It's been a week since I returned from the McEntire Pilates Summit and I believe I am just now coming back down off the high I've been on from that experience!  This is one of my favorite Pilates workshops/trainings/retreats/communes or whatever you want to call it! 

This was my third year attending and my first year PRESENTING! What a thrill! it was great to see friends from years past, to make new friends, to move together and to learn together. As an attendee, I go to soak up as much as I can from folks I look up to. I go to connect and replenish my Pilates soul. The friendships I make come home with me and we support each other's pursuits virtually until we meet again. I love that. 

This year, however, getting the opportunity to present I realized I needed to elevate my level of participation. I had an opportunity to be a role model for others. That's a responsibility I took seriously. The first afternoon I arrived prior to the start of the conference I ran into another attendee in the hotel. She had never been before and came alone. She seemed a bit uncertain. I realized this was my chance to lead and make her feel welcome. I've been that person coming alone and knowing no one! By the end of the weekend, I had made a new friend with such an interesting story to share and she had fallen in love with the Summit, too!  Win-Win! 

Saturday morning Jo Ann Glaser and I presented our workshop - a Kinesthetic Experience on the playground meant to challenge the senses, take students back to the experience of being a first-time student and to create empathy towards a variety of sensory limitations. I won't go into too much detail because we have bigger plans for this workshop ... but I will say it was such a thrill to watch our participants going through the experience, being challenged and learning. The feedback we received was better than I had hoped for! As much as daily in the studio, I teach Pilates and teach students ... teaching teachers was something else! Having students in our session that I look up to was flattering and so rewarding. Sometimes I believe we need to remind ourselves of the value we have to offer - and this experience reminded me for sure! 

Some of the other interesting takeaways from the Summit include a very interesting presentation on nutrition and the importance of breath as it relates to metabolism. Next time your students shy away from the Pilates breath - remind them exhaling CO2 efficiently will increase their fat loss and metabolism.  That may make the Pilates breath much more appealing ;-)  I also attended a session on scoliosis - most of us have some asymmetries in our bodies and knowing how to work with these, in particular, a spine asymmetry elevates our ability to help others.  Trent McEntire gave a session on what we do and how we should position ourselves - we are not just a fitness class and it's time we take credit for all Pilates does. Comparing Pilates to fitness is doing ourselves an injustice. Of course, people get fit in Pilates but they also prevent injury, relieve pain, and make neurological connections. Pilates is the whole movement package and fills the movement gap! 

I'm excited to bring all that I learned back to Shine Pilates and to our wonderful Lexington Pilates family!