Awareness during Pilates is about having mindfulness towards our body, our mind and our ‘self’. We aim to develop sensitivity towards the body and how it feels.

Awareness means being fully present in our body and fully conscious of how the body feels during the postures. We can attune ourselves to the bodies’ language and notice very subtle (or obvious) things about the body and mind during static and dynamic postures.

THE BODY

Things you may notice or become aware of during a Pilates session:

1. Weight distribution on your feet when you are standing
2. Weight distribution of the body when in lying postures or postures on the hands and knees
3. Changes in posture when you move the body e.g. when doing balancing on one leg, does the body sway back to counter balance?
4. Changes in tension in the muscles
5. The position of the shoulders, particularly in relation to the ears
6. The position of the ribcage and pelvis in relation to each other
7. The engagement of the pelvic floor and the core muscles
8. Your breathing (is it fast or slow? Are your breaths long or short? How is the ribcage moving?)
9. The flow and pace of your movements
10. Noticing if the body changes posture due to tightness in the muscles e.g. When doing a forward reach do the shoulders round to help you reach forwards instead of the movement hinging from the hip?
11. Weakness or instability

The practice of body awareness should not just be left at the Pilates class, you could try using your awareness in everyday activities like standing in a queue, sitting correctly and thinking about how the body is aligned when you are vacuuming!

THE MIND

Then maybe apply your awareness to the mind, ask yourself “What am I thinking?” Notice your thought patterns, we don’t have to think anything we don’t want to, we have a choice what we think and we have to realise that and practice using that choice. There is no use arguing or fighting with your thoughts, just realise that you can think what you choose. Just becoming aware of your thoughts in the first place is one step on the road to having a calm and clear mind and this will also purify the body.

THE ‘SELF’

Awareness is also related to the self, which I like to call the soul. Our busy minds and lifestyles pull us away from connection to our soul. The route back is through awareness, starting with awareness of the body to awareness of the mind and through meditation or stillness we gain awareness of the soul or our inner self. Pilates helps with our awareness through stillness and relaxation and by using breathing techniques with body and mind awareness during the postures.

The development of awareness is multi layered, it is a life long practice, and we can never have too much awareness!