Return to life

Anya Hayes - 29 Feb 16

I teach Pilates. I am also a mama. Sometimes my day involves performing on the Krypton Factor of soft play and competing in Olympic wrestling matches with my two  boys. I then have to teach Pilates in the evening. The idea of teaching or going to a Pilates/yoga/whatever class when you’re feeling low on energy reserves is always an unappealing one. I have been there many times, at the end of a long day feeling like getting out of the house to get to class is a huge wrench when you’re tired and warm and cosy at home and it’s raining outside, or you’re at work and the sofa and a glass of wine is calling. But, the act of moving and doing (or in my case teaching) Pilates never fails to revitalise and you always, always feel better for it. Stretched, lengthened, unfurled, oxygenated. The same is true of any movement. It seems counterintuitive, but, if you’re feeling tired, allowing your body the freedom of movement to massage the internal organs, get the blood flowing and stretch the limbs will always give you a boost. Although – f you are actually feeling under the weather, listen to your body and give yourself some rest and TLC, but if it’s simply tiredness and baby mama weariness that you’re suffering from, the body and mind will respond better to movement than sloth, plus you get to congratulate yourself for getting up and doing something, which is a great feeling in itself.

We humans were built for movement, just like any other species in the animal kingdom. It seems like such a waste to neglect the handiwork that went into creating our muscular-skeletal system, with its intricate designs for natural flowing movement. Muscles are designed to be toned and strong and working in perfect harmony, not atrophied and tensed by hunching over desks or sitting in cars. But as an adult the idea of “exercise” becomes infused with ideas of work, chore, slog, something that you “should” do rather than seamlessly love doing without thinking, as part of your daily routine, a spark of joy like our litllies feel in soft play or swimming….remember the way Phoebe ran in Friends and embarrassed Rachel? That’s totally what us mamas need to be doing right now. This is another reason why I genuinely think adult soft play areas/playgrounds should be incorporated into all council town planning!

I found a great titbit in a book that I worked on with my editorial hat on a few years ago called The Source, published by Rodale. Apparently research showed that if you put a running wheel in a mouse’s cage the little fella would run 4 to 5 km a night, and will eventually become a better problem solver than its neighbour with no wheel. I love this image for many reasons, not least wondering what mouse problems there might be that needed to be solved (Perhaps mouse crime solvers…Rastamouse comes to mind, for any of you whose life might be charmed by being able to watch it on CBeebies). But also the notion that movement creates and maintains vitality and gives you not only a physical boost but also a mental one. Movement is a necessity to keep our bodies healthy, it shouldn’t be a difficult thing to try and incorporate into your life.

Leafing through Joe Pilates’s book Return To Life, he notes “All in all, we do not give our bodies the care that our wellbeing deserves”. Given that this was written in 1945, it shows that us humans haven’t really got any better at this, and mothers are worst of all at prioritising our own movement and wellbeing. He points out this notion by saying that if you just do 5 minutes of movement if you’re feeling tired, you may well feel that at the end of the 5 minutes you crave carrying on, and thereby retraining yourself on a molecular level to become a vital being again. You begin, Mr Pilates says, to reawaken muscles by encouraging more oxygen and blood flow, and therefore also reawaken brain cells, and your whole being is benefitted. We never pause to reflect on our breath and yet it’s the first and the last thing we will ever do, and it is the one thing that gets us through each and every single day. Pause, and consider your breath – it affects your entire physical and emotional landscape, how deeply and how fully you’re breathing.

If you’re suffering from broken nights, and the morning always begs the question in your mind, why, why can I not have just one more hour of sleep, pass me the coffee transfusion now… another magic perker-upper to add to your daily routine is dry body brushing. Brush your skin from the toes to your chest, up the legs, and all around your back and shoulders. Always brush towards the heart. This is wonderful for moving your chi, your energy life force, around the body and getting you into gear to face the world. I am doing it every morning and wow, it makes such a difference. I enter the bathroom a sluggish clomping elephant, and exit a bounding gazelle…well, maybe a less sluggish baby elephant.

So, if you’re sitting down now, stand up and walk around for a bit, allow your thigh muscles to lengthen, stretch the arms back behind you to open the chest. If you are constantly hunched forward with baby and child-related activities, allow yourself a moment to open your heart and stretch. Roll down through the spine to bring your head below your heart and allow your blood to rejuvenate and give you a healthy rosy flush. Release the shoulders into your back and realign the neck with the spine, eye focus forward. Breathe, deeply and evenly, wide into your lungs and back, not shallowly into your chest. Really breathe, and return to life.

Anya Hayes

Anya is a Pilates teacher specialising in bumps and mums, and a pregnancy and wellness author and speaker. She's the author of four books, My Pilates Guru, A Little Course in Pilates, Pregnancy: the Naked Truth, and The Supermum Myth: Overcome anxiety, ditch guilt and embrace imperfection. Her next book, Pilates for Pregnancy, publishes in 2018. Anya blogs at motherswellnesstoolkit.wordpress.com, where you'll find tips and information on everything from pelvic floor recovery to mindfulness and meditation, to help you cope better with motherhood's mayhem. She lives in South east London with her husband and two boys, Maurice, 6, and Freddie, 3, and loves nothing better than a glass of red and a flash of bright lipstick (detracts from a tired eye!).

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