OH my Pepper is 5! If you have met Pepper 🌶️, you know she is spicey and sweet, she is loud and neat. Her strong polar personality supports everyone she meets. The beautiful thing about Pepper (and most children her age) is that she is discovering her voice, her power, her identity. She has not been programmed (at least long enough) to be/act a certain way! Pepper does her thing, unashamed and listens to her inner voice and honors what she is feeling and does her best to make herself be heard!
Its something that is so special and so sacred. As her mom I try to honor her voice as I encourage her to learn and embrace sustainable routines and respect certain boundaries that honors the ‘whole.’
It’s a delicate balance.
It’s the same in our Pilates practice and daily activities, its important to honor our unique body as we move and strengthen in our preferred method (pilates or whatever else you do).
As adults we are more programmed than Pepper! WE have been taught and told to do certain things a particular way. Sometimes these things that we are taught serve us, but sometimes they don’t but we are programmed to do it anyway. Our programming sometimes pulls us away from what is true for us.
Overtime these things we do over and over again become mindless. We do it on repeat and go through our days moving but not feeling and reconnecting to what it right for us. I have been there! I call them mindless motions.
These mindless motions can turn to “addictions.” These addictions are powerful, and can show up in many different ways because we can do them without thinking about it. If you are a ‘mover,’ like me, it very likely that movement could be one of your addictions too, if you are not paying attention:).
Mindless motions/addictions give us something to do, but that doesn’t mean we should do it! These addictions take us away from ourselves and our need to keep honoring and connecting to who we are and what we need in that particular moment. Our bodies/our lives are constantly changing and in motion, so it is necessary to be present and adapt our habits and our actions moment to moment, day to day, year to year and so on…
My wish for myself and anyone who reads this is to ‘hit the pause button’ time to time.
Question what you do. How does it serve you to live/feel better?
Does what you do help you find more connection and stability or do you feel pulled and torn from it?
I think of Pepper an how she honors herself and her needs, how she is constantly exploring her body and her habits. I try to do the same.
The following are my class opportunities for the month of September!
On a trial basis I moving Pilates mat class to noon on Fridays and Yoga to 9am on Thursdays.
Pilates mat class – Fridays at noon
September 5,12,19,26
Yoga – Thursdays at 9am
September 11, 25
I am also excited to offer a new class format on Wednesdays at 12pm.
I am naming my new class – FUNctional fitness. You can expect to align your body and mind, strengthen your muscles and fortify your bones, and also mobilize and release shoulders, hips, and necks:). Optional use of some weights and resistance bands. See more in description below…
FUNctional fitness – Wednesdays at noon
September 10,17,24
What to expect with FUNCTIONAL FITNESS
–deep breaths standing with postural awareness. (5 min) Understand how to ‘stack our bodies” to find optimal alignment and connect to the relationship between our lungs/diaphragm and our pelvic floor.
-warm up (15/20 min)
-3 FUNctional exercises executed in sets of 10 done 3 times
these exercises will include movement that highlight
-hip hinge
-squats
-lunges
-twists
-move through sun salutations to integrate (you will learn surya A & surya B)(10/15 min)
-core/mobility work (10/15 min)
-3/4 various core exercises done in sets intermixed with 3/4 mobility exercises done in sets to to release after we strengthen.
example –
Core – forearm planks
mobility -cat/cows
or
Core – side planks
mobility – mermaid or gate(side body stretch)
or
Supine abdominal bracing with legs at table top
mobility – supple flowing bridges
-closing (5-10 min)
3/4 deep stretches to release hips/shoulders/neck
Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have questions.
I am writing to inform you that I will be increasing my Pilates private and duet rates, effective October 2025.
My new rates are still better than all the Pilates studios I know on the West Coast. Besides I hope you are learning from the best. I truly believe that.
If you are just getting to know me – I have been teaching Pilates for over 20 years and have learned from the best of the best including Jay Grimes, a Pilates elder who learned from Joe Pilates himself. I am also unique as I have an extensive background in Yoga, both SmartFLOW and Anusara and I am also a certified personal trainer. And most important, I do practice what I preach:) and continue to also be the student which I feel is very important if you want to continue to teach.
I honor my teaching responsibility which is to honor the students’ body in front of me! I hope you feel cared for, and that you are getting the results that you desire.
Of course I do not want this to ‘stretch your wallet’ so much that you can no longer practice with me so please reach out to me personally to discuss if needed.
The biggest increase in my fees will be the duet rates. Right now I am charging $45/55min and I am increasing this to $60/55min. My private rate will be increasing to $90/55minute. Zoom classes will be the same $80/55min.
I will not be increasing my group Pilates mat class nor my group Yoga class rate at this time. I also would like you to consider these classes if you have not already. They are a wonderful way to practice what we do in the private classes and also encourage more body awareness to enhance your optimal body alignment.
Here are some other things I considered when making my decision:
1 – I have recently invested in new equipment including a new reformer, new contrology/gratz foldable mats as well as flooring.
2 – i have and continue to invest in my continued education. Right now I currently studying with Annie carpenter with SmartFLOW yoga and I also continue bi-weekly lessons with a collegue of mine, Nicole Martin who is in San Diego at Ritual Pilates.
3 – Seattle is an expensive place to live. I have a daughter in college and 2 more still at home.
I have recently attended a weekend Yoga workshop with Annie Carpenter in Seattle at Mother Yoga in the international district. The workshop attracted many local teachers and I am always so inspired when teachers continue to show up and keep learning. I am grateful that Annie Carpenter continues to do the work herself and shares the knowledge she’s attained over her many years of teaching. She is constantly learning and growing in her own practice. She has had to overcome her unique challenges in her own body and generously shares her experience which encourages her students to grow in themselves and give that back to their students.
Annie teaches her students how to find neutral pelvis, using the 3 planes of movement (Sagittal, coronal, transverse). It is a simple and effective way to learn and establish neutral pelvis, which is, in my opinion, so important to practice for whole body health and function. Of course once you establish this awareness of neutral pelvis and what it is and is not – it takes attention and practice to sustain it as one unravels possibly unconscious poor habits and holding patterns.
This is the practice! Paying attention to our posture to enhance our inner connections, circulation, and function in our day-to-day activities. Our bones and structures directly affect our muscles, fascia and inner organs inside to function and work properly!
I believe pelvic placement and awareness is everything as it is the center of our body and affects our whole system. Our pelvis not only connects to our upper body through our spine, but it also connects to our lower body through our femur bones. The pelvis also has 2 sides – a right pelvic half and a left pelvic half and that is significant!!
I made a short video/practice on my YouTube channel if you are interested understanding neutral pelvis where I use the 3 planes of movement. I have also started incorporating this in my Thursday mat classes:)
If you are reading this, you may already know that it is Annie’s focus on the pelvis that drew me to her and her teachings. Annie emphasizes how our femur bones drive pelvic placement, so when we work through the 3 planes of movement to balance and neutralize our pelvis, it is essential that our feet and our legs are integrating into our hip sockets though out our movements too .
As you can imagine, if we are not paying attention, the pelvis, could take many shapes and forms! It could be a combination of either tucked, arched, hiked up on one side and/or rotated too much in one direction. If you are suffering pain or discomfort in your lower back and/or hips, a misaligned, unbalanced pelvis could be to blame.
To clarify, the pelvis is going to move when we move as it is part of the spine and the legs, so its normal for the pelvis to move in and out of a neutral posture. For example, every time we walk we move in and out of tuck/tilt, hike up and down, and we rotate side to side. However, problems arise when the pelvis gets stuck in an unbalanced position and cannot unstick.
When the pelvis is imbalanced, it can directly affect the health and well-being of our pelvic floor. The following are some interesting facts on our pelvic floor to better understand why our physical alignment is so crucial.
1 – the pelvic floor is the base and the foundation of our core.
Its a group of muscles that sit at the very bottom of our pelvis, like a sling or hammock. It supports everything above it – bladder, bowel, hips and spine.
2 – the pelvic floor has openings.
For example – Women – 3
urethra
Vagina
Rectum
These muscles need to open and close at the right times to keep everything moving and working smoothly.
3 – the pelvic floor muscles should lift and lower with our breathing which is why taking deep breaths is soooo very important.
It’s a dynamic! Think of an elevator. When you breath in the elevator goes down and when you breath out the elevator goes up! A healthy pelvic floor should be able to move easility depending what your body is doing! BREATHE
4 – your pelvic floor is 70% fascia and 30% muscle.
Fascia is a stretchy connective tissue that connects our whole body like a web. It relies on the muscles to give it support, as it cannot contact on its own! When the muscles are not doing its job and the pelvis is out of alignment for whatever reason, the fascia can over stretch and as consequence can be weakened. When the fascia is overstretched it can make matters worse as the pelvic floor muscles try to work harder..it can be a vicious cycle. When this cycle continues, the pelvic floor becomes hypertonic and unable to relax as it is working overtime to compensate for the stretched out fascia. This tightness overtime leads to weakness as our pelvic floor never gets a chance to relax! This can lead to damage and several pelvic floor issues – muscle spasms, leaking, straining, inability to empty, prolapse.
I first hand understand this dynamic as I have experienced many of these consequences. Although I did not welcome any of them, they have made me a better teacher and someone that understands the importance of body alignment, especially the value in neutral pelvis!
Nothing lasts forever…This can be either good or bad depending on your own perspective experiences and impressions you have.
For me, I know now that resisting the inevitable is a waste of my time. “Time to be honest, Brooke” – I hear myself say often.
With my eldest daughter, Ginger, starting SDSU this fall, and my middle daughter, Coco, transitioning to high school, my husband and I have decided to move and not renew our current lease we have now in View ridge. This will be our 4th move since 2020! Fortunately, we will not be moving far from we are now, and I will have plenty of space for my equipment and will continue to teach privates and classes once set up! We will be moving in mid-June and therefore, I will be taking the month of June off. Our “new home” is in Inverness!
Moving again, has me reflecting on how change and transition is a constant reality. We all know that resisting our ever-evolving situations and changing physical landscape will only delay our essential and necessary job of letting go. This letting go is non-stop, old patterns, habits, diet changes, friendships, relationships, homes, even ideas will and should change. Ideally the ability to let go will help us welcome the present moment to live with more vitality and ease.
In our movement practices we can practice letting go by first paying attention and noticing what we are feeling and asking ourselves if what we are doing ‘feels right.’ Once we build that awareness, we can hopefully discern what is ‘not working’ and/or not connecting well. That knowledge and mindfulness can help us learn and discover ‘new’ ways to readjust and realign ourselves to make it ‘feel right’ for us at that particular moment (every day is different). Therefore, in my opinion, letting go of the old to welcome the present is active and not passive.
I will be practicing letting go a lot more these next few months and I hope I can inspire this same idea of letting go of the old to let in with the NEW to you as well.
Here is to paying attention to let go OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN.
As we welcome November, I would like to offer my thanks to all of you who continue to support and practice with me at Le Bureau. I count my blessings often that I am able to do what I do and also have the opportunity to teach from my home.
It was not always this way. I started teaching Pilates in 2006 after completing a 600 hour +comprehensive classical Pilates training through Power Pilates, New York. Before this I taught school for 2 years after attaining my masters in teaching, at Seattle University.. I thought I was going to be a Kindergarten teacher as I chose to do my student teaching in a Kindergarten classroom at Our Lady of Lake catholic school, in Seattle, Washington. Well, that did not last long.
I married my husband, Pontus in 2003 and we moved to Iowa to begin his/our journey as he started Medical school. Although I started teaching as a substitute teacher in Iowa, I was drawn to movement and longed to teach exercise classes. On the side of teaching school, I become certified in personal training and acquired several other certifications to teach – about any class you can think of!
The practices of Yoga was my first fitness crush I discovered. There was a vibrant Yoga community in Des moines, Iowa and it became my ‘family’ away from home. I left Yoga classes feeling both energized but also calm. That said, the first 2 years in Iowa, I immersed myself in all things Anusara Yoga, a Hatha based practice that blends ‘heart’ themes.
In 2005, we moved to Ohio for a year for Pontus’s first year of medical rotations and I made the decision there not to renew my teaching license but instead to solely devote my time to learning about the body through many various fitness modalities. I worked as a personal trainer, taught fitness classes, including yoga, and also worked as a french tutor, and at a restaurant in the evenings. It’s amazing what you can do without Kids! It was here in Ohio, where I began my journey in Pilates. Out of curiosity to learn more and understand what Pilates was all about I enrolled myself in a weekend mat training through a Power Pilates studio in Sylvania, Ohio. After that weekend, I was hooked. Pilates made sense to me right away as I could grasp how it would benefit my body. I signed up for the comprehensive training not long after that. I had to let go of some of my classes I was teaching as well as the restaurant job to commit myself to the long training hours, but I enjoyed every second and I am so happy I chose this path.
After we left Ohio in 2006, we moved back to Iowa for a year, then moved to Redondo beach, CA for a year, and then to Salt lake city, Utah for 3 years before moving back to Seattle in 2012. I taught Pilates at ALL of these stops along the way. I also started the Pilates program at an Equinox in Manhattan Beach, CA in 2008 and also the Pilates program at Seattle Athletic Club(Northgate) in 2013. I have had made some amazing friends doing what I love to do over the years…
Fast forward to March 2016, I opened Le bureau Pilates in my home living room and I have been teaching from ‘home’ ever since. In October 2023, I started teaching group Pilates mat and Yoga classes and this has been a wonderful addition. The classes are a way to connect socially, physically and I love how it is becoming a small community. Thank you for trusting in me and being part of the Le Bureau community.
Please check out and enjoy my most resent Youtube tutorials and classes!
If you are or have experienced pain you already know that it is a PAIN. Although I do still experience pain time to time, my chronic, deliberating pain, has subsided. Looking back, I know that this pain was in my life to teach me lessons I needed to learn to better live in my body and simply wake up!
Just recently my family moved (Pontus and I have now moved 9 times in our 21 years married…never gets easier!). As I was packing my things, I realized a lot of my ‘stuff’ are tools and gadgets of some sort I have purchased over the years to calm and release pain.
I highlight some of the below listed gadgets* on my new YouTube video …
Gadgets
*Neck pillow
*Pelvic clock
*Acupressure lumbar cushion
*Yoga tune up balls
*Hip flexor psoas release ball
Jade & tourmaline far infrared heating pad
*Foam roller
*Hot water bottle
*Toe separators
*Posture corrector
-dry brush
-Microwave heated pad for neck and shoulders
*Neck shoulder relaxer and cervical spine traction
-Naturapathica oils – aromatherapy
These above gadgets and tools did not ‘fix me,’ however, they did offer some insight and support.
If you know me you may know that I have endured several separate injuries. I have fractured my back between L1/T12, I herniated the base of my neck between C6/C7, requiring a disk replacement, I have broke my right leg and I have also broken my right wrist. I have also grown and birthed 3 beautiful babies(so much respect for all the mammas). All of these injuries and experiences, and have made it easier for me to play a ‘victim’ in my life. Ultimately, making my situation worse off than it needed to be…
Regardless, playing victim or not, there were consequences to my actions and injuries. More than my injuries and actions, I noticed that my non-actions, the ‘things’ I was not doing, have probably caused me the greatest consequences and the most suffering. I realized in my journey, that I needed to heal the emotional and mental parts of me as well to feel better.
When my 2 eldest girls were young, I tried to do it all and truly be a super mom and wife to my husband who was a resident and beginning his career as a physiatrist. Looking back I am in awe of all I did. I was ‘checking boxes off my check list’ and getting stuff done. With an uneasy smile, I asked for no help and was hard on myself if I didn’t do things perfectly. I now understand that it was not asking for help, not taking time to be with friends, not loving, not relaxing, not laughing, not dancing, not singing, and not playing that have caused me the most pain.
This post is a reminder to myself (and anyone else who needs) to keep playing, to take time to relax, and lastly to love, listen and trust in the present moment.
In all my practices including my practice of Pilates, I remind myself to feel and enjoy the movements. Although the details, including alignment, flow, and breath etc. are all important pieces to the practice of Pilates, they are just pieces to the whole practice. Hopefully you love the practice and the practice loves you back.
Read the following posts if you are curious on some more of my insights on the emotional and mental play in our physical body.
For this particular post, I would like to bring awareness to the breath.
Before I go there, I would like to share a little about my current training with Annie Carpenter and her smart flow yoga program. If you are unfamiliar, Annie Carpenter is a internationally known Yoga teacher with 40 years of experience. She has been practicing yoga since the 70’s, performed and taught for the Martha Graham company in the 80s, and continued to learn more from the 3 modern fathers of yoga -Sri K. Pattabhi Jois – father of Ashtanga (known for repetition, flow with breath, and no props; BKS Iyengar – founder of Iyengar Yoga (known for alignment and many props), and TKV Desikachar – established the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (known for yoga therapeutics). Annie has always been driven to learn more and be curious by asking why? She is a life long student of anatomy, evolutionary movement, meditation, and classical philosophy.
I’ve “known of her” for at least 10 years and have taken her classes -on and off- she offers some of her classes on an online yoga site, GLO. I had always enjoyed her classes that I took from her. They are always gentle, challenging, playful, insightful, and taught in a very well thought out fashion. Her classes mostly always have a ‘theme’ and she sticks to that theme so you leave with more knowledge on that particular part of the body or movement and how it affects the whole. It is very smart:).
I gravitate to Annie’s teaching because not only are her sequences smart, but she encourages self inquiry rather than teaching simply the physical shape. She states “our role as a teacher is to guide and literally point the way, providing sign posts and directions based on our own journey. We bring awareness to tension and the release of tension, and also balancing sensations of stretch and strength. Overtime, more evolved levels of paying attention and states of consciousness may be evoked. As a practitioner matures, she begins to understand that her physical habits are mirror images of her life habits.”
Annie’s ability to teach with inquiry is based on a continuum…there is never a destination, a right or a wrong,. Instead in the present moment, there is an effort and a return to center. Meaning, as we are all different, some of us on the same continuum will need more effort and some of us will need more return, to find our own equilibrium and balance for that particular moment (before it changes again:)) none of us, nor one moment in time is ever the same!! I believe teaching with self inquiry is inspiring as it empowers the practitioner to feel in the present and ask themselves if what they are doing is right for them. I hope to encourage this more and more.
That said – how are you breathing??
Fast? Slow? Too much inhale? Holding your breath? Forgetting to exhale? Is it calm, loud, choppy, barely there? How about when you are exercising, do you remember to breath or do you catch yourself gasping for air?
If we listen carefully to our breath, it can give us so much information and insight. I find that when I am in a state of stress or feeling inner turmoil, I barely breathe. How about you? I also find when I am angry and upset, my breath is barely there or it is raging and emotional and its hard for me to connect to an exhale; almost as if I am holding it all inside and not able to let it go. When I am finally able to let it go, tears flooding my eyes, I am finally able to exhale. How about you? Is this true for you? On the other hand, when I’m at ease and content my breathing is also calm and easy.
What happens then to our breathing if we are in a constant state of stress and do not know it for many years? It could be several kinds of stress. Maybe you are in some kind of pain, maybe you are angry, resentful? Or maybe you had an argument, maybe you are feeling unworthy, maybe you are just doing too much and never allow you self to put your feet up and observe and be your own witness? What if this ‘state’ goes on and on and on? Your conscious mind may not be able to feel the stress as it is subtle enough to ignore, but it is truly brewing underneath your skin and affecting how you are breathing!
From my own experience shit hits the fan! Yes, I just said that! For me my ‘stress’ was a dynamic of sorts and unfortunately, during this period of my life I did not pay good attention to my breathing to help calm down my nervous system enough to allow myself to come back to a balanced state. In terms of “Annie’s continuum” I had too much effort and not enough return.”
Even, Joseph Pilates says, “above all, learn how to breathe correctly.” Joe knew how important breathing was “breathing is the first act in life and the last. Our very life depends on it.” I believe his intention with these statements is that if you are able to control your breathing correctly you are able to exercise in the right way. For our breath nourishes all our bodily functions and cells, even when we are sleeping. If we are not breathing we are dead. Like everything though, it’s not what we do, it’s how we do it! It’s easy to neglect our breath because it happens without us having to think about it. Just like it is easy to take the people in our lives for granted! Its challenging to bring awareness to something that is a constant in our lives, like the breath and our family.
Below are some insights to consider to possibly enhance your awareness of the breath and therefore improve your breathing, your life, and all your practices including Pilates:).
Breathing is a gaseous exchange that involves many systems in the body. It’s not just the lungs affecting the respiratory system. Like everything, we are whole person, not pieces working in isolation of one another.
For instance, our pelvic floor and our diaphragm are interconnected and work as a unique system involving many other systems in our body such as our digestive system that deals with assimilation and elimination. If you are not breathing well, most likely your pelvic floor is not functioning optimally and you may also have issues with your digestion. For your inhales open your lungs, contracting your diaphragm and relaxes your pelvic floor and your exhales close your lungs, relax your diaphragm, and engage your pelvic floor. Our body depends on this dynamic between our in and out breath to create a trampoline movement in our torso between our diaphragm and our pelvic floor to function properly.For example, if you cannot fully exhale you are not going to be able to fully release your diaphragm that is necessary to create inner space for you to lift and engage your pelvic floor muscles. Joseph Pilates said, “ ”You must squeeze every atom of impure air from lungs until they are almost as free of air as a vacuum”. That said, taking a full inhale is equally important as a complete exhale! We need to soften and relax our pelvic floor muscles as much as we engage them. Effort in the inhale and the return to center is the exhale. Is your breathing effort and return balanced?
Therefore, a balanced inhale to exhale ratio will help keep your diaphragm, pelvic floor, and even your digestive system working well. Another benefit from breathing balanced breaths is that the nervous system will also stay more balanced. Every inhale you take stimulates the sympathetic nervous system and every exhale you take can take you back to the parasympathetic nervous system. When you have a balanced inhale with an exhale our nervous system resets and balances. If your inhale/exhale ratio is imbalanced you are either in your sympathetic or parasympathetic nervous system.
Even now, having better awareness of my tendencies and breathing, and knowing the importance of returning to a ‘center place,’ I still struggle at times to take full cycles of breath. I love a thrill and it is easy for me to get ‘jacked up.’ Its a journey. In the moments when my body is challenged and I notice that my breathing does not feel easy I try to take a break! It’s great if I can give myself 10 minutes and just lye down in a constructive rest position with my knees bent and feet flat on the floor. I close my eyes, turn inward and visualize my breathing inside. I benefit from placing my own hands or pillow/bolster on the particular part of my body thats bothering me and consciously breath into that place in my body. I also have a regular practice everyday to consciously breath a minimum of 10 minutes. I love to do it first thing in the morning when it is a new day and the atmosphere is quiet. Deep diaphramic breathing is so healing and insightful. It’s truly amazing how effective a simple practice of breathing with awareness for 10 minutes a day can bring me down and put me back into my parasympathetic nervous system. I also love to practice alternate nostril breathing.
I hope you read this with inquiry and it will remind you to observe how you are breathing and how this is affecting you as a whole.
If you know me and have read my posts you know how strongly I feel about asking your own questions and feeling your own feeling. No-one else knows your body more than you do. I strongly believe that one of my most important and biggest jobs as a teacher is to be your cheerleader and to believe in you, so you believe in yourself and be your own self advocate in whatever you dealing with. That said, there is always work we can do and I hope to shine a warm supportive light on those physical tendencies and areas I witness.
Check in and observe your breath. Better yet, take some time everyday to notice and consciously breath even inhales and exhales. You will be doing your body good and helping it in many ways.
A ‘mother tucker’ is someone who is stuck in a ‘tucked’ position.
-Brooke Oberg
Yes! I was a “mother tucker” for many years and still do catch myself tucking when it is not appropriate! If you have read any of my previous posts you already know this and probably have a good idea why too.:)
Not to say that ALL tucking is bad. In fact, some exercises you need to tuck to support the round back position. However, its important that when you do ‘tuck’ you are aware of how it is affecting your sacrum.
Our sacrum is a vulnerable area in our body and it’s worth our efforts to pay attention to how we integrate this area in our movements so that we can find more optimal alignment patterns and feel more freedom and move with more ease in our whole body. Remember its not all about what we do, instead its important HOW we do it and how we are incorporating our ‘whole body’ in our actions!
I hope the following will bring more awareness to your sacrum. I hope this awareness will convey how sacred our sacrum is and helps us consider how we manipulate this area in our body.
The sacrum in human anatomy is a large triangular bone at the base of the spine. It is situated at the upper back part of the pelvis, and connects our 2 pelvic halves(hips). The upper part of our sacrum connects to our lumbar spine and the base of our sacrum connects to the tailbone/(coccyx). Thus the sacrum connects the upper and lower body(heaven and earth); all our bodies weight pass through this location. Lastly, it is a concave shape as it is curved upon itself and the base of the sacrum, the broadest and uppermost part, is tilted forward. Meaning for optimal standing and seated posture, the low back/sacrum should be in extension – ‘in and up’ as opposed to being stuck in a tucked position.
Some other interesting things about the sacrum…
-The Romans said this part of the body was “sacred” or “holy” as it was used in sacrificial rites in protecting the genitalia (which in ancient times were considered sacred). In yogic spiritual anatomy, the sacrum is the home of Kundalini, a feminine – serphant like energy that sits coiled at the base of the spine.
-The sacrum is known to be the keystone of our pelvic bowl! It is in the sacrum, where life is created, just think about that!! Also, many of our vital spinal nerves start in the sacrum and the sacrum is one end of our nervous system that connects all the way up to our brain via the Vagus Nerve.
-Too add to this complex area, the sacrum is the location of 1 of our 7 energy centers of our body (svadhisthana chakra). This location of our sacrum governs our sensuality, sexual intimacy, our ability to give and receive pleasure, and simply be creative and in the ‘flow’ of our own life. When this area of our body is blocked or stuck for any reason, perhaps being to sedentary, injured, feeling not safe, etc, or in perhaps tucking too much….it can create many imbalances, upset our ability to connect to our parasympathetic nervous system, and create feelings of isolation, low libido, and detachment.
Now that we have more knowledge of the sacrum:
When do we tuck?
As I mentioned earlier, tucking is inappropriate and unnecessary most of the time unless you are integrating your whole spine and posture into the tuck; aka, round position ….think rollup, rolling like a ball, etc. Or perhaps you are mobilizing, creating length and space for your lower back with cat/cows or rolling bridges. With more fluid mobilizing movements such as cat/cow, remember that you are not holding the tuck for very long.
How to integrate the sacrum so it stays open and spacious in the tuck?
Tucking is useful to do in an effort to stretch and open our low back. However, with everything, it is easy to overdo the tuck and instead of creating more width and space, its easy to clench our low back/buttocks instead. In order to keep the sacrum spacious it is necessary to check in with your low back and notice your sensations. Here are some tips to help you with your tuck:
1 – when you are tucking and your low back in rounding, your whole spine needs to be in the round back position!! That means you are looking at your abdominals with your eyes and your scapula is brooding wide across your back and the back ribs are also fanning open to create space for your front spine and abdominals to deepen into.
2 – root your femur bones (thigh bones).
If our thigh bones are stuck forward this can pull on our low back muscles making it easier to collapse and yes – tuck! How to check if your things bones are forward – feel your groins if they are hard, usually your femurs are too far forward and you need to integrate some hip stretches that open up the back of your hip capsule so your femurs can glide back in the socket. Other times, you just need to check in with your lower body – if your knees hyperextend when you are standing, you are most likely a tucker. My advice for you is to soften your knees, ground and spread your feet wide in an even portion and stack your posture more appropriately. Think – center of ankle below center of knees, below center of pelvic bowl, keeping your knees soft of course!!
3 – energize your lower body. Remember your legs/feet are an extension of your powerhouse core, hip/pelvis/sacrum center. So its valuable to integrate these parts with full awareness in your movements. Careful not to let your limbs just hang and be an ornament…you want your limbs participating as much as your core. To do this, you need to hug your midline or energetically draw your shin bones in and your thigh bones apart to energetically open up your sacrum low back.. think of a see saw, lower limbs hug in to your middle to simultaneously broaden and open your upper thighs hips/low back.
The bottom line is that it is a good idea to pay attention to your posture and how it is affecting your sacrum and vice versa. When standing, sitting, and exercising etc, check in with yourself. Most of the time, you will want to keep your low back long, lifted and spacious in its’ lumbar/natural lordotic curve, which is essential to balance your spine and posture. When you need to tuck, remember that 1 – the whole body needs to be participating from your feet to your skull in your round, 2 – Energize your lower body by hugging your midline, and 3 – root your femurs bones! When in doubt, know that you never want the low back bones to push out and back in collapse! This happens all too easily in a tucked position. This congestion in our low back hips creates pressure and feelings of stickiness in our pelvis/hips/low back.
I hope reading this helped bring more awareness to your sacred bone, sacrum. Its a vulnerable area in our body that is easily neglected. Try to recognize this sacred bone, the sacrum. Maybe, also take a moment to reflect on the people and things in your life that are sacred to you. The things and people that usually matter most to us can also be neglected and taken forgranted. Bringing our attention to the sacred within and around us will hopefully uplift us and help create more inner lift and peace.
I have posted some recent videos on my you tube channel that are a good complement to this idea.
“She asks him to touch her, to feel her with his hands, because bodies always understand each other, even when souls do not.”
-Paulo Coelho
Lately I have been reflecting on the loss of “touch” – relying too much on devices, interactions with automated messages, exercise apps, using kiosks to check in at airports, online zoom exercise classes etc etc…as well as the loss of personal & physical touch when it comes to almost everything! Since Covid, especially, we have adapted to more of a ‘touch-less’ way of life and although sometimes it has been out of necessity for safety reasons, and does have some benefit, in excess, like everything else, this, “lack of touch” can have negative repercussions. Human touch in particular is so unique because the physical contact alone allows both bodies to ‘feel’ and experience more than just being told something in words. Words and devices alone can create unnecessary miscommunications and guide us to do something that is not right for us. Whereas, the addition of purposeful and communicative touch, could better support what is said and explained through the words etc. Furthermore touch can shine a light on places of tension we didn’t even know existed until we become aware of what we are doing from someone elses touch. Investing in more experiences that encourage us to physically connect and listen to our body is priceless because the experience alone communicates and sheds light on so much more than just words could say.
The body is always talking to us and is constantly giving us signals to what is happening inside of us. When we take time to feel and process what ‘that’ is through human experiences/touch we are able to make sense and understand more of what we may need on a greater level than just words and/or devices would be able to communicate. Children can sometimes be great teachers for us adults as they do not have the words yet and rely on touching and listening to their own inner knowing to make sense of what they need or do not need. They feel a lot and listen to what these feelings are telling them:). Although sometimes their actions may be a bit overly dramatic, at least they are using their intuition, being instinctual, and releasing any stress that they may have in that moment instead of just doing something because something or someone tells them to act a certain way.
As adults, creating better habits while exercising or simply moving out of stress and into a state of calm takes work, and unfortunately throwing a tantrum isn’t the best way for us to achieve a better awareness and/or release an unwanted state. However, with more human touch and human heartbeats to help us along the way, I believe we would drop inside ourselves quicker to both feel our inner body and then to consciously change our habits and release certain stress. With all practice… the more you do it the easier it gets!
I, personally, was not raised to value ‘touch’ and my own inner feelings. (I am not blaming ANYONE for this as there is always a unique dynamic situation at had and we do the best we can do…i strongly believe this). In fact, I learned quickly that one’s feelings did not “really” matter. This is one of the many paradoxes of being raised Catholic:)> . My upbringing and catholic school environment, for example, did not allow excuses nor make exceptions for people when they did not do what they were supposed to do and ‘be.’ This narrow-minded, sometimes unforgiving attitude influenced me for several of my earlier years. As a teen I could be pretty stubborn and proud and would hold my emotions inside. Instead of seeking help I would isolate myself as I did not want to appear lesser than, not be accepted, or ‘weak. ’ I turned to drugs and alcohol at an early age I believe to numb these inner feelings. I expected the same ‘unfortunate’ behavior of my peers. For example, when I would witness someone else not responding to the disposition of my upbringing, I would often look down on them and think to myself, “Get a grip people!.” Although, I can still be pretty stubborn and still catch myself saying this time to time in the back of my mind, I have definitely had many experiences and life lessons that thankfully have changed my view and have infused me with more compassion and empathy for not only myself but also people that are struggling and or going through challenges in their own lives.
I believe the consequence of holding emotions inside, is unnecessary suffering/emotional tension in your body. In fact there is more and more evidence that says our fascia or the webbing that holds everything together under our skin, is in fact a sensory organ and this intellectual organ can in fact hold emotion inside its structure. Our emotions therefore can be stuck in your bodies tissues and create unnecessary blockages unless we are able to actively and consciously allow this held emotion to flow through us in a healthy way. This is the very reason why I believe it is so important to forgive ourselves and others and to be compassionate and loving. We simply cannot have a healthy free body if we are holding our emotional trauma and inner drama! I feel that my own inability to forgive myself and others fully continuously have most definitely contributed to my own painful sensations I have been dealing with over the past 2 years. Although I am doing so much better and I do have some physical issues which I have talked about in my previous posts, my healing is as much linked to my emotions as it is linked to my own physical state. Paradoxically, touch plain and simple, I believe can help unlock tension and emotions in my body and support ones own connections and inner healing.
In fact, when I was just learning the practice of Yoga and Pilates, I was so drawn to both practices because of the sensations I would feel in my body. I felt so alive and free practicing both disciplines, and especially when I had the support of touch cues from my teachers. It was essential for me to not only visibly ‘see’ how a certain posture was carried out, but also, to be guided through the exercise usually with supportive touch cues from an experienced, knowledgeable instructor. Even now, after practicing Yoga and Pilates for 20 years I have much benefit from not only seeing others practice, but having supportive touch cues to help me go deeper and experience more openings and spaciousness in my body. In fact I love getting hands on assist from instructors!
On the flip side, when I was enrolled in “the Work”, a Pilates graduate program in 2017, under the tutelage of Jay Grimes, we were instructed, NOT TO TOUCH, (except for some very specific exercises, as the method is exercise!! Not therapy or massage!). Some reasons why I believe touch cues were not encouraged, 1) – touch cues done several times a day is hard on the teachers bodies, 2) – it can make the student too dependent on the teacher, etc etc, and 3) – sometimes when the intention behind the touch is not thoughtful and purposeful it can be too much and even confuse the client. “The Work” was all about feeling and trusting. We had to do the work, feel the work, and decide whether or not it was right for us. Although a great program in theory, the instructors of the work, still did have and voice their own opinions and as a student of the Work , although you were instructed to listen to your own intuition, we were also fed the teachers insight, usually without the support of their touch which was confusing at times. Reflecting back, I wish they also supported us with more hands-on assists so we could have better understood how to relate their verbal feedback to our own inner experience and contemplate for ourselves if their opinions carried much weight for us or not.
Considering the negatives with touch cues, I still believe that actions ‘speak ‘ and resonate louder than words. Furthermore, purposeful touch from someone or even ourselves can help bring more awareness and possibly unlock held unconscious tension that may be causing blockages. As a teacher myself, I still benefit immensely from touch cues as I am still exploring, learning and desire more continued growth, expansion, and inner awareness in my own body. I am constantly growing and changing in my own body, so there is always something more to explore, and learn from:).
I would like to encourage us all to recognize and understand that our bodies are constantly transforming and communicating to us! Our bodies are also directly connected to our emotional well being and vice-versa. Lastly, the right touch, in my experience, can resonate deeper and give one much clarity and freedom. “What are some practices we could both add and let go of to make our emotional and physical bodies live more harmoniously?” Perhaps we will all be our own best observer, listener, and do things with more kind gentle awareness.
Thank you to all who continue to take agency and ownership of your own life and body.
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