Polestar has been a major force in the introduction of Pilates to the medical and academic world. Through partnering with major universities, hospitals and institutions, we have successfully introduced Polestar’s Pilates curriculum to thousands of professionals in over 60 Universities throughout the world.
Polestar provides many services to the academic community, including free online and in-person lectures and masterclasses to heighten the awareness of the clinical applications of the Pilates Method. Our Pilates Immersion program allows for an in-depth experience for students who want to learn the fundamentals to incorporate Pilates into their profession.
Polestar’s full Pilates comprehensive teacher training has become embedded and implemented in the dance department at Rutgers University for over 5 years in the Mason Gross School of Performing Arts.
One highlight of our collaboration with Rutgers is the “fingerprint project” introduced by Kim Gibilisco NCPT, MFA. This project empowers students in the teacher training to take ownership of their future by completing a research and development project that highlights their perspective of and goals for the application of Pilates through the lens of parallel modalities.
The following excerpt from “Meditation & Pilates” by Kelly Robertson was part of her “fingerprint project” required for the culmination of the Polestar Pilates comprehensive teacher training at the Mason Gross School of Performing Arts at Rutgers University.
FINGERPRINT PROJECT:
Excerpt from “Meditation & Pilates” by Kelly Robertson
Carol Davis in Patient Practitioner Interaction writes: “Newtonian physics taught us that the basic elements of nature were small, solid, indestructible objects. However, quantum physics taught us that atoms, the building blocks of all matter, actually consist of vast regions of space in which very small particles move.” She then writes: “Given this quantum interpretation, solid objects are no longer perceived as solid …. we are more like a mass of energy set in constant motion.” “Mind and body are united in a whole nurtured by the flow of vital energy, or chi” (pg.129).
This “mass of energy in constant motion” as Davis puts it is something that I think we can all feel as true. When I bring my awareness to my body, I experience this sense of “flow”. This flow is always increased for me after a positive movement experience.
Risa Kaparo in Awakening Somatic Intelligence sites the “Old Paradigm” as:
1. We function as relatively fixed objects.
2. We are separate from everything else.
3. Gravity is a force that needs to be overcome by effort.
… and lists the “New Paradigm” as:
1. We function as self-sensing, self-organizing, self-renewing energy beings.
2. We are interconnected with all that is.
3. Gravity provides an opportunity to sense and liberate us from our patterns of habitual tension.
She goes on to write that if we move away from the “Old Paradigm” we can sense our bodies in a new way and “learn new ways of functioning that are congruent with non-self-limiting beliefs” (pages 30-31).
I also believe that the view of the body as a fixed, solid object is limiting and even arrests the possibility of change when we think that way. I will integrate this idea into my teaching for my final because I believe it is an important step to get students into the right frame of mind for change.
Chopra writes about how freeing it is to see our bodies as movement, capable of change and healing,
“If you could see that your physical body is an idea your mind is stubbornly holding on to, an enormous breakthrough would take place. You would no longer be imprisoned in a lump of matter. Best of all you would be free to adopt a much better idea of your body” (page 20).
He describes that our bodies are a cloud of energy and that changes in that energy can cause genuine physical effects. “You can bring healing to any aspect of your life by shifting an unhealthy energy state into a healthy one” (page 44). This goes back to Chopra’s explanation of how awareness creates positive change in the body. He believes that awareness changes the energy and that energy changes the body. Awareness-Energy-Body.
Similarly, Brent Anderson PT, Ph.D., OCS, NCPT in his SRG Energy Medicine Lecture (Polestar Online) “As we heighten our awareness of what flows and doesn’t flow, where energy fills up or doesn’t fill up, that helps us as well to increase that flow and get a nice healthy flow of energy”. Anderson goes on to say “There is a wealth and plethora of energy and truth out there and our job in life is to balance ourselves so we can resonate with it”.
Anderson goes a step further and discusses how this knowledge directly applies to our work in Pilates or in other healing practices. He points out that as “healers” we need to be aware that the “healing process involves many kinds of communication” and “That is what energy does, transfers communication”.
Bio-Energetics is a subject included throughout the Polestar Principles of Movement manual. In each chapter, there is a Bio-Energetics section addressing how each principle affects our energy systems. For example in Chapter 4, Organization of the Head, Neck & Shoulders, the Bio-Energetics section reads: “Balanced strength and flexibility on all sides of the shoulder enable a balanced flow of energetic pathways”. A combination of Pilates and meditation is a great way to not only achieve the alignment of the body but also to heighten awareness of the energy changes that come with correct alignment.
Interested in bringing Polestar Pilates education to your University or Institution? Click here!
