Those of you who do Pilates with me will often have heard me say that our bodies will always take the easiest route.Basically, whenever we move, no matter how simple or complex the movement, our bodies take the route that is easiest for them. Now, that doesn’t mean it’s always the ‘correct’ route.
You see our bodies are amazingly adaptable: if one muscle isn’t firing properly or as strongly as it needs, then your body will simply look to where it can ‘fire’ so you achieve the movement, such as walking, standing on one leg etc, that you desire.
So, by easiest, I really mean that your body will bypass a muscle if it’s not firing correctly and use another.
This came up in class today and someone raised a very valid question – by easiest do we just mean the most efficient route?
Yes, it would be the most efficient, if we were perfectly in balance and everything was working exactly as nature intended it to………. and that’s the issue. The vast majority of us, including myself, are no longer in perfect balance and no longer working as nature intended us to (if we ever did!)
So, you can see that it really isn’t the most efficient, it is just the body finding the easiest way to achieve what you want it to do.
Hopefully, you can also see how important it is for us to be fully aware, fully focused and fully feeling when we are doing our Pilates. That way we are re-programming our bodies to move in a more balanced way, to get the muscles that should be working fired up, and those that shouldn’t, letting go. It’s why I’m such a big believer in doing the movements slowly, constantly cuing you what to focus on and encouraging you to stay present throughout your class 🙂
Now, I’m sure that all makes perfect sense, but how many of us apply this thinking to our minds?
When asked the above question in class, I flippantly replied that this also applies to our minds.
You see, our brains are pattern recognition machines – we like (and learn) by repetition. We LOVE patterns because if it is a pattern then it becomes predictable. If it’s predictable we know the outcome, if we know the outcome we feel safe – the ONLY thing your brain is interested in is keeping you safe.
So………over the years as we have many experiences, we form patterns in our thinking based on these, and when we encounter something new, naturally our brains search our database, see the outcome we had of something that was similar and our perceptions (thinking) of that new situation are based on these.
That is all well and good and serves us well a lot of the time, but if we allow this to always be the case, then we get ‘stuck’ in our patterns of thinking, we become very rigid in how we view everything, we deaden any creativity, we miss lots of opportunities, we stop expanding, stop exploring and stop being curious and perhaps become a little ‘beige’.
Our bodies can stiffen up and become more rigid unless we do appropriate, mindful, challenging, explorative, flowing, freeing movements ……..and so can our minds.
Free your mind!