Top 5 Signs You're Building a Successful Pilates and/or Yoga Practice

By Kiki Lovelace

If you’re part of our Innerstellar family, you already know the riches available to you via a Pilates or yoga practice. You may already have less injuries (and better know what to do about them when they do arise), feel more at home in your body, manage your stress and anxieties better and feel more present with yourself and your loved ones. But even though we KNOW these things on an intellectual level, sometimes it is hard to make the commitment to get on our mats on a daily, or at least weekly basis (or, ahem, is that just us??!?).

Of course most of us know what’s good for us, but we struggle with all kinds of obstacles (both internal and external) to actually making healing choices and taking action on them.

So how do you break through these blockages and make a practice that nourishes you on the deepest levels -- body, mind and Spirit? What are the keys to success? Well, it looks different for each person, but we’ve made a list of our top five signs you’re on the right track to creating something sustainable, practical and powerfully transformative!

YOUR PRACTICE FITS INTO YOUR LIFE (or more likely, you’ve made space for it to fit into your life). The first key to success is simply showing up! In order to show up for your Pilates or yoga practice, you’ll need to schedule it into your day and your week and your life. You may need to set some boundaries with yourself or with your boss or colleagues or loved ones. You may need to call in some support from your partner or caregiver. You will need to log off of your computer (eek!). Many of our students who choose to take One-on-Ones on an ongoing basis do so in part because making the investment and the appointment helps hold them accountable (not to mention the gifts they receive from a completely customized practice led by our caring and attentive Instructors).

YOUR PRACTICE ADAPTS TO YOUR CHANGING NEEDS. Having a stressful week at work? You might benefit from one of our Yin & Restorative Yoga offerings with Emiko or Kari. Too busy to make it to the studio? Maybe you could carve out 20 minutes upon your return home from work to do 5-10 moves to slough off the tension and stress of the day. Recently had a baby? Well, heck it will take you the better part of a year or more of modifying your practice to allow your tissues to heal and strengthen. The point is, in order to build a successful practice, your practice needs to shift and change with your shifting and changing realities. If you don’t know how to do this for yourself (yet), don’t worry, that’s why we’re here! We love getting to know our students and finding out what really going on with them so we can be of support and service and help them make more healing choices. Speak your truth and we will do our best to help you navigate that truth!

YOUR PRACTICE SERVES YOU UP A POTENT DOSE OF INSPIRATION. Your Pilates or yoga practice should be inspiring, challenging and most of all FUN! Even when you’re hunting those nasty psychological scars of trauma and abuse, there is a thrill to actually moving that s*%# out of your cell tissue and bringing in fresh aliveness. If you’re feeling stale in your practice, it’s a sure sign you need to change it up. Try a new class, or a new teacher or take a One-on-One session. Change out of your habitual ways of breathing and moving and you will light up the creative centers of your brain!

YOUR PRACTICE IS HELPING YOU TO DEVELOP YOUR ABILITY TO BE PRESENT AND EMBODIED. If the skills you’re learning on the mat are seeping into your day-to-day life and relationships, you know it’s working. Pilates and yoga are both ultimately about learning how to bring more breath and attention to your experience of your life so that you can experience your life more fully. All we really have is the present moment. So learning how to be more present with yourself, your body, your emotions, your choices and your relationships with others and the Earth is one of the most noble things you can do with your time. This practice will change the trajectory of your life if you keep with it. It may even save your life, as it’s done for so many of us.

YOU LOOK FORWARD TO YOUR PRACTICE. Last but most certainly not least, you know you are building a successful practice if it becomes something you enjoy and look forward to. As you advance and deepen in your relationship to yourself and your practice, you many even begin to TREASURE it. The keys to enjoyment? There are two - one is breathing deeply and skillfully, and the other is managing your inner dialogue. As you learn how to get control over the unwieldy beast that is your thinking, and are better able to speak to yourself in a caring and attentive way, you entire experience of learning Pilates and yoga will become more pleasurable. We know this, because we speak from experience. Our brains are beasts also! In fact, your experience of your life will become a lot more pleasurable too, even if you are dealing will a boatload of stress or trauma. This is not to minimize what you’ve been through or run away from it or gloss it over. Quite the opposite. This is about learning the skill of honoring your past without letting it dictate your future, as much as is in your power to do so.

So what do you think? Are you building a successful practice? What have you learned along the way? How has this practice changed you?

What are your blind spots? We’d love to hear from you. Make a selfie video or write down your story and tag us on Instagram or the Facebook!