Practice Makes Progress
Hi, my name is Beth and I am a recovering perfectionist.
“Hi Beth!”
It’s been about one minute since my last perfectionistic thought…..
I’ve been listening to this song by MC Yogi* and the lyrics are “practice makes progress, I let go of the outcome and stay focused on the process”. This resonates as I’ve been trying to view more of my life as a practice. Not product. The end goal is not perfection. There is no goal except to be with what’s happening. (These are big words, I know, but it gets more concrete).
It’s also just past the two year anniversary when I started working at Sanchez Street Studios with three new clients. Each of these people have been coming twice a week and each has their own unique story around why they first came, and why they keep coming back to Pilates. One had a really sore back, it was limiting the way he could get around and enjoy life, another had had a car accident years earlier and had a dedicated Pilates practice to help mitigate some of the injuries she had from the accident, the other wanted to feel more agile and wanted to have more flexible calves and feet. She too had pain from injuries. And they all had fear, for very legitimate reasons, of moving in new ways.
After showing up twice a week, each week, for 18 months, they have all done that thing that happens, that growth spurt of learning, where all of a sudden we go from one or two exercises and lots of breaks to doing the entire level three reformer sequence. Watching their progress, and the way that feeling confident and strong in their bodies makes them feel, has been such an inspiration. Pilates is like a paper mache project where we just add one peice of newspaper at a time. The amount of information can be overwhelming in a Pilates class, but if we can trust that it is just one piece at a time, one integration of a new movement pattern, or way of imaginging our bodies move, then it is manageable.
Life outside of the studio has also been intense, and I’ve been trying to remind myself all it needs to be is one foot in front of the other. Feel the ground beneath my feet. I am here, and here is good, even with all of the heartache, pain and confusion. As the song goes,“I let go of the outcome and stay focused on the process, stay focused”.
MC Yogi, Practice Makes Progress