How’s your week been? What have you been up to? 

I’ve had a fun filled week with teaching classes, time out for my new hobby — photography, and of course my special day with my GD. Talking of GDs, Traudi became a fully fledged Grandma last weekend when her daughter gave birth to Darla, a beautiful baby girl, weighing in at 7lbs and 15oz. I’m sure you will join me in sending love and congratulations to Traudi and her family, those of you who are grandparents know all about the joy that Darla will bring into Traudi and Andy’s lives. Fabulous.
 

Face-to-Face Classes — all classes back up and running at all venues. Remember if you have to miss your regular class you can sign out and book a Catchup with our online Catchup System.

Online Classes — the regular timetable is up and running with a new feature: every week I am highlighting a class and putting it on the timetable. This is a recorded class that I know you will all benefit from and this week it is a Pilates with weights class. The link is timetabled for you to do as often as you wish. 

To celebrate Jane Thomas Pilates 25th Anniversary I will be holding one off specials throughout the year. These will be in-person specials, in the venues where our regular classes are held, which will involve a class followed by coffee and cakes, and they will be free to attend and of course information will be available here — look out for Jane on Tour 😘

I demonstrate a squat in this week’s Exercise of the Week, with a purpose of movement through hips, switching on the gluteals and standing tall.

I want you to connect with your breath, push the floor away as you stand, lifting through the front of the body. Then hold the squat to mobilise the lower spine with an adapted cat stretch. 

This exercise is great to do at work to give you a break from your desk and your computer screen. It will open up the hips, stretch the spine and help to correct posture that we often lose when hunched over our laptops. 

Have a watch and then have a go!

With all Exercises of the Weeks move appropriately for your body and keep away from pain. Look out for my top tips if you have problem with the squats in next week’s newsletter.

This week I want to talk about Little Miss Perfect. Perfection is something that I struggle with, and it’s in every area of life.

When you go to the dentist: are you flossing?, are you using teepee brushes?, do you use an electric toothbrush, or manual?, do you have a tufty brush?

How often do you turn your mattress?, change your bed linen?, change your pillows?

What temperature do you wash your clothes at? Do you use eco-friendly washing liquid?

What’s your diet like, are you eating 5 different vegetables a day? What about fresh fruit and your sugar intake? Do you check labels to see what added sugars there are in your food?

Do you switch your phone off when you go to bed? No screens at bed time? Are you getting a good 6-8 hours sleep at night?

How much exercise do you do? Are you exercising every day? Are you getting outside with nature every day? Are you stretching enough?

How many units of alcohol do you drink a week? Have you reduced your caffeine intake? What about snacks — are they healthy snacks? How much water are you drinking a day between 1.5 and 2 litres?

Various things suggested we do for self-improvement, making our lives better, all this is before we are even thinking about being available for friends and family, being the best friend, being the best daughter, mother, father, brother, grandparent, work colleague …. 

The problem is there just aren’t enough hours in the day are there? Is that it? If we had more time would we be able to do all of the above and more? My cleaning teeth regime before going to bed takes about 15-20 minutes if I use all the techniques and different brushes I’ve been advised to use by the dentist ... and because of my attention to perfectionism, I have to do it, I have to be top of the class in teeth cleaning all so that when I have my 6 monthly appointment and he asks me I can say I have done everything as required … And I don’t even get a sticker for this, you’d think at least I’d get a sticker. 

The feeling is that we have to be perfect, anything that falls short of this isn’t going to be good enough, and then we start to feel pressure, pressure to do better, be better, and then we will feel better. But I feel that anything that brings pressure isn’t going to make us feel better, potentially make us feel worse, and inevitably leads to us giving up, then how does that make us feel…? 

So here’s a thought — let’s not try to be perfect, no need to improve, or do more than what we are doing right now. Let’s accept what is happening right now, keep it simple and trust what we are doing is the best right now. Even though our mind might be telling us differently, turn the volume down, and embrace the imperfect, accept that what we are is enough in this moment, and with this we should feel relief. 

Relief not to be perfect then releases us from the pressure of more, more, more, and once the pressure is gone, then we naturally improve, we do better, be better and feel better once we stop trying to improve. 

I hope this gives you some food for thought … and while you are thinking about this I’m off to start my dental routine...

Have a great week, keep moving, keep looking and keep feeling good.

With love 

Jane xx