And the journey goes on

It’s been SUCH A LONG TIME since I’ve written ANYTHING. It’s been busy, chaotic, wonderful, a little bit of laziness and everything mixed.

The last few months…..I said ‘YES’ to the man I love, passed my Pilates Studio exam, became a Pre & Postnatal Specialist and fully submerged in the world of teaching Pilates, learning along the way, been on the long-awaited honeymoon trip, moved to another house, went on a short trip with a best friend, and on… and on…..

No one ever tells you how hard or easy it is to be a freelance Pilates teacher, perks and downside of your decisions, advice are difficult to obtain, and everyone else’s so busy with their lives.

Have been a freelance Pilates teacher in a while. I do understand why some enjoys teaching in one studio, for it’s less hassle to travel around the city, more stable income and classes, and other perks that I might not be aware of. I do however, enjoy being freelance despite the fact that I have to sometimes run around the city like a maniac, having few hours in between sessions and cannot think of anywhere to go (can’t afford a massage everytime one got a break right! :P) I love to the feeling of being free, the fact that I do not have to deal with the ‘office politics’ that happens naturally in a workplace ( sort of left my office job for that am not going back to the environment that I cannot deal with, others who could deal with that, bravo I salute to that).

Starting off as a freelance is quite a challenge, one that I can see is the search of opportunity: the constant asking around and emailing, bit of a self doubt from time to time, and the huge amount of self-control to do something ‘productive’ during the days / hours where there’s zero client or class. My obsession with skincare products has been growing by the day out of control and I have got to control the search for reviews on the addicting Youtube, alongside with all the research I do with those products!

At the moment, there are days where there is only an hour’s class for the day, while somedays there are more. And I cannot help but wonder how other instructors teach throughout the day, while maintaining that ‘quality’ of teaching. How long can one teach per day? 3 hours? 5 hours? or 8 hours? or as long as there’s a little 15 /30 minutes break in between it would suffice for retaining energy (and brain power) for the following classes and clear the brain? Sometimes after 4 hours of consecutive teaching I find myself losing that eloquence in articulating as well as the very first class of the day. Are there any strategies? Anyone? Anything?

And time… ah the mysterious TIME… does slips away faster than when I worked in the office, how on earth it’s nearly June already! is that’s supposed to be a positive sign(?) that I genuinely enjoy what I am doing now? I do, very much indeed.

Interesting confusing little world

It’s always interesting how we all live in this one big ‘space’ but in our own little world, where the thought of moving from one circle to another scares a lot of people (hence comes the description ‘comfort zone’), and definitely scares the hell out of me (see how much time and preparation I requires to make a decision). And how easy it is for one to wander and get lost. And growing with age definitely takes some of the courage out of me.

On a side-note: I quitted the office job! Sometimes I wonder whether if the decision should be made at this moment, or at all. Currently am intending to start another part-time job, so could still have the time to practice Pilates, as well as being able to contribute on our future projects.

So, interestingly, an experience with a friend lately has again made me rethinking about the definition of human relationships, and how one defines ‘friend’ in the modern days. I used to think that I have lots of ‘friends’ until I realize that a lot of them would only contact you when they want something from you, they wish to lend money from you, or nothing at all. Life’s too short – Selection and rethinking needed.

Still am very excited with the extra time I have to  spend on discovering new books and re-reading my favourite books, trying out recipes, and practising, revising and teaching Pilates. In the past month I have been practising hard, but not studying enough still!

Now I am with my family travelling in Europe, which might not be the best time to travel since the Mat exam in approaching, yet it’s the perfect opportunity to have my family together and voyage a little, reconnect a little, with inside and out.

A New Journey, yet to begin.

So with my partner’s support, the decision’s been made, that I am going to quit my office job. It’s exciting, nervous, exhilarating, worrying… and a mix of many other emotions.

For now, the anxiety outweighs the excitement, where I tend to worry a little, sometimes too much, way before incidents happen. Am I excited? Yes! Am I nervous? VERY! But it is all good now once the decision’s been made, I just need to be slightly fearless and keep believing.

Have been teaching fair amount lately, about 3-5 hours per week. It’s pretty tough to work, teach, take lessons, plan wedding, meal planning, spending time with my partner, rest/leisure and trying to strike an equilibrium between all these.

I found that it’s not exactly easy to teach a class with very different level. I guess one has to give in to the fact that there are people who are very dedicated, whether they could do the exercise ‘correctly’ or not, and there are others who would give up after trying twice. How to motivate those ones? and how to not let the other one de-motivates my hard-working client?

I remember one instructor told me, first we are too scared / shy to touch (tactile cues), then the more we teach, we seem to correct them too much, and even correcting them before clients move. It’s important to just let them move, see how their body is, that day, then correct them. And to be honest, if someone corrects me that much (which sort of means that I am doing it SOOOO wrong)… I’d not be so pleased. I mean, that’s sort of discouraging, right?

And now that I am so close to actually changing my career, finances place a big part of my life, all that planning and thinking and calculating. One thing that needs to be discussed is that I’d be increasing the price after my exam, and don’t know if anyone feels the difficulty to speak about $money$? Speaking about prices and all that makes me really nervous…. like I’d stress about it a week before actually having to speak to my ‘clients’. Maybe again, that all comes back to the ‘confidence’ issue? Ouch I might just read too many magazines haha.

Let’s not let anxiety turns into fear, which ruins everything. Stay fearless, stay adventurous. Be curious.

First hand Pilates teaching experience

Back to reality also means back to Pilates training, which I gladly am willing to do so.

Fortunately enough, a dear friend referred a few friends who are interested in taking Pilates lessons and does not mind that I am a student and need practice and more hours for apprentice teaching, and so far after 6 times of teaching, it does not get easier or less nerve wracking, but it is really a good way to learn when you have someone to practice your teaching on. ‘Clients’ normally pay about 5euros for an hour of private session, which works pretty well since they would automatically pays attention as if they are having a ‘real’ class, and I’ll treat them as real clients.

They all have different levels of activities daily and at different stages of life so it makes it more challenging and interesting! One of the lady was really strong, so she could do more challenging moves, while others have medium level of daily activities, but all of them perform pretty well and understand my cues and (providing that I am being clear and precise). I still struggle as to how to keep the class fun and them focus, and to put in slightly more ‘theories’ in between movements for some of the ‘clients’, which directly reflects how much time I put into revising the anatomy materials (which is not sufficient just yet!).

Teaching well or not is easy to sense, which really depends on how familiar I am with the exercise, and frankly I could not pass the exam with the current level…. yikes!  Anyway it has been very enjoyable so far; the revising, preparing, note flipping, wondering, and puzzling, listening, observing, teaching.

The thought of quitting my full time job has crossed my mind for thousands of times, and having shared that thought with friends, most of them replied that “this is not a good time”, since we are in the midst of planning the wedding. The wedding itself is not going to be an extravagant one, but it’s just the cost of having wedding in my city is very high, with not much of a ‘rustic’ choice. On the other hand, as much as I’d love to leave my desk job RIGHT NOW, there are few enjoyable things: stable income, dressing up, stable schedule, casual Fridays, few nice colleagues etc.

Then the questions is: when is the good/ right time? One would always have other priorities: wedding, a course, constructing the garden / fixing parts of the house, travelling, saving for a baby, and much more to come. The list seems infinite, making life exciting, which also makes me realize that there is a time for everything, and this could be mine. Thing is I have been struggling in places where I do not belong for years and now being able to found something that I like and could be good at, and make a living out of it, it’s an opportunity I should grab. (Somehow Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’ ringing in my ears) 😛

What makes it difficult for me would be the fact that: a, I ain’t rich b, did not have the habit of saving money (duh after years of Mom’s nagging, now I realize how important it is), c, have only start during these few month d, haven’t got my own Pilates client base etc. etc.

But am very thankful for having a very supportive partner. And if we work hard to live within the budget we set, and me working hard to succeed, things might turn out just fine.

Okay I gotta stop blah-blahing…..

Still I am at my seat pondering when and where and how… and all those unknown….

December, friend, and new obsession

Finally it’s December and my mood is lifted and filled with anticipation, since I am going to France to celebrate Christmas with my partners’ family!! The gatherings, the food, Paris, The poulet de Bresse, chesse, crepes… Christmas market… Sephora (not one in where I live)… Croissant aux amandes . etc..

Mmm…. and nearly half way to 2015, I’ve got a great news, and bad news….

First comes the bad news: My best friend just told me that she is not going to be my maid of honour, or anything involving my wedding.  Well that being said, I might not be a very dear friend of hers, a re-evaluation is necessary.

Great news: We found the venue! It’s nice and rustic, just as we like it.

Oh, and am newly addicted to Lipsticks / lip stains / lip crayons….lip lip lip lip!!!!! On a daily basis, I apply a bit of concealer and eye-liner, but the power of lipsticks’ recently discovered… and am hooked, bad news for wallet.

Ok just calm down for a sec, there is still the Studio 3 course to go this weekend. Sensing the urgency of it, last-moment practice session is on for today.  Haven’t  been studying for a little while, hope to catch up a little memories for Saturday.

winter season, more classes, and more on my plate

Spring / Winter season has approached a little while ago and has not been good for this summery girl. It feels more like a habit, where my body is more accustomed to warm, humid, hot weather, sun, sea, surf, dive, beach, a glass of fresh rosé, the smell of sunscreen lotion, flip flops, sun dresses, the occasional sunburn… and everything else. Just when I was indulging in the thoughts about all that summer wonderfulness, the dizziness that has been brought by headache, cough, mega sore throat seem to be gone for a moment…..

The last 2 weekends of Pilates (Studio 2 & MAT 2) were very informative, intense, and sore.

Studio 2 went quite well, despite being physically and mentally draining. Course mates are very helpful, and pretty knowledgeable. A lot of info was shared, practiced, discussed, but no matter how hard I tried to lock them in my brain they seem to drain out of me together with my energy.

Mat 2 was even more physically demanding, challenging the core, hands (esp. triceps..), brain, balance, oral presentation skills, teaching skills (which is sort of non-existence at the moment ) and habitual movements.

The course offers a sort of a ‘standard’ to assess people’s posture, and often one has to dig a little deeper to understand what’s the clients’ source of problems / pain and goals. However a lot of them requires practice and self-realization, and a little bit of an instinct. Of course there are ‘deeper’ philosophies which probably will take more time to have the ‘light-bulb -a-huh-moment’.  To teach is completely different from “simply” performing the moves perfectly ( not too simply though) and it is definitely a challenge and still am quite shy at it. And to grasp a balance between when to speak and what to speak is surely a challenge.

A lot of us are still trying to wrap our head around all those hours that we need to do, how to do, how to organize the time, to revise, to practice, to observe and to take classes.

Now am face with more planning, researching, stressing, hardwork and…..on the other hand…. more excitement ( less than a month to the long—anticipated Christmas holiday!!) and a lot more…. (let me reveal it later ;P)

Ooooh can’t wait for this very much anticipated weekend (with no alarm to painfully wake me up), and a yummy yummy meal tonight!

Pilates class, and foodie weekend

So am trying to post once a week, just to keep it fresh, and prevent memory lost.

Sore muscle + cramps – especially around the glutes and arms from last week’s training. Did 4 hours’ class, as well as an hour of observation, on top of everything that I am trying to juggle at one time.

Practice makes perfect one said, but it does not seem to apply to everything. My love for office job does not increase nor frustration gets diminished. I do sort of get why some people could be satisfied and empowered by working in an office job, but unfortunately that’s not me, well maybe I shouldn’t say ‘unfortunate’, my passion just lies somewhere else.

So back to Pilates, from an exercise / work-out point of view, it has improved my lines nicely, especially around my arms (woho!!  future-sexy-arms…. and more efficient than the other trainings I have done, e.g. boxing, swimming). I do have to say though it does increase my awareness regarding my posture, and in return, less knee pain (yes!).

The last weekend my partner and I have decided to indulge, our belly. Since it’s close to HIS birthday, we have chosen to have both a luxurious meal and a humble barbecue in two days. After extensive research and drooling over food porns, this restaurant has been chosen (http://www.cristal-hk.com/catalog/)  and was surprisingly good! The 8-course menu was exceptional and fresh with fantastic service. The view was not so nice especially on a rainy night, nevertheless we could definitely spend more than our 4.5 hours if we had not have the time with us. We were still stuffed the other day but the BBQ was soooo welcoming, with a group of friends, home-made burgers, Greek salad…. resulting in stretched stomach. There’s nothing like the company of good friends and nice food.

Glad that last week has been nothing but perfect, to pump some energy into my system for these two coming intensive weeks.

“The more you know, the more you don’t know” – Aristotle
Describes exactly how I feel recently. Been reading blogs about how to teach / how to perfect/ how to adapt and modify movements etc., and those all seems like words and theories for now, and a little unreachable… or will I ever get there.

Feeling quite a bit of pressure lately with the course, planning and other stuff that’s going on, but pressure = motivation, otherwise, I’ll get distracted.

First class and……

First class starts in a blink and honestly I was not and still am not quite familiar with all the anatomy terms! Each module consists of a 2 days’ course and are held during the weekends, to accommodate those full-time working population like myself. By the end of day 2, most of us was feeling pretty knackered by lunch time, and more so after lunch. Saying this, there are breaks about each 2 hours apart so if you are not as easily wear out as I do, you’d probably be fine.

Physically, one will have to be fit to perform well in some of the exercises in the course, while the exam itself is one year away, you will have time to train otherwise. The exercises teach and focus heavily on THE right movement (one vertebrae at a time, lengthen spine, breathing…. etc.) or simply if one is fit enough, or how to improve posture / movement. I indulge in the feeling of new knowledge coming to my life, and muscle groups that I never knew existed, am also quite surprised to know that I have been performing some moves with faulty movements (e.g. swan, I was not exactly swan-ing; push-ups, was doing it the easy way).

Without much of a physio-biological-medical background / knowledge, the most challenging part is to understand the limitations, benefits and link between exercises, the lost-in-translation feeling often occurs.

After the instructor demonstrated, explained few exercise, their benefits, restrictions as well as the correct sequence of movement, students have to work in pairs and teach one another. This is where a lot of us find difficult, sure we know how to move the right way, especially after learning it in details, but to teach is completely different. Correct (or understandable cues, right speed), sometimes I just laughed since I did not have idea when to say what, well, laughing is one of my coping mechanism.

The course taught us about how to assess one’s body posture, structure, understand their daily activities, past injuries and goals.

If you’d like to take the exam / be good at it, it is important to practice on your own, on someone else,  take classes, observe, and revise. it is also very much advisable to take classes from different instructors, to see different style, tactile and oral cueing, class run-down, vibe etc.

At this moment, my job is draining the life out of me. And at the same time I am trying my best to excel in practice and classes. Recently I tend to tire myself too much which leads to frequent cramping, ah, when life gets in the way.

Other classes are approaching and I have practice and revise a little more to grasp the ideas better. If not, I can foresee what sort of difficulties I will encounter… and with a very-much-anticipated Christmas holiday in country of CHEESE, I sincerely wish that some memories will be left in my brain and my muscle after the foreseeable perfect holiday.

Now stop worrying and focus.

Pre-enrolment and pre-course

Having read, researched and enquired about different Pilates programs: Polestar, Balanced Body and Stott Pilates, friends have mentioned about Polestar and recommended it and thus my decision. I’d be sure to explore other schools if I am able to handle everything that’s on my plate. For now, focus and perseverance is the key.

So, after few consultations, I enrolled 2 courses at the same time – Mat and Studio ( which I do not recommend unless you got quite a bit of time on hand to study and practice), and was given the anatomy book. The book itself is not thick at all, about 100 pages but the content is scary. Oh Mon Dieu! Anatomy! I had intentionally dropped Biology during high school and obviously it has determined to crawl back into my life.

Due to the determination to not be too miserable during the course, I went through 80% of the book before the course starts. My level of knowledge of anatomy was really lame, (i.e. clavicle is a new word to me) so it’s pretty challenging indeed.

Mat
M1
M2
M3 (optional course, small props e.g. foam roller, fitball etc.)
Exam

Studio
S1
S2
S3
S4
S5
S6
Exam

Each modules = 2 day’s course = 1 weekend = 16 hours
Normally scheduled about one month apart

Each of the above modules requires certain hours of practice, observation, apprentice teaching. Detail information could be found here:  http://www.polestarpilatesasia.com/pilates-education

Each of the above modules requires certain hours of practice, observation, apprentice teaching. Detail information could be found here: http://www.polestarpilatesasia.com/pilates-education

Student has to first attend the 2-day principles course which is quite theory-heavy. The instructor goes through the anatomy (bone and muscle structure), the principles, and other foundational knowledge that are required throughout the course.

Student has to first attend the 2-day principles course which is quite theory-heavy. The instructor goes through the anatomy (bone and muscle structure), the principles, and other foundational knowledge that are required throughout the course.

There are certain things that you could do to prepare yourself and to improve the learning experience:

• Read, understand and try to memorize the content in the anatomy book
• Take Pilates classes
• Get active
• Mentally get prepared

🙂

This is how it starts

Here it is. Never thought I’d be starting a blog.

In the very beginning I was stuck with all the whether to write / what / how / why / when questions.

And to be completely honest, after some researching, I do not fully comprehend every detail, especially, I am not even close to being tech-savvy. So if it looks ugly now, please bear with me.

Then comes the name, and the final choices were between something about voyage, or being curious. Curiosity made up a big part of my life and TADA!, thus this title.

So anyway, the main reason to start this would be to share and record my transformation from being an office lady to maybe-one-future-Pilates-instructor.

There are a lot of information about Pilates and people who are already Pilates / Yoga instructors / personal trainers, but there are not much information on “in-the-becoming” phase.

Whether I succeed or fail in the end, it could be just another story, or helpful information for people who are on similar paths, for their self-searching, career changing voyage. And I almost certainly welcome advice along the way.