Mind Body Connection

Lately, I’ve been learning the game of tennis. I’ve been taking lessons and working on my serve. This motion is so foreign to me. Serving is not a natural motion. While I understand the physics of it, my body is trying all kinds of cheats to make it easier. Thank goodness for videos because I can see what I am doing wrong.

The thing is in my mind I see it and I get it. But I have yet to fully get my body on board. In my lesson today we tried taking a big jump forward and I failed. There were too many moving parts. That’s okay. Taking a step back - focusing on the basics is where I need to be. I will get there but it’s a process. It takes repetition and practice. I spend time shadowing the motions and practicing and little by little I am getting better. I can’t expect to serve like a pro three weeks in!

All of this has reminded me about my early days using the Pilates reformer. My experience was similar - I understood the concept but my body tried all kinds of ways to make it simpler! One of my mentors called his students his ‘little cheaters’ - because like it or not we all ‘cheat’ when it’s hard and we don’t quite get the mind body connection.

Much like my tennis experience - Pilates takes repetition and practice. We don’t expect perfection in the first time or two! The stronger we get with our mind body communication and connection - the better we become.

This can take months or even years of practice to get the work deeper in our body and really connect. I can say with certainty my practice in Pilates is different now than it was in the beginning or five years in or even a couple years ago. I continue to learn and feel and connect.

I think it is important for all of us to give ourselves grace and to be patient but persistent in our practice. Be committed and go through the motions until it makes sense. Ask the questions - I love it when you do! Mind Body connection takes times but it’s worth the work!