What's in a Name?

Remember that song you used to sing as a kid that helped you name your bones? You know, the one that goes like this:

The toe bone's connected to the foot bone

The foot bone's connected to the heel bone

The heel bone's connected to the ankle bone 

It goes on and on connecting us all the way up to the head! What if we grown-up-fied the song to go something like this:

The phalanges connect to the metatarsals 

The metatarsals connect to the tarsals

The tarsals connect to the talus 

A real bop if you ask us! But what does getting precise with naming our bones help us do? Well, for one, it helps us communicate with more specificity. "My foot hurts when I walk" turns into, "My metatarsals hurt when I walk." Specificity allows you to search for solutions specific to your specificity. Solutions specific to your specificity; say that ten times fast! 

Our point is, naming something can sometimes be the first step towards problem solving, which was Nicole's experience with dyslexia. "I'm stupid" turned into "I'm dyslexic," helping Nicole understand that all people learn differently. This experience is just one of so many of Nicole's that influence her style of teaching – she'll teach a concept ten different ways (song and dance included) if that's what her students need. 

Check out her story here: 

I’ve felt like an imposter most of my life. As a child, I struggled with learning how to read and I hid the fact that I couldn't read until the 3rd grade. I thought I was stupid and felt anxiety around reading aloud in class because I didn't want to be “found out.” It wasn't until a teacher told my parents that I was "slow" and recommended they enroll me into special-ed that my parents recognized I learn differently. Fast forward to adulthood and I discovered that I have dyslexia. In other words, I’m neurodivergent. It’s incredibly liberating to name what I’ve sensed inside my body for years.

So, what does the above have to do with Pilates? Pilates attends to musculoskeletal pain, improves posture, and helps us name our personal struggles, but Pilates is also a bottom-up approach to help people explore the sensations in their body; to help people get curious and playful. Pilates befriends the autonomic nervous system (ANS) and helps individuals sense patterns both musculoskeletal and otherwise from a place of observation not judgment. Pilates helped me develop the ability to observe and recognize the sensations behind feeling “stupid.” It also helped me better understand my migraines, neck spasms, and scapular pain. Instead of feeling overwhelmed when I feel discomfort, I get curious. This curiosity frees me from judgment and keeps me present in my body.

Read Nicole's bio here!

By: Destinie Slavich and Nicole Lancie