Pilates Intel Online Newsletter for the Pilates Teaching Community

Social distancing IS our best chance at making a positive impact on the current national and world health crisis.

However, it also dampens the potential for two of the most critical aspects of maintaining our mental, emotional, and physical health by limiting movement and social engagement.

The good news: We are extremely well-placed in time to keep both aspects alive and well in our daily lives…and more than that, we are being called to — forced to — change our priorities to exactly these things.

Now more than ever, we must move, and we must rely on each other.

We CAN do both!

Focusing on What CAN be Done, Instead of What Can’t

Movement is life. From a physiological, neurological, and emotional perspective, movement very literally creates the embodied liveliness of our very selves.

We must NOT stop moving.

And we don’t have to.

We can still go outside. We still have living rooms, bedroom floors to roll around on, dance parties to be had with our kids in the kitchen, balls to toss around, dogs and cats to play with and snuggle, spines to move, breaths and walks to take (I prefer mine with a friend in my ear and a whiskey in my hand.)
Movement, WITH people, is even more powerful.

But how, right now, how do we do that…safely?

And why is it an imperative that we do?

Socially engaging, with people who make a positive impact on us, fosters infinite benefit to the health of our nervous systems, minds, bodies, and spirits.

Add movement to social engagement and we have one of the most critical short- and long-term strategies to create health in our inner and outer environments.

When outside options are shrinking, we can still expand to meet the world; we can still choose to foster and exercise our internal options. To do so, we must nurture our nervous systems and our creative minds; expand not only our bodies, but our thinking, and use all our resources.

The Power of Remote Social Engagement

On a Thursday morning in the middle of March, I lost my wits for a moment.

I had been on eight planes in the preceding five weeks. It’s my peak teaching season and I move around the country a lot from January to May, so naturally I was feeling uncertain about my level of exposure. Having my 72-year-old dad living with me only added worry.

As I sat working from home later that morning, I entered into a text exchange with one of my teachers whom I love and trust and with whom, through many years of rich exchange, I have established deeply positive co-regulation — a level of reciprocity that my nervous system feels and responds to.

When we concluded our texting, I noticed how grounded, centered, and calm I felt.

Co-regulation through remote social engagement. It REALLY, REALLY WORKS.

Why It’s True + Why We Care…

Via our vagus nerve, we physiologically change each other. When we engage with another person, we are co-regulating; we’re adapting and changing as we read body language, facial expressions, and respond to tone of voice and eye movement. This is unconscious.

With established healthy emotional co-regulation, our nervous systems become more able to self-regulate.

According to Polyvagal Theory creator, Stephen Porges, “co-regulation MUST precede self-regulation.”

When we self-regulate, we become better equipped to adapt to a variety of situations. We can stay in an accessible nervous system state in which we can respond wisely and thoughtfully instead of reactively, without diminishing costs on our systems, which includes mental/emotional cost.

Self-regulation is key to responsiveness — the thoughtful and calm attending to challenge and stress.

All of this leads to less stress and less stress equals a healthier IMMUNE SYSTEM.

There is so much we can do right now to improve how we behave, how we respond to the biggest challenge of NOT KNOWING, and it is NOT about THINKING our way through it.

In a recent talk I attended with Porges, he said that our mistake is addressing behavior BEFORE the nervous system. Our nervous systems must be prepared and able to take on changes in behavior which are not simply our action and our words. Behaviors ARE emotional. They are rooted in an emotional history. They’re charged (think positive or negative charge like electricity) and when we enact them, they elicit not only the associated charge inside our bodies, but they very literally physiologically change the person or people we’re interacting with.

Porges went on to say, “Change the nervous system state from vulnerable to one that is accessible and behavior changes.” This is a more lasting way of changing and supporting lasting behavior change.

A vulnerable nervous system, to use Porges’ language, is one of defensiveness, i.e. sympathetic, high risk, in danger, experiencing life threat, REACTIVE. An accessible nervous system is non-defensive, parasympathetic, able to socially engage, RESPONSIVE.

When we’re in a defensive nervous system state — perceiving risk — our bodies start to automatically respond by releasing adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine. With the release of these hormones, our range of mental and emotional responses becomes more and more narrow, not simply by choosing different behaviors but by our body literally limiting our possible responses as it prepares for fight, flight, or freeze.

The heartening and downright uplifting news is that through movement and specific strategies of awareness and breath, we can improve the health of our musculoskeletal systems, our connective tissue system, our NERVOUS SYSTEM, and our IMMUNE SYSTEM, and our behavior WILL also change.

This takes constant care, day-in and day-out. In our modern life, attending specifically to shifting behavior through our bodies is an imperative. In times like these, it’s our social responsibility.

I don’t usually take such a proselytizing approach to sharing information, but I don’t think there’s any more room for passive suggestions.

I know this works. I know it feels damn good. I know it’s 100% accessible in your living room, in your car, in your backyard, in your neighborhood, anywhere, anytime, any age, any anything.

Grab hold of ALL that you can do to make a positive impact on your cells, your gut, your heart, your mind and watch how your love, kindness, patience, friendliness, calm, cool, thoughtful responsiveness and your HEALTH grows and expands.

Let’s make THIS the thing that’s contagious.

This is our work.

This is WHY we’re teachers…and even if you aren’t a teacher by profession or vocation, you are a teacher. You’re a human and humans are instinctively teachers.

For tools, tips, and strategies you can use for yourself, in your teaching, and pass on to your friends, visit skillfulteaching.com. You’ll see other Resources for Resilience there too.