Late last year I attended a two day BreatheAbility breathing course with physiotherapist and Breathing Educator Tess Graham. Tess Graham trained with Ukrainian doctor Konstantin Buteyko in the early 1990’s. Buteyko is renowned for his work on breathing retraining for asthmatics and founding the Buteyko Institute.  Tess herself has over 6500 hours of clinical experience as a breathing specialist and believes she cured two of her children of their asthma. Naturally, being curious and a Pilates instructor, I was eager to learn about her techniques for breathing retaining which, until now, I hadn’t heard of.

It's no secret in our business that I have a range of weird and wonderful tricks up my sleeve that Rob deploys at various stages to help sneak in bonus range of movement, maybe some pain relief, or perhaps just some homework to help someone see better. These little tricks are all derived from the growing Functional Neurology sector in the health industry. At its core, Functional Neurology is designed to work from the perspective of training the brain for balancing and normalising excess electrical charge in our naturally electrical system. The particular stream Rob has decided to go down offers both the physical training ideas that balance our sensory system, as well as a therapeutic approach to calibrate points of elevated charge, most often associated with pain or dysfunction, and create space for the body to heal in its own time. The main company I've trained with recently put together a 'retreat' in Thailand so people from all over the world could meet, practice on each other and learn new skills while refining old ones. Safe to say I've come home with a few more tricks up my sleeve!

This is the second blog in a two part series about our brains and how we learn. In the first blog we discussed fixed versus growth mindsets and how our thought patterns help determine our brain’s map. Next we are going to delve further into how the brain works, how it processes information and how we learn. To begin, let’s look at a breakdown of the human brain. The human brain consists of three separate brains, responsible for different aspects of thinking, behaving and reacting.

Recently I have been participating in discussions with past and present leaders of Australian youth dance education and it has got me thinking. As new research continues to emerge about the correlations between brain neuroplasticity and thought patterns, I can’t help but relate it back to the adult learning environment we work in - the Pilates setting. There is so much emphasis currently placed on how our language and behaviors will shape our children’s learning habits and abilities. What we are failing to acknowledge is that they are also shaping our own adult learning habits and abilities. Often we are so preoccupied with the outside world that we forget that we are still learning, every day. Without a thought-out, considered approach to the way we are thinking, speaking and behaving daily, we can actually prevent ourselves from becoming successful learners.

I have trained in Barre and Pilates with Ash one to one for 3 years. First in London and then when she moved back to Melbourne I missed her sessions so much, we set up a weekly Skype session. She is such an inspirational teacher, her detailed and tailored approach and attention to detail are second to none. Her classes have transformed my body and the way I think about movement, with lots of fun along the way.

So I want you to think about this: you came to Pilates about five years ago with lower back pain or some other ailment that was preventing you from the daily activities you enjoyed. Frustrated and bewildered by Pilates you persevered for the first month or so, not really having any clue why you were doing some of the things you were doing.  Most likely, you enjoyed that often you got to lie down and breathe for an hour... it helped you relax. Your instructor was kind, she/he was encouraging and helped you understand why your back was giving you grief. Soon you found yourself moving more freely as the pain subsided and eventually disappeared completely. Eureka! You were cured and you loved your instructor and Pilates for helping you with that. You began singing the praises of Pilates and vowed to attend every week to ensure the upkeep of your newly found mobility and freedom in your spine.