Week 29 — “Breath Control”
Hello Friends!
Happy Sunday! Thank you for spending last week wiggling with us! It was so fun for us and we hope you enjoyed it too!
Remember, we have Wildly Nutritious' Nutrition Myth Busters workshop TODAY 1-3pm! There is still space for you! Please click here to purchase and sign up! It's just $20 for Video Members and $25 for everyone else!
We are also launching our "Pilates Pay it Forward" program for the month of October! We're all about friends here - everyone involved in every part of it is a friend of ours - and you are all officially part of that now! We want to meet and move with YOUR friends too! How this works:
if your friend signs up on Mindbody and they complete their first purchase (any purchase will do - have them go for one of our intro offers!) both you and your friend shoot us an email to let us know you're both here with us!
we'll respond to your email and offer your friend a promo code for 3 months of our Aligned video membership at just $20/month!
your promo code can be for either 3 months of our Aligned video membership at just $20/month OR you can receive 15% off your next LIVE class package purchase!
Please help us continue to grow our community AND help bring your friends into our world so you can BOTH get a little treat! Win, win, win!
And finally, PLEASE CHECK OUT OUR COMMUNITY BOARD this week! We have quite a few exciting announcements including: a Pilates People member who is performing for Bill T. Jones, another member who is creating mask chains (let her make you one!), the opening of an AMAZING acupuncture studio (more about the owner in a bit) and Danielle's health coach membership program!
Do you remember the body trucks from the beginning of quarantine? I can't speak for places outside of NYC, but here, they really added a new depth to the sense of doom we were all managing.
Not to be dark - I have a point, promise.
There were a few down the street from my apartment as I live fairly close to a hospital. On my daily walks, I had a subconscious path I would take and I wanted to avoid the trucks, but I almost always forgot and my feet took me past them.
Fast forward to my virtual appointment with Christopher Peacock (the acupuncturist you should ALL see - he also lives in my neighborhood). He finished his diagnosis around why I hadn't slept in almost 2 months with, "Your lungs are a little off. They're related to your grief and sadness. You haven't been walking by those body trucks near your apartment, have you? Please stay away from them."
Telling you... he's magic.
Every time I see him, I learn something, but this one stuck with me. It makes so much sense.
To be clear, I'm not trying to say your lungs are all doom and gloom. That's certainly not the case. But they are intrinsically tied to your life. So it makes so much sense that they would be directly related to your handling of death.
They're largely controlled by your Autonomic nervous system (the one that controls the subconscious actions of your body - heart rate, respiratory rate, digestion...you get the picture) which is the SAME system that's in control of your fight or flight response (the one we talked about 2 weeks ago).
BUT, you can override that, right?
Think about it for a second.
Take a deep, full breath right now. Hold it at the top. Count to 5. Slowly exhale.
That wasn't auto pilot. That was you taking control.
So that's what we want to do. Take control of it.
And we're right on schedule because TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) also ties our lungs to Autumn.
How cool is it that YOU can be in charge of your body? You just have to slow down and take some time to think about it.
This week, we want to spend time focusing on our breath - how it happens, where it goes, and how we use it, because apart from grief and sadness, your lungs are also associated with clear thinking, being open to new ideas and good communication.
And I think that whichever side of that you're falling on today, chances are we're all in a place where we're dealing with or could use some support within these areas.
So let's take some DEEP breaths together - focus on feeling your ribs rise and fall. Feel how your belly responds. Can you feel that inhale down to your little pinky toe?
This is your life. Your body. Your world.
Learn about. Pay attention to it. Take control of it.
All our love,
Cassandra + Pilates People
(10/4/20)