YOU are your best investment
YOU ARE YOUR BEST INVESTMENT
I have been thinking a lot about this lately.
What does investing in yourself mean? In this blog I’m going to talk a little bit about what this used to mean to me, why I’ve been thinking about it and how this has benefited me as a Pilates teacher, a parent, a daughter, and as a human.
Investment in myself until recently meant furthering my knowledge and education in movement and Pilates. You might know that since becoming a mat teacher in 2015 and a comprehensive qualified teacher in 2018 I have continually upskilled. During lockdown I went further and used the opportunity to learn more, I completed about one hundred further hours of additional education and training. All great right, I learnt so much, all of which I’ve been able to bring to my teaching but I felt like I was still missing something. That self-critical internal chat was still there and I knew it wasn’t doing me any good. I came across the Polestar Mindsetting course and was intrigued, it seemed that it might be the missing link.
Pilates isn’t just exercise. Contrology (as it was then called) is a movement method requiring complete balance of mind, body and spirit.
“It’s the body itself that builds the mind” said Joseph Pilates.
If we are held in patterns of negativity in our minds it is then unlikely that we’ll find balance and ease in our body, just as if we have injury or pain in our body we will find it hard to find ease and balance in our minds. If we don’t learn to control our thoughts then they will take control of us manifesting in stress, anxiety, low self esteem and injury.
Our mindset is a collection of thoughts and beliefs, they determine what we think about and how we make decisions and move forward.
The mindsetting course was asking us to assess the health of our mindset, to understand where our thoughts came from and ultimately if they were holding us back.
Through the 7 week course we worked on our growth wheel, assessing the different parts of our lives, their importance, any self limiting beliefs we might have and then set our vision and goals on how we could improve this area of our lives (if we so wished).
One of the most impactful statements for me was that we are not born with our beliefs. Our beliefs are learned, they are based on our past experiences and thoughts. If they are not truths and are learned then they can also be unlearned. Now I was beginning to unpick that unhelpful inner critic a little bit more!
Each time the negative inner critic started to talk I began to notice it, I developed a pattern interrupt, it wasn’t and isn’t always easy but I see it now and it has helped me hugely to be more present and focused and put behind some of the beliefs that I held that weren’t serving me.
At the end of the 7 weeks I was much clearer on the areas of my life that I felt needed more of my attention and most importantly how I could make those changes happen.
In my office in the studio I now have a pin board, I include messages to myself that will help me to continue to build on this positive mindset and keep me accountable. Take a look next time your in the studio, maybe something will resonate with you too.
At Lauren Hilton Pilates we believe in supporting the whole person, mind, body and spirit. We don’t just instruct a bunch of exercises, we encourage you to drop into your body, to connect to your breath and most importantly to notice what you feel. We know this helps to support full mind-body health and well-being so that you can live life to the fullest.
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