By in Yoga & Pilates

“May The Force Be With You”

Today I am outing myself as a bit of a Star Wars fan, and beyond that, I have a seemingly silly claim to make. I believe that Pilates can teach us the way of the Force and how to use it. To those who do not know Star Wars, this may not mean anything. To those who know Star Wars this may sound very unlikely, after all, we know it is impossible to actually levitate objects or read peoples minds.

And yes I am not actually claiming Pilates can teach you those things. However, as someone who has been studying and teaching Pilates for many years and as someone who learned from some of the most amazing people in the business, as well as other related areas, I do see that what Pilates is able to give us is very much the same as what Jedis learn in the movies.

The Force is a form of power that those who are force sensitive and who are trained to use it can draw from. In the movies, it is described as an energy created by life. It surrounds and binds us and makes up the balance between things. It is around us and within us. It is a body and mind practice to learn to use it. The Jedi, who learn to use it would probably be best described as masters of an ancient martial art. They are knights with a special weapon, the light sabre, however a lot of their skill is within the power of believe and thought within the mind.

Pilates is a body and mind practice too. Yet publicly it is often only known as a form of fitness or rehabilitation. That is a very superficial view. Many people who practice it at some point in their life may only have that experience of it, because they do not know what is possible when we explore the deeper benefits of Pilates that come with a longer term dedication and investment in it. Those who teach or practice Pilates at an in depth level and live the Pilates lifestyle will tell you that Pilates is a lot more than muscle work, but that it has the potential to change lives. On youtube the movie trailer for “A Movement of Movement” explains that Pilates “is something greater than an exercise. It is more than buns of steel and six pack abs.” It is described as “A vision of a better word.” It is a body and mind practice, a method. Joseph Pilates, the inventor of the method said that his practice was “a complete coordination between body, mind and spirit.” and that “ the mind, when housed in a healthful body possesses a glorious sense of power.” He also talked a lot about the importance of deciding to stay true to yourself. These are words that might just as well have come from Jedi master Yoda himself.

Some scenes in the Star Wars movies remind me a lot of my personal experiences both as a student and as a teacher. In “Star Wars – The Empire Strikes Back” Yoda is teaching young Luke Skywalker how to use the Force. In actual fact, many things that Yoga says to Luke have been said to me by my amazing teachers in the past.

After mastering to levitate stones Yoda asks Luke to pull his aircraft wreck out of a swamp just by use of the force. Luke argues that doing that would be totally impossible, because of the huge difference in size. Yoga explains that it is not different at all, only in his mind.

There are some more advanced exercises in the Pilates repertoire that to an average mover seem impossible to master. It is easy to be discouraged at the look of them and say “I can not do that.” However it is all a matter of how we look at it. In truth the complicated exercise is put together by a number of small exercises and when we have mastered the small ones well, the next natural step is to put them together. And in actual fact then we are not doing anything different to before. This is a teaching tool we use with advancing students. We make them realise what elements the complicated exercise is made up off and give them a confident experience of mastering those elements on their own. Once they attempt the more complicated exercise all we do is remind them of the elements they already know and where they are in this new exercise.

When Luke says that he will “Give it a try” Yoga tells him “No, try not. Do or do not. There is no try.” Of course this is a valuable thing to tell anyone in any situation where they attempt to try something. Incidentally it was pointed out to me many times by my teachers, that I used the word “try” a lot and that I should just “do” never “try”.

Yoda goes on to say that Luke must unlearn what he has learned in order to master things his mind judges as impossible. This is a huge element of our work in Pilates on many different levels. In actual fact the very same has been said to me many times. My teachers kept telling me and other students that we have to unlearn the way we have been previously conditioned to move as it is actually limiting our ability and we end up fighting ourselves in our movements. We all deal to a degree with this. Pilates is about making our movement habits and patterns more efficient and healthy. We all have movement habits, regardless of how skilled or unskilled we already are. Pilates often involves unlearning these habits in order to learn new ones that allow us to move more easily and freely and achieve more.

When Luke still fails to retrieve the wreck, explaining it is simply too big, Yoda reminds him that size does not matter and that he would not judge Yoda by his size (Yoda being very tiny), he goes on to explain: “Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter.” Pilates very much would support that. Anyone, regardless of their age, shape or size can master Pilates. Many believe it requires strength and flexibility. Those attributes can help, but they can also be a limiting factor, as Pilates is not about using muscular force. Muscle getting stronger, more defined or more flexible can be a nice side effect of what we do, however it is not the focus. The aim is to find the inner balance and connection that allows us to explore a movement with ease. It is that inner balance that gives us enormous physical ability and mental stability. At the start we practice this with very basic movements. At an advanced stage it will be something a lot more complicated. When we already have a good level of muscular strength we are sometimes able to force the movement with brute strength. However this often comes with a risk of injury and incredible energy expenditure. We still aim for effortlessness. And we must feel the connection, the support from our entire body and mind and also from what surrounds us, gravity, objects and other people. Awareness of all of that will help our nervous system coordinate the task of movement with minimal effort. My own experience is that when this happens it feels truly magical. A student asked me a while ago, when or how she will know that she has mastered an exercise. I said that it is a very personal experience and a feeling and therefore hard to describe, but that she will learn to recognise the feeling as it will be very clear when it is there. On top of that there are some exercises in the advanced repertoire that simply can not be forced with strength, just like Luke would not be able to lift an aircraft just with muscle strength. The movement will only happen if everything is in perfect balance with another. These are the exercises that students consider impossible or even magical. One of these exercises is actually called “Magician”.

At the end of the scene Yoda demonstrates to Luke that it can be done and pulls the wreck out of the swamp. Luke says that he can’t believe it and Yoda replies that this is the reason why he fails.

Believe is perhaps the most important element in Pilates practice too. If we do not believe that Pilates can help us, if we do not believe in ourselves and our potential, Pilates will be a rather limiting experience. On the other hand, with believe it can open up the world to us. As we explore what we never thought was possible within us we learn about our life and the world and what may be possible that we never dreamed off. The trailer for the “Tribute to Joseph Pilates” movie on youtube says that “Everyone who embraces the principles can take them out to what ever they do.” This is where Pilates becomes life changing. In fact the trailer further goes on to reveal that Jo Pilates expected to change the world through his method. The Jedi had a similar ambition.

In the newest Star Wars movie “The Return of the Jedi” a much older Luke Skywalker teaches young Rey about the force. He asks her to “just breath” and reach out with her feelings to describe to him what she sees. Breathing and becoming aware of our feelings is also the first thing we will do in a Pilates session. Practising Pilates on this level requires us to be aware of our body in space, how our mood effects our body in motion, and by extend how our surroundings are effecting us in motion. For that we need to first of all gain awareness of ourselves and our surroundings. So becoming aware of what we feel and sense and exploring that is where we would also start.

Luke leads Rey to explore the natural elements that she can see with her feelings to find the balance between them. As mentioned earlier balance is perhaps the most important thing we need in our practice. There are of course exercises that require good balance, but it is not that kind of external balance that either Luke and Rey, or I are talking about. Rey continues to describe the balance as energy and force that she can feel inside her. In order to find effortlessness and efficiency in a difficult movement everything in our body has to be in balance too. Head to pelvis, hand to shoulder blade have to balance each other out without disruptions of tension. The all over state of our connective tissue has to be balanced in order to allow easy transfer of forces for those magical movements to happen. Our mind needs to also be balanced with the rest of our physical being. If we are in pain, tired or angry it is much harder to find balance in movement.  We have to believe in ourselves and our ability and that we are save, in order to let go enough to allow our body to fall into balance. With that we promote a balanced lifestyle, something we all know is very hard to master.

Unfortunately most people do not explore this potential that Pilates has until they decide to train to become teachers of the method, and even then, many schools who teach teachers are limiting themselves to the “crude matter”, as Yoda called it. Star Wars may be a silly story to you, but remember that you are a luminous being and that your limiting believes may be holding you back in life.

If you would like to learn the way of the force and change your life contact Kristin at The Body Matters on 01702 714968.

Kristin Loeer
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