"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body" Joseph Pilates
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body
Joseph Pilates
This is the second Blog in my series where I share my favourite Joseph Pilates quotes and how they relate to My Pilates Life! Above is my youngest looking for the only book that he wanted to read at bedtime tonight, that was of course at the bottom of the stack!
We are a household of book lovers!! We never have enough bookshelves for the five bookworms in the family. We have always read to our children, even in the womb!! We read everything fiction, non-fiction, magazines and even record covers. When we travel to Scotland we even have fun reading the signs!! Lol!
Our big boy Arran so often likes to read a book over & over to deeper understand the plot or to find hidden secrets within it. Practicing the skill of reading and analytical thinking! It seems so obvious to most of us that reading should be encouraged from a young age, it will help brain development, creativity, reading and writing and so much more! But do we encourage our children to move regularly, repeatedly and in lots of varying ways!? Even in the womb!? Do we do this as automatically and with the same priority as we encourage them to read? I would also stretch this to nutrition as well! We prioritise what we feed our children and ourselves, organic, free range, locally sourced etc etc. But again do we think what kind of movement, where, how often etc etc?
When Arran who is now 13 started to crawl he was also starting to climb! This seemed perfectly normal and reasonable to us!! We allowed him to climb and scale pretty much anything he wanted! He walked at 11 months but preferred to climb!! Much to the dismay of some!! We loved Chapel Allerton Park so went there often and at the time there was a climbing net!! Arran became very confident climbing up and over the top and down the other side! We didn’t put fear in him but we kept him safe while supporting his exploration of movement and his capabilities.
Pilates can do this too! It can safely support you exploring the capabilities of your movement and your body under the guidance of your encouraging and motivating teacher. The apparatus quite literally supports you with its springs and meets you where you are, so you can explore, play & move! Even when injured or having never exercised breath is where all movement begins so that can be where the exploration of your body begins. Or those of you more experienced you can be like Arran re-reading the same book and discovering more, through repetition of the Pilates exercises you can become more fluent in your body!
Can we take this great Joseph Pilates quote and value our body and how we move it as much as we prioritise our academic attainment?
Feed, nurture and exercise your body and your mind with equal priority!
Claire Sparrow
@clairepilates
