Hello Pilates People!

More exciting news for you this week! We are bringing you another one of our movement friends! 

Meet Camille Moten - a beautiful dancer, yogi and soul who will be leading us through a Yoga + Meditation Workshop with a Q+A  on Sunday, November 8th from 10am - 12pm. Camille is a dear friend of mine from our Temple University days and I cannot tell you how excited I am to have her join us! To read more about Camille and what she's planning on sharing, please click here and join us! 

And remember, we have our Geekin' Out - Legs Edition Workshop coming up with Alec Hynes this upcoming Sunday, October 25th from 12-2pm! We would LOVE to see you there to learn some anatomy, wiggle around and chat together! To sign up and learn more, please click here. 

Our LIVE class schedule is shifting again, friends! Xander is off on a road trip for the next month and a half ( so look to catch him again in December!). We will miss him while he's away, but the rest of us are here and excited to see you EVEN MORE! To catch up on the changes, please click here.

And finally, if you or anyone you know works in the health and wellness industry and might be interested in collaborating with us in 2021, please send shoot an email our way! We're currently working on our plans for the new year (WHAT?! Are we actually organized?!) and looking to get some new friends involved! Emails can be sent to pilatesppl@gmail.com with the subject line "Let's Work Together!" - we'll take it from there! 

I love quoting my friends, because really, the people in my life are brilliant and holding their words with me helps keep me company when they're not around.

I took Xander's class this past week and the thing he said that stood out to me most was, "Safety is sexy," as he looked at the camera and winked at us.

It made me laugh, but I was also so happy he said it. And I'm going to take what he was saying a little out of context, but it's where my head has gone as I've sat with that moment over the past few days.

Because I'm noticing an increased need for safety in myself, each other and the world. Safety of all kinds - mental, emotional and physical - and it feels unclear to me what the rules are anymore or how to find/provide that sense of security. 

And yes, dear friend, that's because there are, "no more rules." 

I know. I was the one who said it. That's how I've been living, and maybe you've been living, and I was the one who said it. 

 I still think it's true. I'm loving the idea that the rules are being shattered and rewritten...but it gets confusing sometimes.

Because, how do we take care in a world that seems only superficially interested in taking care of us?

Well, let's be honest...some days it's not even pretending to be interested. 

I think the answer is a big one...so deep breath, okay? You've got this:  it's all on us - to take care of ourselves, each other and the people around us - and if that's not overwhelming you, I've got some questions and could use your help.

So again, how? How do we stay safe, take care and make it a little less overwhelming?

Baby steps. Back to basics.

I'd like to make an argument for the "You can't pour from an empty cup philosophy," so taking care of the world really needs to start with taking care of you.

And you could say taking class with us, or any other of your trusted movement specialists is the way you take care. You could say that spending time with a friend or a long walk in the sun is how you take care. Or maybe you let yourself sit and do nothing for a while to take care.

All of those things are perfectly lovely answers, and they are all completely correct.

But what's the basic? When you boil it down, what's at the root of what you're doing? Is it reconnecting to your body or is it a specific move? Is it spending time with a friend or being able to say things out loud? Is it the walk or just the sense of escaping for a second?

Because whatever the basic is will be the thing we need to tune into - the comfort that you're truly seeking, the way in which you find it and the most important for us to understand.

Think of the basics as your safety blanket. They're what you can go to when things feel a little shaky - whether that's in your movement practice or life in general. They're your touchstones, the things that will help you gauge how you're feeling and what you need to address because you KNOW these things. You've done them just about a million times so you KNOW how you feel in them, about them and through them. They're the things that allow you to turn your brain off for a second so you can simply  BE and FEEL and DO.

We'll focus on the movement practice portion, but maybe you can take what we play with this week into the rest of your life too. What's your basic when you need it?

If you're like us, movement might  always be the answer. If that's the case, the question then becomes, what's the move or the feeling you need? And that'll be different for each of us - our job is to stay curious, open and willing to get back to it. Whatever it is.

Back to basics. Here we go. Together, as always.

All our love,
Cassandra + Pilates People

(10/18/20)