What is truly yours cannot be taken from you. You cannot be taken advantage of when you
consciously choose to give someone the advantage of being in your company, your space, and
your energy.
As Pilates instructors, educators, and movement professionals, we may sometimes feel
protective of what we know. We may worry that someone wants to take our ideas, copy our
teaching, learn our methods, or benefit from years of work without having traveled the same
road.
But what if that fear is asking us to look more closely at our relationship with abundance?
Because knowledge is not simply information. Knowledge becomes wisdom through experience.
You cannot truly learn a movement practice without moving. You cannot understand what it
means to teach another human being simply by memorizing exercises or cues. You have to
observe, listen, make mistakes, feel, adapt, question, practice, teach, reflect, begin again.
The only thing we can ever truly know is our own experience. And no one can take that from us.
When we share what we have discovered through our own practice, we are not necessarily
giving something away. We may actually be participating in its expansion. Teaching becomes an
act of generosity: This is what I have experienced. This is what I have learned. Let me offer it to
you and see what becomes possible in your experience.
What Is Pilates, After All?
Is Pilates simply a movement system that must be performed a particular way?
Or can it also be understood as an exploration of human potential?
Joseph Pilates developed his work during an extraordinary period of human history, living
through two World Wars and witnessing enormous social upheaval. His writings reveal an
ambitious belief in the relationship between physical health, mental discipline, personal
responsibility, and the wellbeing of society.
Whether or not we share all of his ideas today, there is something compelling about that vision.
- What happens when a person learns to pay attention to themselves?
- What happens when we develop greater awareness, agency, discipline, adaptability, and
- connection?
- Perhaps the practice becomes about more than performing an exercise correctly.
- Perhaps it becomes a practice of relationship with oneself.
- And from that perspective, there is very little another person can steal from you.
- They can learn the exercise you teach.
- They can repeat your words.
- They can study your sequencing.
- They can even imitate your style.
But they cannot reproduce the years of experience that shaped the way you see the person
standing in front of you. They cannot duplicate your relationships, your mistakes, your
discoveries, your curiosity, or the particular way your life has informed your teaching.
Your experience is your intellectual and energetic fingerprint.
From Protection to Reflection
This does not mean that boundaries are unnecessary. Generosity does not require allowing
people unlimited access to our time, labor, intellectual property, or emotional resources.
Healthy boundaries and an abundant mindset can coexist. But when I notice myself feeling threatened, protective, or afraid of being taken advantage of, I find it useful to become curious before becoming defensive.
- Where have I benefited from someone else’s generosity?
- Whose shoulders am I standing on?
- Have I acknowledged my teachers and influences?
- Do I give credit freely?
- Where might I have unknowingly borrowed without acknowledging?
- Where could I practice greater humility?
And where is a genuine boundary needed?
These questions move us away from the simple story of me versus them and back toward
self-awareness. Pilates itself offers us this practice again and again: notice what is happening, organize
ourselves around what we discover, and respond with greater choice.
5 Simple Ways to Protect, and Ground Your Energy
- Ground before you protect.
Visualize a cord of light traveling through the crown of your head, following the length of your
spine, continuing through your pelvis, legs, and feet, and anchoring into the earth. Let the image
create a sense of length, support, and connection rather than armor. Ask yourself: Can I feel
supported enough that I don’t need to brace against the world? - Move from reaction into reflection.
When you feel attacked, copied, threatened, or diminished, pause before responding. Notice
what is happening in your body. Where do you tighten? Where does your breath change? Then
ask what the situation is bringing up for you. Seeing another person’s behavior clearly does not
mean accepting it, but self-reflection can help us respond rather than react. - Remember what is actually yours.
Return to your lived experience. Someone may borrow an idea, an exercise, or even a phrase,
but they cannot take the experiences that gave those things meaning for you. Keep studying.
Keep practicing. Keep evolving. Your greatest protection is not holding tightly to what you
already know—it is continuing to grow. - Practice generous boundaries.
Abundance does not mean saying yes to everything. Decide consciously what you want to
share, with whom, and under what circumstances. Give freely when you choose to give, and
say no clearly when something does not feel aligned. A boundary does not have to come from
fear. It can come from clarity. - Practice gratitude and attribution.
Remember your lineage. Name your teachers. Credit the people whose ideas have influenced
yours. Thank the people who have opened doors, challenged your thinking, and shared their
discoveries with you. The more consciously we acknowledge what we have received, the easier
it becomes to share what we have learned.
The Practice of Abundance
- Share.
- Acknowledge.
- Stay curious.
- Create boundaries when they are needed.
- And keep moving.
Maybe protecting our energy is not about building walls around ourselves.
Maybe it is about becoming so grounded in our own experience that we no longer confuse
someone else’s access to our knowledge with ownership of who we are.
Pilates teaches us to create support without rigidity, control without unnecessary tension, and
movement without losing connection to ourselves.
Perhaps we can practice the same principles with our knowledge.
Because what is genuinely yours is not a collection of exercises, cues, certifications, or ideas. It is who you have become through experiencing them. And that cannot be taken from you.
