Week Two Exercises

Good Morning Mental Pilates class!  Last nights webinar was wonderful!  Thank you for your participation.  I loved hearing the feedback about Core Identity!  It is fun to reveal what remains when you take away all of the rules, beliefs and behaviors from the picture!

Let me know if anybody has completed the via survey and wants to share their strengths!

As for this weeks skill, Selecting Awareness describe a point in time when you felt completely at ease.  Use all of your senses.  Also, share your At Ease procedure!  What works for you?

And take just a few moments at the end of each day to begin the awareness journaling process.  I promise this little exercise will expose a lot of opportunities to gain control of your life experience.  Remember, to be in hell is to drift and to be in heaven is to steer!  

Exercise #5 - Getting it into Your Life

This is a fun exercise because everybody is a little different.

How did you choose to engage with your core identity statement?  Is it working or will you make some changes?  You may find that you get new ideas as you keep reflecting on your core statements.  I encourage you to keep revising them when the inspiration strikes.  Remember, these statements are not written in stone (unless you chose etching as your way to incorporate them!) and can be whatever you want/need them to be.

Let us know!

Exercise #4 - Your Core Purpose

Having clarity about your purpose for being is another powerful resource.  When life comes at you fast, your purpose can become quite clouded.

But in the end our "purpose" is to scan our surrounding environment and "select" moments that serve our inner and outer communities.  That is why I describe Mental Pilates as being your "customs agent" screening your life experience for what gets in and what stays out.

Being a metaphor collector, how do you describe your Core Purpose?  Share your experience with the class.

Exercise #3 - Core Identity Statement

I find that this exercise is dynamic.  My core identity statement evolves over time as I become clearer and clearer about my core identity.  This may be the most important exercise of the entire Mental Pilates practice because having clarity about your identity is your most powerful asset when you are caught in the moment of wrestling with fears and doubts.

Just so everyone can relax, this exercise is often quite challenging.  That is why we don't start from a blank slate. Start with the Core identity statement provided in the exercise:


I am a Living Being, who repeats biological, societal and psychological patterns. I have inherent needs
and desires; primarily to be secure, nourished, vital and fulfilled. To provide my needs I have the
ability to be aware of my surrounding environment, direct awareness, elicit emotions and form
relationships. My core identity is to oversee the formation of behaviors such that that serve the health
and wellbeing of my inner communities as well as the health and wellbeing of my outer communities.

Let it resonate.  Then personalize it, make it your own.  Tell people about your experience.

Exercise #2 - Getting to the Core

In this exercise you sorted your words and phrases that you came up with in the first exercise based upon they were describing your actual core identity or rather a rule, belief or behavior pattern that you have developed.  Was this easy or difficult?  Did anybody come up with items that were difficult to decide?

I collect metaphors that symbolize one's core identity.  Such as the truck that is stuck spinning its wheels in the mud.  It is NOT a truck stuck in the mud, it is just a truck, that happens to be momentarily stuck in the mud. Being stuck in the mud is a behavior, the core identity is a that of a truck!

Can you think up another metaphor for core identity?

Exercise #1 - Who Are You?

In exercise one, you explored your core identity.  As you learned in the first session, a strong core helps you remain centered when you have doubts and fears.  How did this exercise go for you?  Was it easier or harder than you expected?  Did you come up with anything surprising?

Let folk know how it went.

Welcome Mental Pilates Seven Week Webinar Participants

Welcome to the Mental Pilates community!  My first suggestion is to relax and have fun.  This blog is limited to the webinar participants and the objective is to provide one another with a shared learning experience wherein everyone is both a teacher and a student.

Please begin this experience by commenting to this post and introducing yourself.

Enjoy!

Andy