant when we say "embodiment of skill", and it is what develops only after training for years in the discipline.

Some of my favorite Pilates sensory cues are ones that get you to feel your spine lengthen or release. Drawing the tailbone longer away from the head creates more space in the lumbar spine and feels great when having to do leg extensions or swan extensions of the back. Cues that encourage releasing into gravity are also very nice in that they usually allow the student to relax unnecessary tension. Some teachers always teach with awareness, asking the student what they feel from a movement rather than directing their feelings. If the exercise is taught properly, it will reveal things to you that you only need to ask yourself "what am I feeling" when you do it. Pilates will never be boring if you look at it as an exploration of movement and leave your students open to discover new sensations of control, balance, flow, etc. This way you will always be teaching in the moment and feel more inspired every day as you see your students light up with awareness.

Meditation is an important part of Yogilates. All Yogilates classes and video programs start and end with guided meditation. This is to bring the focus inward and set an intention of being present and open. In Yogilates, the emphasis is on training the mind as well as the body for optimal wellbeing. Some people are confused or hesitant about meditation because they don't understand what it is for, or how to do it. In some ways it is easiest to think of meditation as simply learning to relax the body and the mind to help relieve stress. Stress can lead to anxiety, physical tension, distraction, irritability, and a weakened immune system. Therefore, it is vital to one's health to learn how to manage and dissipate stress, and meditation is the tool you can use to do this.

MEDITATION 101
1. To start, find a quiet place - away from noise, bright lights, or other distractions. Turn off your phones so you won't be disturbed. Sit on a cushion with your legs crossed or on a straight back chair with your feet flat on the floor. Place your hands palms up on your thighs and find a balanced position with a straight spine. If you need, place another cushion behind your lower back for support. It is important that you feel comfortable and safe in your space for meditation to be most effective.

2. Close your eyes and listen to your breath. Feel the easy ebb of flow of air in and out of your body and feel a steady stillness in your body. Shrug your shoulders up, then exhale and let them drop. Relax your chest and sink your hips down like roots to the earth. Now begin to "observe" your breath. Do not try to control it yet, just notice the inhalation and exhalation and how each phase of the breath moves the body. Noticing the breath is the first way we bring our focus inward and our attention to the present. It is called "conscious breathing". In yoga, the breath represents "prana" which can be thought of as universal energy that permeates the universe, connecting all things to the divine spirit.

3. Staying with your focus on your breath, begin to lengthen your exhales. Feel your inhalation begin with the diaphragm (located under your ribs in the center of the body called the thorax). Deepen your breathing slightly, without forcing it. Just follow all the air out, patiently waiting until you are truly empty, then feel your inhalation start from a deeper place. Allow the muscles of your forehead, cheeks, and jaw to relax. Soften your eyes and your mouth. With practice, you can let your body and your consciousness float on your breath. Feel lifted and supported with your breath. Stay with your breath in this way for 10 full cycles of the breath.

4. There are many ways to use visualizations to help create inner calm and peace. Here is an example: As you look inward, visualize your mind as empty space, dimly illuminated like a gray cavern. If extraneous thoughts or images pop up into your consciousness, just notice them as separate from you, like floating objects that eventually drift away and disappear. Visualize the grayness like foggy clouds in space. Next, with the tempo of the breath, start to sweep away the clouds with each breath. From behind and above the gray clouds is clear sky and pure light. After all the grayness is swept away, allow your mind to become illuminated with this clear blue, empty sky. Sense the source of the light reflected in the sky as coming from within your heart center. Starting like the sun just poking up from the horizon, it slowly fills up in your heart/mind and the sky is expanded to the heavens. You are now filled with the aura of your divine being. It shines out from the top of your head and surrounds you with a protective layer of peaceful and loving light energy. You do not feel anymore than this; it is a natural, calming, and content feeling. Pure emptiness in the mind frees your heart source. It is ok if strong emotions come to the surface while you meditate. You may start to cry or feel sad. This is normal as your body may need to let go of fear or emotional stress. It is natural, healthy, and will pass. Return to your breath and just enjoy the emptiness and relaxed state of being in the present - in your space - centered, calm, aware.

5.There are many books on how to meditate and how to expand it's benefits. Some of our favorites are:

-"Simple Meditation and Relaxation" (Simple Wisdom Book) by Joel Levy and Michele Levy.

"Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life", by Jon-Kabat Zinn 

-"The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle.

Your posture is key to living efficiently. You can exercise all you want, but if you don't properly position yourself in good alignment in your everyday activities, you will increase wear and tear on your body. In many ways, quality of life issues as we get older are related to poor posture.

The first step to improving posture is awareness. Try this simple self-test to check your posture. Stand upright in front of a mirror and see how your feet are aligned. Are they parallel (meaning pointing straight ahead)? How far are they apart? Next scan up to your hips and shoulders. Are they level, or is one side higher or lower than the other? Now, look at the head. Is it tilted to one side, or slightly forward or back? Make note of what you see before you make any adjustments. This will tell you about your habitual stance.

Now, stand sideways in the mirror. Check to see how aligned your body is. Draw an imaginary line to divide your body down the middle. See if you ear is over the center of the shoulder, which should be over the middle of the hips, over the middle of the knee, over the middle of the ankle. See the photos at left for examples of correct alignment.
For more information on posture and how to check it, please see Ch. 2 in my book, Yogilates - Integrating Yoga and Pilates for Complete Fitness, Strength, and Flexibility.

Breathing:

Breathing well is living well. A simple exercise to help get you started with this all important function is to sit comfortably with a straight back. You can do this on a firm pillow on the floor with your legs crossed, or on a firm chair with your feet on the floor. Sit as tall as you can, back straight. Place your hands on the sides of ribs and close your eyes. 1. Breathe through your nose and first just notice your breath. 2. Start to notice as you exhale that you can relax your chest and shoulders as you release your breath all the way out, and that your lower belly can draw in. 2. Then, breathe in naturally and fully and feel your ribs expand to the sides while keeping the lower belly drawn in. 3. Breathe into your ribs like this for 4 - 5 more breaths. Notice how with every inhale your upper body can float higher, and with every exhale how the sides come in and down, but also gently lifts you taller from the inside 4. Let your breathing effort subside to an easier one, but still notice how, even in stillness, your breath moves you from your center.

I devote much of Ch. 3 in my book to how to breath correctly while practicing both yoga and Pilates.(link)

Core:
Essentially, the core muscles in the body are those torso muscles that engage to hold your whole body stable during a position or movement. Specifically, the muscles that stabilize the spine, pelvis, ribs, and shoulders, are key to core stabilization. Principal muscles of torso for stabilization are the transverse abdominus, the multifidis, the diaphragm, and the pelvic floor. Other muscles that are engaged from inside the torso to help stabilize include the other abdominals, the gluteals, the serratus and middle trapezius, and the intercostals, which pull the ribs together.

When taught correctly, Pilates is the best exercise system to strengthen your core because you are taught to be ever conscious of both stabilization using the deeper core muscles, and to release unnecessary tension from larger muscle groups and from habitual tension spots of the body such as the shoulders, neck, feet, hands, and back. To learn this properly, it is also good to practice yoga with a similar awareness. The breath work of yoga actually helps you to master Pilates technique because only when you learn to use the breath to relax, can you begin to discover a deeper source of grounded movement from your center. This is far superior to traditional abdominal exercises. In addition, because it is synchronized with the breath, it is more advanced than basic stabilization exercises done on physioballs and other unstable devices. In Yogilates(R) you develop stronger core muscles with awareness of how to oppose your own body weight for greater control and skill.

The breath work of yoga actually helps you to master Pilates technique because only when you learn to use the breath to relax, can you begin to discover a deeper source of grounded movement from your center. This is far superior to traditional abdominal exercises. In addition, because it is synchronized with the breath, it is more advanced than basic stabilization exercises done on physioballs and other unstable devices. In Yogilates you develop stronger core muscles with awareness of how to oppose your own body weight for greater control and skill.

The following exercises help you to understand the connection of your breath with movement from your core.

Can moderate exercise really be all you need for complete fitness? If you focus on the right exercises it can be. Exercising in moderation is equated with a lack of effort and boredom, and, judging by our commercial culture, you would think that everything about sports or fitness these days has to be “extreme” to be really worth anything. Unfortunately, two popular mind/body systems for fitness - Yoga and Pilates – have also sometimes been pushed into high intensity practice, which detract from the more healing qualities of the practices. Luckily, Yogilates®, a refined integration of both yoga and Pilates, offers a moderate, balanced, and healthy amount of exercise for our modern lifestyle.

Worsening posture and stiffness are generally taken for granted as we get older and traditional exercises do little to abate them. But, Yogilates® can help alleviate these symptoms and is a perfect alternative exercises for people of any age. By now, most people have tried some kind of Yoga, and know it can help with flexibility and relaxation. Pilates, which many Hollywood celebrities swear, offers core strength as well as lengthening and toning qualities. For people who want the best of both,Yogilates®, is popular with many fitness enthusiasts. Beginning on the floor to safely warm up your body and increase awareness of proper alignment, it then gradually moves to the standing exercises to develop balance, agility, and greater leg strength. The technique includes detailed instructions and visualizations and teaches you to focus on your whole body throughout the session. This type of training has been shown to not only improve effectiveness and safety, but also helps train your concentration skills and increases overall enjoyment as you are become more aware of your skills improving. The result is greater strength without bulk, as well as increased flexibility, coordination, balance and self-confidence.

What really is the best exercise for you? That is the million-dollar question and the answer is probably a combination of exercise types that are ideally suited for your particular age group. Remember, not only is it healthier for you physically, mentally, and spiritually to work at an even keel, but the truth is that with the right kind of regimen, you can actually achieve more with less.