Strength in Uncertainty

“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”

     -Martin Luther King, Jr.

My road to becoming a full-time Pilates professional is an unusual one.  I spent most of my career as a music professor and performer.  In December 2015 at the age of 40, I found myself in the emergency room after several days of what I thought was a bad case of food poisoning, only to be faced with the much more serious diagnosis of kidney failure.  The period between that diagnosis and receiving a life-saving transplant in 2018 were the most difficult and transformative of my life.

In early 2019, I had the incredible fortune of meeting my future wife/Pilates master teacher Wanda Bouvier, who invited me to start training on the reformer.  I was just beginning my journey back to health and had very little strength.  After about a month of training I had my first “aha” moment.  I went out for a walk after a workout and felt somehow…taller.  It was as if I was being involuntarily held up high by an unknown force.  I was flowing through my steps on a cloud rather than plodding along.  For the first time in many years, I felt good in my body.

What struck me most was that in addition to feeling physically elevated, my usual mental and emotional noise was deep in the background.  My body and mind were in flow, the familiar feeling that arises when musicians sync together and the ensemble begins to play as one.  It was then that I understood that the practice of Pilates could serve a deeper purpose beyond physical transformation:  The capacity to heal.

  You can’t “multitask” while practicing Pilates.  The method forces you to concentrate on every movement.  This consistent commitment builds a type of strength beyond resilience.  It builds Antifragility:  The ability to grow stronger in the face of uncertainty.

At the age of 48, I made the decision to become a Pilates teacher, and it has been one of the best decisions of my life.  Here I will share my unique perspective on practicing and teaching to help others find the same healing. Let’s walk tall together.

How can you ensure that you’re practicing Pilates to build deep, long-term benefits?  Find out in my next blog, The Deliverance is in the Details.