Due to the abundance of clichés about mindfulness and inner peace, people hesitate from believing in the benefits of Pilates. You don’t always have to spend thousands of dollars on an expensive retreat to Bali or stretch a dollar to buy a hoard of scented candles for a long bath, to achieve mindfulness.
Mindfulness is a state of being that can be practiced daily with the help of exercises that are common in Pilates. Mindfulness is hardly about emptying your mind from all stressors and negative thoughts (as you may have believed). It’s strongly correlated to expanding your body awareness through exercise, and the mental horizons expand naturally as a result.
Here’s what more you need to know.
How is Mindfulness Related to Pilates
The foundation of Pilates as a fitness technique is based on six principles:
- Center
- Concentration
- Control
- Precision
- Breathing
- Flow
Do these terms overlap with what you may have heard about mindfulness over the years? Yes, it’s almost impossible to focus and center all your energies on one thing without practice, and practice comes from Pilates.
This is the ultimate stage of mindfulness where you’re aware of every breath that you exhale and every muscle that you move in the body. However, in order to run all these commands, your upper chamber must be in sync with your body, and that’s how mindfulness and Pilates are linked.
How Do You Stay In the Moment
Instructors often urge you to stay in the moment and realize all that is there in your surroundings. Even though this phrase has a nice ring to it, it hardly tells you how to do it. Our minds are trained to function in multiple plains, simultaneously.
Be it worrying about your child at school, or your pending work at the office, or the domestic repairs that need fixing, it’s always running.
Overcome by the urgency and abundance of thoughts about external stimuli, your mind faces difficulty in focusing on the inner functions in the present state. Pilates helps you start small by focusing on the breath you just took in or the finger that you just moved. Building on from that it’ll include more complex exercises that’ll zoom into specific parts of the body and concentrate on every move and muscle.
How does being Mindful Help
Mindfulness is not just a fancy term that defines what Zen state feels like. Achieving that state of mind can be a transformative experience. It not only helps deal with the biggest stressors in your life but also enhances your physical wellbeing.
Controlled blood pressure and lesser chances of heart diseases are just a few of the benefits you can cash by practicing Pilates.
Are you looking for a place to train for Pilates in NYC?
Our studio offers Pilates classes that are conducted by trainers who have the Romanas Pilates certification. Our center is based in NYC and caters to individuals with all kinds of fitness goals. Call us for more details.
