HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! for all Mums, carers, nurturers, Dads who fulfil both roles — a day to celebrate people who care for and support others — have a fantastic day!

Last week was a busy Pilates week, with an extra session on Tuesday evening for my Sciatica and Piriformis Syndrome Workshop. This session was recorded and is now available for members (this includes all who attend face-to-face classes), on the jtp.zone website. It can be found on the Tutorials page there. 

Also on the Tutorials page I have added a routine that is appropriate for those who find themselves in pain at the moment. This session is designed to release tension, which we really hold on to when we are experiencing pain, and to perform some gentle movement to help and support the body. 

This week I have seen a lot of chat online about Wall Pilates, and Standing Pilates. So I thought I would share a Pilates routine with you here so you can see how to do some of the classics, without heading to the floor. Great if you are short of space and time, and great if you are away, either with work or on holiday, but you only have your hotel room to move in, and you don’t want to miss out on your daily Pilates practice.

Enjoy the routine, and remember to work appropriately for your body, keeping away from pain.

I’m going to talk about posture today, and how this can relate to your mood. 

When I teach Pilates, you will hear me talk about: 

• releasing tension in shoulders, 
• opening the chest, 
• bringing the shoulder blades closer to the spine: 
• lengthening the spine to the ceiling. 

You may even hear me saying things like, 

• feeling the smile going across from one shoulder to the other, 
• open up your arms like a flower, 
• gifting your love and your heart
• warrior pose.

These images, statements, words are aimed at getting a focus into posture. 

There has been research done on how our posture is related to mood, and the results showed the difference in stress levels, anxiety and feeling low to be higher in people whose posture was closed, compared to the group of people working on holding an open posture. 

Notice how it feels for you if you are holding your body with shoulders pulling forwards, chin down, slumping, looking down, then change this posture, straighten the spine, bring the chin up so it lengthens the back of the neck, release the shoulders back and down, open up the chest, then smile and see how different this feels.

There are lots of physical issues related to closed posture as well. One that also affects mood is breath. When posture is closed down, it is impossible to take a full breath into the body, and this can have a knock on effect in terms of our energy levels, and this in turn influences how we are feeling, mood, confidence, stress and so on.

The benefits of working on posture are never ending, so here’s an opportunity for you to start thinking about this throughout the day. If you have been sitting down perhaps working, perhaps knitting, perhaps reading or watching tv, perhaps you are feeling low, sad, or stressed and anxious, maybe you are feeling low in confidence, then I urge you to try this. Stand up, feet a little wider than hips apart, pull up through the spine to ceiling, lift your chin, open the chest, smile, take a full breath in and on the out breath let tension go, release shoulders, hold this position for a couple of breaths — and see if this makes a difference to how you are feeling. Even better, repeat this throughout your day.