Parenting is Yoga and Requires Pilates

As far as I’m concerned, parenting IS yoga and REQUIRES Pilates.

Because of my 20+ year yoga practice, my mind is often able to stay calm and find my best self through many of life’s tough situations, including many a toddler tantrum.

Because of my 20+ year Pilates practice, my body is strong enough to keep up with my kid and my mind holds a big picture perspective on health and aging, which I intend to role model for my child.

So, if I teach Pilates enthusiastically, why don’t I also teach yoga?

Although I’m a longtime yoga practitioner who has taken multiple comprehensive yoga certifications and studied with many respected yoga gurus, I could never fully identify as a yogi (or yogini). I simply don’t relate to most of the spiritual customs and practices associated with yoga.

I think the concepts and customs of Ayurveda are fascinating and often practical, so I try to pepper those into my life. I think the physical practice is super fun, so I add those movements into my week regularly. And I adore many of the self-soothing techniques yoga teaches, so I utilize those daily.

But I don’t much care for magical thinking (I’m an agnostic free thinker) so the Hinduism influence in yoga never really appealed to me. And don’t get me started on the Buddha (or do, but be prepared for a diatribe about how I’d like to hear from the wife and child he left to go find enlightenment - by himself, quietly under a tree 😏. #convincemeimwrong 😉)

I feel lucky that my parents taught me how to define my own morals using tools like critical thinking, gratitude, and empathy. And I developed my deepest sense of “spirituality” through a lifetime spent in nature.

I don’t feel qualified to be someone’s spiritual teacher and I fundamentally believe spirituality is primarily found on one’s own.

Instead, I guide people into their bodies and hope that their “spirit” becomes enlivened through doing their physical practice with deep self-reflection and deep reverence for the human condition.