Welcome to this week’s JTP news.

We are scheduled for a heatwave this coming week, and our only face-to-face classes are in Rempstone Village Hall on Thursday evening, 6.15pm and 7.30pm, and Friday morning 9.30am. Remember that if you are unable to attend your own regular classes or have any catch-up classes outstanding you can book into these sessions just check out the link below.

Retreat News

Getting excited now for my Pilates, Mindset and Mindful Retreat on 30 July, and the good news is I will be running a second on 17 September — booking details to come so watch this space.

Beginners

On Saturday 13 August I am running a Beginners Guide Workshop which is ideal for anyone who is looking to start Pilates or someone who hasn’t done any for a long time and feel they want a refresh so that they can start to join regular classes again. This will be an In-Person, 90 minute session, and spaces are very limited. If you are interested yourself or know of anyone that this would be suitable for please pass this information on — the tickets are £18 each, and it is a ‘boutique’ style class — only 6 spaces. Here is the booking link.

I am taking a week off from teaching live this week, and I am looking forward to enjoying the sunshine, sitting in the garden, going out on my bike, seeing my granddaughter, reading a book, and generally recharging my batteries.

This week’s online timetable is made up of recorded sessions that I have chosen specially to fit into the same time slots — see the JTP Zone website.

In the meantime here is a short Pilates snack to keep you moving.

Would you consider yourself to be of a curious nature? A definition of the word curiosity is a desire to know or learn, either about people or things that might not concern us eg, being nosy, or about an object that arouses interest. I would definitely consider myself to be curious — in fact, that's what drew me to Pilates in the first place: my curiosity to discover a different kind of exercise programme to see how my body responded to it.

I think this is why I fell in love with Pilates — because of the philosophy to move with curiosity and mindfulness. Once you start to bring mindfulness and curiosity to your movement practice, you are taking an active role and responsibility for how you move and feel.

We all know that we can move our arm up to the ceiling, or we can throw our leg over to one side, and when we move like this we may start to think This is easy I don’t know what’s so special about that.  But when I talk about being present, being in the room with me, moving with purpose — this is encouragement for you to be mindful of your movement and how it feels. Once you start to practise this with Pilates this then starts to transfer into every day movement — and this is where the magic of Pilates really starts to count, because the Pilates class is just a small part of your life but you spend most of your life living and moving within your environment.

So start to be more curious about how you move. Concentration for any length of time may be a challenge, but being present and mindful about your movement will give better results and be more effective, and it will also result in a calmer mind. When you move mindfully you are learning about your body, adapt your practice that will meet what your body needs and you will start to feel more connected to your body.

So embrace your nosiness and be curious about how you move and how it feels. Keep your mind and body connected and as a result feel calmer, move more freely, and stay curious about how you live and move in your every day life.