Your Body Is Giving You Information. Are You Listening?

There is a difference between doing the work and actually being present in the work.

You can know your exercises. You can know what comes next. You can move through your entire Pilates session almost on autopilot—and completely miss what your body is trying to tell you.

Because your body is always giving you information.

Maybe one heel feels heavier during Footwork. Maybe one hip doesn’t quite settle into the mat. Maybe your neck suddenly wants to help with an exercise that normally feels easy. Maybe one side of your ribcage doesn’t expand quite like the other.

Those aren’t necessarily problems to immediately fix. They’re clues.

And the body leaves clues across the entire system.

Something you notice in Footwork may show up again in Stomach Massage. Then Elephant. Then Short Box. Suddenly, something that seemed like a small difference in your feet starts telling you a much bigger story about what’s happening at your hip, your pelvis, or even your ribcage.

But you have to be present enough to notice it.

That’s one of the reasons I don’t want my clients simply going through the motions. Pilates isn’t a checklist of exercises we complete. The exercises are constantly giving us information about where we are that day, what we’re avoiding, where we’re compensating, and sometimes where we need to go next.

That doesn’t mean everything difficult is bad.

Shaking doesn’t automatically mean stop. Tightness doesn’t necessarily mean something needs to be stretched. An exercise feeling difficult doesn’t mean your body shouldn’t be doing it.

Sometimes that shaking is the first time you’ve actually asked an area to work. Sometimes the place that feels tight is holding on because something else isn’t supporting you. And very often, the place making the most noise isn’t actually where the problem began.

That’s where curiosity becomes so important.

Instead of immediately thinking, How do I make this feeling go away? try asking:

Why am I feeling this?

What changed?

Where else have I felt this today?

That last question can tell you a lot.

The same thing happens when we ride.

Maybe one rein always feels heavier. One stirrup consistently feels different. Your horse falls through the same shoulder. One transition is always harder in one direction.

It’s very easy to start fixing each one as an individual problem.

But what if they’re not individual problems?

What if they’re all clues?

Your horse gives you another layer of feedback about what your own body is doing. And if you’ve been paying attention to the clues your body gave you before you ever got into the saddle, you may start recognizing the same patterns once you’re there.

That’s when movement gets really interesting.

We’re no longer just trying to make an exercise—or a movement on our horse—look correct. We’re using movement to understand what’s happening underneath it.

So this week’s challenge is simple: don’t immediately try to change what you feel. Get curious about it.

Notice what feels different. Notice where you grip. Where you shift. Where you hold your breath. Where something feels strangely easy—or unexpectedly difficult.

Then ask yourself:

Where have I felt this before?

Because your body leaves clues across the system.

You just have to be present enough to hear them.