Awareness

Awareness is a primary Pilates movement principle. How would you define Awareness in your studio? As teachers, we tend to our clients’ bodies, aware of how they feel on any given day. One of the first things we often ask our clients is, “How do you feel today?” As they take their first step into the studio our keen eye notices gait and demeanor. This prepares us for teaching the session ahead, before we even start. By continuously checking in throughout each class and session, we become more aware of his or her strengths, limitations, and imbalances.

However, many of us teachers struggle with our personal Awareness. Awareness of our movement patterns and posture as we teach and demonstrate, or as we leave the studio after a long day of teaching other bodies can be a challenge! Our attention is enthralled within each client’s movement and experience. Sometimes we are so completely focused on someone else’s body for 5 or 6 sessions in a row, barely aware of our own midline or neck alignment. How do we stay present within our own bodies when it’s our responsibility to be aware and teach Awareness to our clients?

It helps to have mirrors around the studio double-checking our posture and alignment, but isn’t Awareness supposed to help us feel our bodies? We challenge clients by letting them use the mirror on the right side while doing Mermaid on the chair but might have them face away from the mirror on the left, teaching them to use the space around them and be aware of where they are in space. We are better teachers when what we teach comes from a place of practice, discipline, and integrity. What are some effective ways you’ve implemented the practice what you teach mantra in your studio?

Awareness is not only important as a movement principle. It is also an extremely important life principle. Consider the principle of Awareness and how it can be incorporated into every day life. I asked Kyria Sabin what her thoughts were on Awareness as a life principle. She articulated the following:

“Awareness permeates everything we do. Awareness taken beyond the studio, beyond personal body mechanics, is what makes Pilates a lifestyle.”

Living with an intention on eating mindfully, aware of how we eat and what we eat, is a fraction of Awareness. Treating others with attention and kindness is also a fraction of Awareness. Making sure your intentions are, “thought through and thoughtful,” as Kyria says, is another fraction of Awareness, contributing to the whole: Pilates as a lifestyle.

Now, on a somewhat more economic note, we must not forget Awareness as a business principle. Awareness in the hands of a business approach takes your business under a “much wants more” wing, as Ron Fletcher would say. It is about evaluating how we run our business and understanding that running a Pilates studio is more than just teaching Pilates. As a business, we must consider our clients’ needs by setting up a mindful space for movement, conscious of noises and distractions, and aware of our own voices as teachers. Are we overpowering the room with our hymn for leg circles, “across, circling down, around, and UP,” disturbing a private session on the other end of the studio? Kyria explained her approach towards running Pilates as a business using the same language in describing Pilates as a lifestyle. The way we run our business is “thought through and thoughtful.” She continued by touching on the importance of Awareness and the business brand. What is your business brand and are you aware of your target markets?

I came across one of Ron’s quotes that speaks to what we’ve discussed here. He said,

“I sought to create pieces of movement. Rather than just a series of exercises.”

Let us all as teachers find our inner Ron, take what we know as movement principles and seek out their promise. Each and every principle can be applied not only to a piece of movement, but to our lives and our business practices too.


About the Author: Arden Montgomery

My name is Arden Montgomery and I went through the Ron Fletcher Comprehensive Program of Study in 2012 while attending The University of Arizona. I taught at Body Works Pilates Studio until I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Creative Writing May of 2014. My orthopedic referred me to Pilates when I was 14 after an X-ray showed an upper curvature of the spine known as Kyphosis. I feel quite fortunate becuase ever since I was 18 months old, diagnosed with JRA (Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis), I’ve been seeing doctors and physical therapists. If it wasn’t for these physical ailments of mine, who knows if and when I would have found Pilates. It has changed not only my body, but my mind and spirit as well. Nothing has been more gratifying than teaching this work. It just makes sense.