Week 12 — “Setting The Stage”
“We all do what we have to do, to get by, and to make sense of the world. Those of us with a 'calling' of any sort surrender ourselves to a rigid, daily discipline, and we steep ourselves in technique and shared lore, and we do what we can to serve whatever it is we think we're serving, be it a deity or an art. We do this at first, because we think it will bring us joy (or comfort or recognition), but in the end we find we are doing it because we know of no other way to live...”
Bart Yates
Cassandra — There is a strong sense of tension between light + dark in your motifs. You continue to add more depth of meaning and have found some visually evocative moments with the gesture material. Keep digging!”
Hello Pilates People!
A few announcements and thank you's before we dive in this week:
In case you missed it on Instagram (@pilatesppl - FOLLOW US if you haven't already!), we have another new face to welcome to our family! We are so excited for you to meet Xander Smith - a dear friend of ours, a fierce mover and a firm believer in all the best things in this world (to read more about him, click here). He will be joining us to guest teach some of our LIVE classes, starting this Monday - 6/8 at 5pm for a donation class! All proceeds from this class will go to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute (to learn more about this organization, click here)! So please, SIGN UP AND TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW!
And while you're at it, you might as well tell them about our Sunday brunch this week with Lucy Wild of Wildly Nutritious too! We will be donating all proceeds from this event to the Black Feminist Project's farm initiative - Liberated Urban Farm (to learn more about this organization, click here!) and you can sign up/learn more by clicking here. So please, join us! It's just $25 for a moment of community over some wonderful blueberry, lemon poppyseed pancakes that were created with YOU in mind! We want to see you and everyone you love there with us because being together is so very important, especially now.
Speaking of donations and community, a huge THANK YOU to those who were able to join our first 2 donation classes last week! We happily raised just under $400 and split the proceeds between the Black Visions Collective and Color of Change. Moving forward, we have decided to make our Friday morning classes at 10am (EST) weekly donation classes. This will begin on Friday, 6/19 and we will keep you posted on what we decide to contribute to next!
And now, to explain myself and those quotes at the very top.
My mom sent me that first one at some point during my college career, and it became my ritual to write it on the first page of each of my notebooks - as a reminder. After talking to Jenni and working out what to write this week, I opened up my senior thesis notebook to reread that quote and found a post it from my professor, preserved in those pages. It felt relevant and important that I remember that I have always been this way and I have always done things like this.
Because, second only to moving, writing is my way of processing, understanding, discovering and taking a moment to reflect. It's an act of self-care and has become a ritual, for both me and you.
It's a way I can keep digging.
And we think it's so important that we all do just that - keep digging - but we're going to have to be smart in our approaches.
Because digging takes some serious time, energy, sacrifice and a willingness to receive what you find with eyes wide open. And if you think about that, having your eyes wide open isn't always the most comfortable thing (how many of you just tried it? Ya...me too...). And it's okay to be uncomfortable, in fact, you really should be sometimes. But it's then also okay to find a moment to recollect before and/or after.
So our jobs here actually expand beyond simply rising to the occasions we are met with. Our jobs are also to prepare ourselves to rise to those occasions.
On Friday, we took some time to think of our favorite examples of how we and our friends have performed these self-care rituals in order to better serve our communities. A lot of the examples we talked about came from time we spent in studio, so we also talked about how these rituals have in some ways stayed very consistent, but in many ways needed to shift as the world shifted, but they are still very present.
Ready to hear all the things you never knew about those few minutes your instructors had between teaching their classes?
a friend of ours would wash her hands between each class, well before COVID became a thing. It was a symbolic reset - rinsing away the energy of one moment to welcome whoever and whatever came next.
another friend would listen to high energy music and give herself pep talks in the mirror to trick herself into thinking she was awake and ready to teach class at 7am.
Jenni used to hide in the bathroom between classes because being fully present for a room full of people is a lot some days and just like most parents I've ever spoken to, the studio bathroom was the only place she could guarantee a quiet moment alone to reset.
I would routinely come out of class and find a wall to throw myself into a handstand on. Most of the time, this doubled as alone time because no one wanted to disturb the person who walked out into the lobby and immediately flipped upside down. So...it worked.
There is also an entire world of set up and behind the scenes tasks that takes place as a way to prepare and take stock before doing the work. Some do vocal warm ups. Some drink a double espresso. Most turn on lights. There's playlists and intentions, meditations and furniture rearranging and it all happens in an effort to set the stage and show up ready to perform and engage.
So what are they - your rituals? What are you doing to quietly take care of yourself and check in so you are prepared for the moments that call you to show up and step up?
It can be as simple as that first moment of breathing at the beginning of your class and as complex as a 12 mile nature hike, but whatever it is, start to notice it. Make it important, even if it's just brushing your teeth in the morning, because important doesn't mean heavy. Important means it's you and yours.
So own it. Use it. And whatever you do, keep going. Keep adding meaning. And keep digging!
All our love,
Pilates People
(6/7/20)