Pilates

Mood telecast: Was feeling a bit gloomy these few days for no apparent reason. Work is progressing in a good direction, but I can't help feeling low to the extent of bursting into tears. Just when I thought, I have come to accept the fact, I would get over it and continue my life, that I realised I have never let go before. Perhaps, giving part of me up was really difficult and I knew this was going to happen sooner or later. Hopefully time could make me get over it and start my life afresh.

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I remembered last year, the first decision I made was to sign up for a PT course and it was a decision that I never regretted. This year, I have made another decision. I have decided to take up Pilates. Honestly, I never like Pilates nor Yoga and I never thought that one day I would take it up. I always feel that Pilates and Yoga are "soft exercises", exercises that would not make you perspire, hence I do not feel "alive". Perhaps, I am full of energy and I need to sweat it out to show that I AM ALIVE.

I think I am pretty left with no choice to take up Pilates. An accident that happened more than 10 years ago caused my spine to degenerate and I could only help myself by building up my core muscles, and Pilates is one of the exercises that is good for building core muscles. Life is really full of irony! So now I have to take up the "wimp" (no offence meant) exercise to prevent myself from further hunching.

My instructor Jo is an interesting lady. She really looked stern when I signed up for the class and it sorta of made me worry about my decision to sign up for the course. On the day of the class, she turned out to be such a humourous lady that I can't stop laughing while lying on the machine. I guess all of us (6 of us) were all new to Pilates and we were trying our ways and means to get the movements correct via brutal force. When she looked at us, she can't help but "make fun" of us that made us laugh non stop.

Actually Jo is right and I was right too. Pilates is about movements, it is not about force nor energy (yes, is a "wimp" form of exercise). It is about breathing. She looked at me and she shaked her head "You are using all your energy to pull, remember to relax relax, you looked so stiff up". Haha, she hit the nail all right. I am never good at soft sports, but good at sports that can release a lot of energy. I knew it myself and I really admired my courage for trying a soft exercise. But I guess life is about learning yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses and correct them as you progress. The more you hated something, the more you should try to master it and the more you learn about yourself.

I applied that in life and in work. Yes, I am a person who will apply "force" when things do not go my way rather than handling it gracefully. In short, I have a lot of "aggressions" within me. Throughout the years, I think I have tried to conquer it, to handle my aggressions gracefully. Sometimes I could, sometimes I could not. No doubt, I learnt a lot about myself. At the minimum, I do know where my saturation point of endurance is before I use "force" to settle things. It is never easy to handle all things gracefully as it requires the techniques and practices (just like Pilates). However, at least I am willing to try and I am more than willing to practise. I just hope in time to come, I will see results, regardless in Pilates or in moulding my character.

Pilates is not as bad as I thought it to be. It is not as "wimpy" as I thought to. Really, it needs a lot of skills to be able to do small movements with your body, to be able to control your body well. Just like it takes a lot to mould your character to handle all situations in life gracefully. It never dawned on me that learning Pilates could be so philosophical.

Really looking forward to the next lesson though I suffer from stiff neck and muscles cramps all over. Jo's words keep repeating: Remember to relax and smile!