Waking Energy 7 Timeless Practices Designed to Reboot Your Body and Unleash Your Potential

about them.
Later that same day, I wandered into an empty rehearsal studio to practice some phrases from the
morning’s repertory class. I moved into the final bars of the most challenging choreography and
prepared to do the ever elusive triple pirouette that marked the end of the phrase—a flourish I’d been
hungering to master. Every attempt I’d made before had ended in frustration and a double pirouette—
or at the most in a sloppy, overexerted double and a half. I prepared once again for the triple. I took a
deep plié. Then my arms moved into port de bras, encircling my newfound center, and in what was
soon to become an unforgettable slice of time my head turned and my body followed effortlessly for
one, two, then three turns! Gliding gracefully, I finished in fourth position. I had done it!
With that, I understood for the first time what effortless effort meant, and (no pun intended) there
would be no turning back. Considering the results of working my core, the next conditioning class just
couldn’t come soon enough.
That summer, even when I encountered exercises that were harder than I imagined they would be, I
persevered, just as my mother had told me I should. Because of the nature of the work and how
balanced and symmetrical every movement was, I couldn’t rely on my old ways: I couldn’t just mimic
a movement by watching it and then repeating it, as we did in dance. I couldn’t “cheat,” counting on
my stronger “workhorse” muscles to compensate for my weaker ones. In order to successfully execute
any movement, my weaker side had to participate as well. I had to think, to really concentrate, and I
had to do it quickly—dialoguing with my body within a span of seconds and asking it to comply and
partner with me. For the first time, employing the muscles I “found” in Pilates, I used my body as an
integrated whole.
As if overnight (and that’s the magic of the work, how quickly it reeducates you), I developed an
entirely new interior awareness. I’d been introduced to another aspect of the mind–body connection:
how my precise and focused, fully conscious efforts affected my body and how immediately it
responded. Pilates pulled me in. I couldn’t get enough. Even with my innocent, thirteen-year-old
scope of understanding, the mental focus and discipline it required was mysteriously compelling. I
was awestruck. The Pilates method fascinated me and captured my imagination.
Old Tricks No More
It wasn’t until I returned to my regular dance schedule in the fall that I was able to fully appreciate the
benefits I had reaped. Instead of feeling depleted after a full day of classes, I felt inspired,
invigorated, and enlivened. My stamina had increased, as had my focus and drive.
Pilates made me feel omnipotent. So much so, in fact, that in all my inflated teenage, selfaggrandizing
glory I stopped doing it consistently for a while—just because I thought I didn’t need it
anymore. I thought there was nothing I couldn’t do.
Amazing as it was, the “work” of Pilates seemed to work for me even after I took a break from it.
In my mind it had managed some miraculous rearranging of my cellular biology and had remade me