MY MOVEMENT STORY

The awe and wonder of our exceptional gifts

For me, movement is a life source. It is my livelihood, my passion, my healthcare, and my community. But my love of this present version of movement was slow and gradual. It was only over time it became synonymous with my mindfulness and spiritual practices.

My journey actually began before I was really present for it. As a child I was both a mover and a dreamer. My parents’ arms would be wrenched side to side as I was incapable of simply ‘walking’ anywhere. A hop, a skip, a leap, surely these were all better modes of transportation. This was usually encompassed by some little diddy that I’d made up that must have been torturous on their ears. When left to my own devices I’d become lost in elaborate stories and dreamy fantasies of a life on the other side of my bedroom window.

My parents enrolled me into dance. I took ballet, and jazz and eventually hip hop. I wasn’t a particularly exceptional student, but I was surely embodied as I weaved my way through awkward puberty with some casual grace. My whimsical childhood took a rather deep detour though at the age of fourteen when I was diagnosed with a debilitating autoimmune disease. My memories of this time are veiled with extreme lethargy from suppressive medication and daily pain in simple tasks such as walking or holding a pen. I stopped dancing and my Mom took me to a yoga class.

Yoga wasn’t popular then. I was in a school gymnasium with women my Mom’s age and older. The overhead florescent beams shut down for Savasana and I was privy to some snoring in the pitch black. But I stuck with it and by the time I reached University it was a staple in my life. When I graduated the Creative Writing department at the University of Victoria, it was a near-daily practice. Friends encouraged me to seek out teacher training but I was reluctant to commit to such an endeavour as guiding other people on a spiritual path laid out from centuries of study, in countries I’d never been to, felt too daunting a roll for an inexperienced 20 something. And then I found Pilates.

Once again I found myself in a giant gymnasium where we took up less than a quarter of the space. I was at the University of Guelph and the teacher's name was Gillian. I loved it. It was different and yet somehow closely related to my years of dance and yoga. I started going to her little home studio and practicing at home. After a year, I left Ontario and made my way back home to the West Coast. I felt ready to try something new and moved to Vancouver to seek out Pilates studios where I could learn more. I found a sanctuary in the middle of Yaletown called The Space.

It happened that the Pilates training began the very next weekend, so I leapt and spent the next 7 years developing my teaching skills at the studio there. As it turns out it was impossible for me to separate myself from all those years of practicing yoga and it filtered its way into my teaching. I went on to obtain my Yoga training through a remarkable group of influential teachers from across Canada. Later I studied several different styles and then assisted in trainings throughout Vancouver.

My teacher, Marta, had an incredible eye and I learned so much over the years I worked alongside her. She mentored me in helping her run the teacher training program affiliated with the PhysicalMind Institute. Thereafter I taught several of my own trainings across Canada.

When I left Vancouver, I hunkered into my beautiful island life back in Victoria. Over the next 8 years my teaching transformed many times. I spent several years heavily engrossed back in my yoga community and eventually found myself searching for deeper meaning in my Pilates again. I went back to school and re-certified through The Pilates Center. The training reinvigorated my love of teaching and pulled the thread of my experiences together with its in-depth look at the system as a whole. The team at the school in Vancouver asked me to join as faculty and I accepted.

In 2015 my movement experience changed drastically. I was in two separate car accidents. Neither one was major, but it was enough to send my carefully balanced system into a tailspin. My nervous system went haywire. I suffered from bad whiplash and my Rheumatoid Disease bombarded my body. I lost ground quickly. I lost most of the use of my left hand and arm. The limb atrophied and grew so weak I couldn’t hold a water glass or even change the pilates springs with one hand. It constantly hurt to move and the fatigue was so intense I would collapse after coming home from the studio. I started researching other entry points to manage this intense spiral.

I found myself diving deeper into the psychology behind my illness. I studied healthy Nervous System regulation and poly-vagal theory, added Feldenkrais exercises to my practice, as well as, restorative breathing exercises. I joined a community of fellow students seeking out this different way of orienting to our surroundings. I went back to my Restorative Yoga roots and gained a better understanding of how to teach with a trauma-informed lens. Sessions with my students started to take on new meaning as I began to blend my experiences of modalities to create my own new voice. And in the process, my own body came back on line.

I continued my studies of Somatic Therapy and Coaching through The Embody Lab and have completed several comprehensive programs to guide this next phase of my journey. The exploration of meaningful movement and connection never ends.

I have learned through my own movement journey and experience there is no arrival. There is no perfection. This quest we are on is about seeking excellence which requires inquiry and failure, deep vulnerability and resilience.  When we are ready to start opening those doors, the awe and wonder of our exceptional gifts as humans reveals itself to us.