Pilates is a process. When you first start taking Pilates you learn the movement and build the foundation. You might be surprised how much you use your brain during Pilates. But it’s a big part of the process. You learn the movement and how it works with your body. That takes time. You are coordinating a lot of things at once and you want to take your time with this process. Giving yourself grace is important. 

The process of Pilates changes as it changes you. If doing the Hundred with your feet on the ground becomes easy, then you change it to make it more challenging. Once you can do the basic exercises you add new exercises, building on the knowledge you already have to learn the next thing. Building strength for the next exercise is built into the process of Pilates. You learn how to breathe, you learn how to move, you learn what your body likes and doesn’t like. You learn awareness which is invaluable. 

Pilates is not a process toward perfection. There is no finish line in Pilates. You just keep going forward, learning new things on your journey. Kind of like a kitchen. Whenever people on house hunting shows look at the kitchen they almost always say it needs work. This is when I say, but it’s great already! You can always improve your kitchen. Just like you can always improve your Pilates. Pliates teaches you to let yourself move when it just needs to move and how to challenge it further when you need more from your workout. You learn to be in the moment of the movement and not compare yourself to how you moved two years ago or even two days ago. Unlike those kitchens that need a little updating. 

When you learn to change your mindset with the movement you learn from the moments where you body doesn’t want to cooperate. You learn to go to class even though you really just want to skip it. Those times when you do it anyway, are the times you learn. This is your growth opportunity. You learn to move in a way that accommodates your body and it’s tiredness or the extra energy you might have. You learn to move with your body rather than against it. You learn to update the cabinets instead doing a full gut job of your kitchen. 

Pilates is a process. Find comfort in the fact that it will never be perfect. Let be what it is and work with what you have. And you will find peace and growth in your movement practice.