I discovered Pilates, as recommended by my physiotherapist.  My work had an on-site Pilates teacher who came in weekly, so this became my weekly ritual.  I had a bad experience trying yoga some years before; I didn’t like the teacher, didn’t like his attitude and thought him physically rather odd!  Did I want to look like that?  But now I needed some physical rehabilitation, and Pilates did the job.

Then I became a Pilates teacher.  I had always wanted to teach, and thought this was my thing.  I put the time in and studied and eventually got my qualification.  However, just as I was starting out as a teacher, I was offered a job back in IT, so I let it lapse.  It was and still is my intention to return to teaching, but the Pandemic has taught me one major thing I didn’t have before – Commitment.  You have to really live and breathe something if you want to teach it, I feel.

I have been fortunate to find Pilates teachers (Rachel and Amanda) and a situation (the pandemic), where I’ve been able to throw myself into Pilates, and perform a “step change” in my Pilates practice.  I’ve also been able to use the enforced spare time in the pandemic to get much fitter, as I now run and cycle 5 times a week.  Put simply, if I want to work in the fitness industry, I need to be fit!

So, I come from a Pilates background in reality.  Joseph Pilates was heavily influenced by Yoga when he created “Contrology”.  There are many styles of Pilates, like there are schools of Yoga.  My point of view of that Pilates is more “specific”, while Yoga is more “holistic”; both consider the Breath to be the key, but use it in different ways.

So, I have feet in both camps, as it were.  But Yoga helps me with another aspect of my life – my mental health.  I have a very mild anxiety condition which I’ve realised I’ve had ever since my teenage years, so that’s going on 40+ years now.  After a long battle, I’ve realised that this is something I doubt will ever go away, and I’ll have to deal with it for the rest of my life.

I first met Tali Lowe, 5 or 6 years ago, as she had a regular yoga class on Tuesday evenings out at Easter Bush.  Tali’s class was tough!  But I started going regularly.  It was a challenge, but somehow, I needed a challenge, and a challenge that was different from my work.  It became my weekly “escape” from work and the anxieties of life.  Why?

It’s the mat.  The mat gives you that space to take that “time out” from the world.  You are your own master in that small piece of space and time.  It doesn’t matter whether it is Pilates or Yoga, the mat is the key.  You have given your time to the mat and its space.  The mat will give back to you.  For Pilates I get a focused workout on the “core” from my mat, but Yoga give me a broader experience.  I get time to quieten my mind, I get to do the poses that match my energy levels – during the pandemic, mental and physical energy levels have not been high!  Incidentally, please be kind to yourselves during the pandemic – it’s a highly unusual time and situation that nobody has had to deal with before – we are all learning!  And the Pandemic will not be over any time soon, sadly.

Moving on to 1-2-1 classes with Tali, I was at first really able to focus on the specifics of technique.  What am I actually doing in downward dog, with my knuckles, fingers, forearms, triceps, shoulder girdle, hip creases, glutes, calves and ankles?  Only a 1-2-1 class enables you to really deconstruct a pose, and extract the maximum physical benefit from doing the pose more “correctly”.  And this search for a more perfect pose has a benefit to the mental side too – doing things “properly” is such an achievement.  Group classes can promote laziness.  Are your hips really square in Warrior 2?  Are you cheating with your forearms and triceps in Downward Dog?  Are you really in control of your breathing at any point in the class?  Only you know, and the only way to find out and achieve the maximum benefit is to deconstruct your practice with a 1-2-1 series of classes.  This is what Tali first guided me to do.

In this closer setting, you’re devoting your time to excellence, to improve your physical practice and maximise the benefit to your mind.  Quietness begets focus, which begets micro improvements in technique, which improves satisfaction, and ultimately contentment.

But you need the guide of a good teacher, and I found one of the best in Tali.

A good yoga practice for both the mind and body, is all about control of the breath.  Breathing is obviously a reflex activity, so we tend not to give it a second thought.  We sometimes talk about people being “in control” or being “out of control” – this actually means whether they in in control of their breathing.  What does somebody mean when they say “Calm down”, or “Take a breather for a moment”?  They mean, often without knowing it, that the stressed person needs to retake control of their breathing.  And taking control of your breathing is really what Yoga is about, at least to me, right now.  Smoothing out the inhales and exhales, and the start and finish of each phase, brings contentment, peace of mind and focus, focus that enables a better physical practice, with the release of tension in the muscles, and hence ease of reaching and maintaining a pose.

A good yoga practice is also not a destination, it is a journey.  There is always a better physical yogi out there than me, like there is a better guitarist or programmer out there than me.  But the point is to enjoy the journey, learn the lesson of each step and make progress, progress that can be fitful and not smooth, but is made with commitment.

Mike Wicks

13^th May 2021