Class #4492

Playful Learning

55 min - Class
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Description

Invite curiosity into your practice in the seventh class of Curious Movement with James Crader. He’ll lead you through a class to unlock your inner child and rediscover wonder through Pilates. Join James and explore how your Mat practice can inspire self-generosity.
What You'll Need: Mat

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Apr 12, 2021
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Hello, everybody. Welcome to another adventure at Pilates Anytime live. I'm James Crader, and this is Curious Movement. Today's class, it's number seven of an eight week series, I cannot believe we're already at number seven and today's class is all about play. I was asking the pre-show like, what is your definition?

How do you define or think about play? And here's what comes to mind for me. I work with, there's a whole play Institute and I really enjoy their definition. The opposite of play is not work. The opposite of play is nervous system depression.

Play for me is when you find delight in something, when you just sort of allow yourself to let loose and be in the moment. Play is where I can just lose myself in time and I'm not working towards a specific goal, I'm just literally an interested curiosity going, huh? What is this? And where is this gonna take me? And where am I gonna go next?

The chemical of play in your body, how your body knows curiosity and play in delight is serotonin. Serotonin is like your feel good drug in your body. So the more you play, the more you have fun, the more you let loose, the more serotonin there is. So today as we play, I want you to be lost in delight. I want you to be lost in the young age where you let yourself do that, where you get curious about these things.

As we have had six weeks up until here to get you to this point, to get you right here. So let's get started with some warmups. As we go through warmups today, I'm gonna do what I feel like warming up. We've had six weeks of warmups. If there's something you enjoy doing, do that.

I'm gonna bring my hands together, get them warmed. If I make a right in my warmup and you feel like making a left, do it, do that thing. So I'm gonna put my warm hands here and just let myself get comfortable. I'm gonna do a little neck massage, just a little bit of warming up, settling in, because as we play today, there's gonna be some stuff that brushes up against your comfort zones today. There's some nervous system shockers, for sure.

So thinking about I'm gonna bring my hands towards my jaw, do a little jaw massage. Thinking about, how can I caretake my nervous system through this to allow myself to be more available, taking this down. Allow myself to be more available across my collarbone to the experience and not get shocked but maybe delighted and surprised. Surprise yourself. Little tapping, little arm slapping.

I'm gonna put one hand on my shoulder and just pet my arms to little. Think about like how you'd pet your favorite dog or your favorite cat or a child, just little brushing and then your other side. It's like you're okay. You're gonna be okay. You're good.

Little arms shake out, shaking out the stress. Maybe I go up, maybe I go down, forward, backwards. A little shoulder rolls. And then just let your head drop right here over the right shoulder, left ear over the left shoulder. It's not that classic neck stretch, it's just a sensation of here's my head, here's my neck.

Maybe I look over towards the back of the room and over towards the back of the room. Maybe I look over towards the back of the room and I pause and do an inhale. (inhales) Exhale. (exhales) Again, (inhales) (exhales) One more to each side (inhales) (exhales) (inhales) (exhales) Get yourself situated so that your legs are somewhere out in front of you. Suddenly your hands have become paint, and I'm gonna paint my legs forward and back up.

I want to make sure that my nervous system is relaxed, reset, and ready to go. So I'm gonna practice that head thing from last week, and just let my head deactivate, takes my body forward as I restack my head and neck are the last things to come up. Head and neck (exhales) And up. Head and neck, and up. Today you may want to add in some hip mobility things just to kinda get that part of your body warmed up.

So I'm just gonna rock side to side, finding my center (exhales) Maybe a little butterfly bat wing hip movement. Now you can stay here and do this or slide one leg out, and I'm gonna stretch over this leg. Look towards this foot and pet my leg. Coming up, stretching over and little movement. Just priming the tissue for some exploration today.

Other leg, other side. As I go through this I'm just really aware of what I'm sitting on, what's going on in the room, my breathing and my body. Just checking in with myself. Good, I'm gonna sit. I just gonna do some seaweed spine.

Just allowing that spine to soften, checking in where today. You know, for me, warmups are about what can I expect from today versus how do I fix something? So that way, if I'm moving, like for me I'm feeling a little stuck in these low right ribs. It's not a problem, sure, it'll work itself out and it'll be okay. But as I resource that part of my body today, I'm not gonna be shocked if it has something to say, if it's a little less agreeable than the left side because I'm aware like look at that.

So that way, when I'm moving, I'm not shocked by what I find there. Coming to your center, let's do a little breathing today. This is different than the physiologic sigh I gave you a few weeks ago. This is just a sighing exhale. And you're gonna hear me do this a lot today.

We do this a lot in the studio, it's just (inhales) (exhales) (inhales) (exhales) It's a way to just exit out any added stress, added tension. (inhales) (exhales) One more (inhales) (exhales) And you're gonna hear that throughout the entirety of the class from me today. So as it comes up, know that that's a resource for you. Okay, let's invite in some inner play. I operate from the four year old boy that lives inside of a 42 year old man's body.

So I'm going to call that child forward, I'm going to get into a mindset state of that and do some really good things for my nervous system by making silly faces. So I want you to imagine you're going to gulp in a bunch of water, a bunch of air, and you're gonna swish it around in your mouth, like you would gargle or like you would rinse out your teeth. (inhales) (exhales) Big exhale. Two more of those. (inhales) (exhales) One more.

(inhales) (exhales) Now, if that was silly enough for you stay there but we're in curious movement, we're in play mode. You're gonna be asked to do some stuff today. So maybe you allow yourself to make some funny faces, make a shocked face. A happy face, sad, just a weird face, another one, another one (laughs) From there, grab your ears, pull ears out like you're pulling your ears off of your head and then make like a little monkey face. Pop up your lips, swish it around.

Shake everything out. Start to look around the room like your eyes are really curious about what's going on. We're just working with the nervous system. I have a phrase that I say it's only silly to the ignorant because what we're doing has so much science behind it with the nervous system, it just looks silly to people who don't understand the science, but there's lots of it behind that. So I just want you to allow yourself to trust in your body.

Good, from there, rub your hands together, get them warmed, play them on your heart. Just be there for a moment. (inhales) (exhales) Maybe to yourself, you say, I trust myself, I trust my body, I don't need a bunch of rules, I don't need a bunch of protocol, I just need that inner coach inside of me saying you can do this, you can play, you can have some fun. (inhales) (exhales) Then from wherever you're at, I want you to make a big shape, great big shape and then maybe a little shape, and then another big shape, and then a little shape, and then a big shape, and then a little shape, and a great big shape, and a little shape, and a great big shape, and a little shape. Now you can continue to make your big and little shapes or you can start to rock and fall or right back to some of that earlier practices from weeks one and two.

Just working with that nervous system. We've been on an adventure so far allowing my spine to relax. If today you find yourself confronted by discomfort, well, you have some nervous system work from week one. If you need something to rely on you've got your sensory stuff like where should I be looking? What should I be feeling?

What should I be doing? Go to the sensory work. If you are confronted by, oh, this feels silly this feels weird, your presence work let's say hip issue, leg issue, back issue, arm, shoulder, neck issue, body issue, you come up against, well, thank goodness you have weeks for that. So today is all about just playing side to side just doing a little falling. Maybe I even liberate a leg behind me.

Just playing and exploring. Good. Keep going. I'm gonna switch where my mic pack is because we're about to have a moment so I can continue to fall and play. And then I can fall and roll and come back up and fall, roll and come back up and fall and roll.

And it can just be loose or it can be tight, it can be like a rolling, like a ball. I can go into my little shapes or I can be big (exhales) Littles, controlled or big and fun. It's for you to decide. Just being yourself used to falling, rolling, covering, rebounding, reset, fall, roll. (exhales) Rebound back, reset (exhales) And find your way down to your mat.

Now, you might wanna remember that practice we just did, 'cause there's gonna be some stuff that comes up later that I'll say, if this is uncomfortable for you, body wise, emotionally, whatever, go back into that practice. From there, I'm lying down, registering that I am supported by the floor right hand left leg touch each other, and back down. Opposite side, touch and down, touch and down making myself smarter by opposite body touching the opposite body. Now I can just do that or I can get curious. What else can touch what else?

Maybe it's a wrist touches an ankle. (exhales) Maybe it's an elbow to a knee. Maybe it's a four arm to a thigh. Where else can I touch? (exhales) Good, lying all the way down.

Slide your legs straight. I think of movement exercises as movement with a bunch of rules. And sometimes maybe we put too many rules on movement before we just allow ourselves to explore it. So lying down, imagine your feet are glued to the floor, they cannot move. Your right hand is going to come up and touch your left foot.

However you get there, you get there. Back down. Next time left hand touches right foot. However you get there, you get there. Opposite hand, opposite foot.

(exhales) Opposite hand, opposite foot. One more each side. (exhales) Good. Laying all the way down. Now we're gonna change a rule.

I'm going to say my arms open up to letter T ish, my hands are glued to the floor. My right foot touches my left hand. Opposite side, opposite side. Now, if that's enough, stay there. If not make another rule on top of it.

Same thing, foot touches hand. Only my leg has to stay straight. (exhales) One more each side. (exhales) From there, feet stay down, right hand touches left foot. It grabs a hold of whatever it can grab a hold of, toe foot, ankle, calf.

It's going to bring the leg with it back down and to its side. Leg is gonna bring the hand back with it. Switch. That arm is gonna bring that leg with it, and to its side. Back up all the way.

Touch your toes and then sit up. Think about just relaxing the spine for a moment, and just allowing that spine to move. From there, bring your knees towards you and just roll back, and back up, rolling back and back up. How are you doing the rolling like a ball? Could you not?

Could you do the rolling like a kid? 'Cause what is in that rolling like a kid that will eventually inform your rolling like a ball. Maybe roll little shapes or big shapes. Little, big, littles, big, and onto your back. Rolling, rocking to the left and to the right.

Can I allow myself to rock all the way over onto the side instead of just kind of part way. Can I go all the way over, over, over, over that side, whatever that site is, go over make a big shape. Little shape, roll, big shapes. Big shape, little shape, big shape, little shape, big shape, little shapes, big shapes. Where are you looking?

What are your hands and your feet doing? How are you resourcing your entire body to make these shapes? Where do you find it hard to be aware of as you move? And then onto your back. From there, just take a moment and be (exhale) Roll over to your left side.

Make a big shape, stay big and roll over. Stay big and roll over. Stay big. Now go wide, how wide can you feel and roll? Go wide, wide, wide.

Now can you be wide and get as much of you off the floor as you can. Can you keep as much of you off the floor as you can as you roll into the other side, it's like hot lava. Roll big, big, big, big, big, get off the floor. Big, big, big, big, big, get off the floor. Big, big, big, big, big, big, big, big, get off the floor.

Now instead of wide, go long, stay long. Get off the floor, stay long, get off the floor. (exhales) And on that side, relax, relax down into the floor. Lift your top leg up and lower it back down, up and back down. Chances are you're doing your sideline leg series.

Maybe you're here, maybe you're down. You decide how you wanna lay, I'm just gonna lay like this. From there I've always wondered, why do we just lift our leg this high? I like to lift my arm and have my foot come up to touch my hand and back down, touch and go, touch and go. Now you can make a long shape here, a wide shape, a big shape.

You can take as much of you off the ground and lay down into it as you'd like. How do you wanna do it today? What is gonna be your own personal goal? Now take your hand behind you. Touch, touch, touch, touch, touch.

Take your arm in front of you. Touch, touch, touch, touch. Bring it behind you, do a stretch. Hangout. (exhales) Now, can you keep holding onto whatever you're holding onto and lift it up, and back down.

Lift it up and back down, lift it up. It's like a movement puzzle. Can I get through this? Pretzeling up and back down. Stretch your leg behind you, your arm in front of you and they swap and swap, swinging, swinging.

Like you're lying on your side, just swinging. You'll see this later in class. Now get some water if you need it, I do. And let's do the other side. From there, I wanna get back into some rolling, so roll, roll, roll.

Maybe long roll, maybe wide. But just to get that back in the body like I'm contained, I'm here and I'm gonna end on that opposite side. From there, just exploring, what's my relationship to this side? How does it feel different to lie down on this side? How is that in reference to what I discovered earlier in my warmups about how I'm different.

Side to side, top arm, touch, touch, touch, touch. Behind you, touch, touch, touch, touch. In front of you, touch, touch, touch, touch. Behind you, stretch, holding onto it, lift it up. Take it back down and around.

Up, back down and around. Up, back down and around, leg goes behind, arm goes in front and they swap. Swap, swap, swap, swap and relax. Turning over onto your stomach. So many different ways to adjust a mic pack.

Turning over onto my stomach, going to lie there and I'm just going to ground myself down. Where's the floor? Where am I? Sink. From there, I'm gonna do my touch and go exercise but behind me, meaning right to knee bins, right hand touches foot and release, other side and release.

Do I know where that foot is at? Can I locate an orient myself to touch it? How about right hand, left foot? (exhales) Can I turn and look for what I'm touching? Two, one, take a moment.

(exhales) Both hands are gonna try their best to touch their respective foot. Relaxed, bend, touch, release, relax, bend, touch, release. If that's enough for you, stay there. If you wanna move up, touch, long shape, get off the floor. Touch, long shape, get off the floor.

Touch, long shape, get off the floor. One more touch, long shape, get off the floor. Relax, we go. Bend your right knee, right foot touches the floor to the left of you. Other leg, lag when leg inside become one word.

Bend and move. Bend and move. Now that's enough, stay there. Open your arms to letter T if you'd like, right foot does its best to touch left hand. Other side, other side.

One more. Relax, sink. Put your hands underneath your own armpits. Bend your knees. Bring your elbows in tight.

My arms have a back, I lengthen my spine, I push my hands and my knees to the floor to come up, up up, up up, up up. Sink back, stretch. Forward, down. If you're someone who likes process and protocol, I'm tight, I'm pushed, I'm up and I'm down. If you're like me and you want an embodied experience, there's the floor.

Long shape, float, float, float, relax fluid movement. Three more. Two. One more. Up to your knees and just rocking, right and left, right and left.

Now, hopefully you've been exploring some of the arm the wrist stuff we did from a couple of weeks ago with the arm explorations, 'cause we're gonna enter into a crawling practice and to have supple wrists and arms. It's gonna be a good thing. So if this is too much for you, maybe just make some fists and crawl on the fists. You can already hear, this is cardio. (laughs) This is the fun version of cardio and we've only just begun.

So I guarantee, and I'm just warning you now, I'm gonna be out of breath in a little bit. So I'm barely gonna be able to cue you. You're gonna be fine, I'm gonna be fine. We can do it, we're good. Hands and knees.

I like to tuck my toes. From there, wide across the body, nice supple spine. I start by leaning forward and back and I'm forward and I'm back. I'm just orienting, what does it feel like to have weight back and forth and back and forth, back and forth. Now find a place that's neither back nor forth.

Go to the right and the left, the right and the left right and left, right and left. Find a space that's neither right nor left. Go forward to the right, back to the left to go forward as you make your circle. And reverse. Now in the middle of that circle is bullseye, is your personal center.

See if you can land on your center. From your crawling practice, refrain from the urge to look down, your hands know exactly where they're at, they don't need your eyes. Babies don't crawl unless they look where they're going. So you're looking out through your horizon at something to crawl to. From there, right arm, left leg take one step forward and come back.

Same arm, same leg, and back, same arm, same leg. One more. Notice, does an arm move before a leg, a leg move before an arm? Maybe I need to practice that if I'm new to crawling. Other side.

Crawling is an amazing exercise that literally it will take a week long workshop to talk about all of the benefits. But there's a lot of cross body connection, integration, organization, upper body, low body. Now once you have both sides, maybe you just crawl a few steps forward to the edge of your mat. Right, left, right left and back. And forward.

Nice long spine and back. Find your center, cat, cow, cat, cow. One more, cat, cow. Snake spine. Letting my spine move in the way of snake might from last week's class, then take a moment.

Rest your hands. We just crawled like a baby. We're gonna crawl like a cat now. Coming back for the cat crawl. Right arm, left leg take a step forward and your spine gives.

Other side. So that there's movement throughout the entirety of your body. You'll notice that there's a cat cow and a snake spine that is going on. And forward, opposite arm, opposite leg. You need access to both of these in order to walk.

Well, you need that nice long supple spine to walk forward, but if I wanna turn a corner, I gotta have access to that cat snaky movable spine. So let's play with that. I'm going to take right arm, left leg forward and I'm gonna start to go in a circle to the left. Noticing, do opposite limbs move with opposite limbs. And then other way.

And around again. There's not a lot to think about here. There's a lot to feel and notice. Forward crawl, backwards crawl. To your right, backwards crawl, forward crawl.

To your left, rest. Not necessarily a hard physical exercise, possibly some new brain activity for you. Just what I notice from there, back to your hands and knees. Can I keep my hands on the floor? Bring my knees and my feet together.

Can I keep my hands on the floor and drop my butt, my hips over to the left and sit down without having to move my hands. Come back up other side, up, other side, up, other side. Drop to that side, grab a hold of your ankles and stretch. Hands back down. Both hands pick yourself up, switch over, grab a hold, stretch.

Over. And y'all thought I couldn't fit Pilates into this. (laughs) Over And we're here and we're back and relax the spine. Shake it out. A little tap, a little reset of the nervous system.

The nervous system really likes to be worked up and then rested, worked up and rested. So, these little moments of just got it. I'm gonna take a break, great. Grab your water. Sit with your legs out in front of you and we're gonna stretch and sit up, stretch and sit up.

Letter i, drop my head, coming up. My spine is in the shape of letter i spine class drop. I'm gonna sit up happy, proud Regal Presence Class. I'm gonna sit up round, lay down. What am I feeling?

What am I noticing? How do I know when I'm down? Relax, come back up. Now you can just come on up. You can take an alternate route, one arm back.

A different route to come up. Stretch, stretch. I don't care how you get there. You're just lying down and coming up. Now I can resource my body differently, I can think my arms have abs from the arm class.

And really help myself out to find my center here. Decelerate, decelerate, decelerate, or I can just roll down and roll back up. What way does your body need and want to move today? Where are you finding delight? What feels good to do?

Now, come up, pick your favorite leg and bring it with you backwards. Let your favorite leg help you back up. Pick your other leg up, bring it with you backwards. Come back up. Pick your other leg and come back up.

Pick your other leg, hold it. Wiggle your toes, look at that, I got a foot at the end. Let your foot help you back up. Other side, look at that I got a foot. Back up.

We are about to have an inversion moment. So as I tuck all your business in and as I mentioned that falling, rolling, rebounding, reset practice, if inversions are like an absolute no-go for you, maybe practice that. If you're curious about inversions, maybe follow me into this practice and do what feels good for you. If you are ready. Just have fun, trust.

I believe that you can do this. And I'm saying that to myself. (laughs) So we're gonna bring our knees into our chest, we're gonna roll back and forth. Let's get this mic situated. We're gonna roll back and forth.

Now, as you go through this, see if you can land on your shoulders and feel what it's like to transform your shoulder blades into feet that are totally grounded and supporting you so that you're not necessarily up on your neck, but that you're acrossed, wide, big shape across the shoulder blades and you're balanced, and up and balanced and up. Now, what is it like to balance on the left shoulder blade and on the right, and on the left, and on the right. Now if you can do that, can you make it a big shape back there? Big shapes. Up, big shape, up, big shape, up, different big shape and big shape.

Now that might be enough for your practice today. For the rest of us, see if you can go back there, pause and liberate your arms. Go back, pause, make a shape, free your arms and come out of it. Up, find your balance, liberate your legs and your arms. Come back up, (exhales) Take a breath.

Let your nervous system calm down. I want you to think of this next movement that's familiar. What we're gonna do is what we just did with an element of a control balance. (laughs) Back flipping crawling forward. I know, I know, stay with me.

Here we go. I'm going to go back balance on my right shoulder and complete the movement, here we go. Balance all the way over, crawl. Sit legs out. Repeat on the other side.

Here we go. Let's see how this side goes for yours truly. We're gonna go back, flip, crawl. Repeat right side, back, flip, crawl. Repeat left side, back, flip, crawl.

Take a moment, settle into your nervous system. You just did something really playful, really fun. (exhales) Think about that. Why am I practicing control balance and Jack knife? Where does it lead me to?

What else can it become? That's just what it feels like to me, maybe to you it's something different. From there, I want you, I'm inviting you to simply kick your mat out of the way. It's just gonna be in your way as we play for the rest of the class. Hands are gonna be down, you're on your knees.

Left foot touches left hand and back. Right foot right hand and back. Left, right. Left, right. As we take this forward, you can just stay there and do that, if that's difficult, do that thing.

I'm inspired by knee stretch rabbit on the reformer. So as you play with this next thing go, oh, maybe this is where rabbit knees stretch stuff on the reformer could take me outside of that practice. And how next time I do that, will that inform how I choose to enter into that? Can it be playful? Can I find a different way to use it?

So, here we are. Left foot, left hand, right foot, right hand. Jump back, all the way back. Forward, back. Three, two, squat, stand.

My, be there, let it regulate. (exhales) Seaweed spine, drink of water. And I couldn't do a play class without airplane hands, right? So let's have a standing airplane moment. Be here, weight shifting, weight shifting, weight shifting.

Told you I was gonna be out of breath. Now can I weight shift so far over that I liberate a leg. Other side. Can I access that dynamic balance? Just kind of playing on one leg.

Good. If this is difficult, be here. For the rest of us, pick your favorite hand. That hand becomes an airplane. Paper airplanes only have one rule, they always fly nose first.

They can't go down, up, sideways, backwards, nose. From there, just following that with your eyes, it can go up, it can go down. It can take you around the room. It can go up and down. I know this sort of reminds a lot of people of some contemporary or creative dance.

It might feel like that for you if that's in your vocabulary. For so many people, it's not. This is sort of pitching a ball or catching something. What I'm really interested in is what does this mean for you? And how can you invite this little bit of play into your body?

Into your day? Then pick one leg to balance on paper, airplane. It can go forward. It can go so much that it actually pulls you off balance. Practicing, some more falling, switch hands.

Just playing, allowing that to happen. Both hands. Just kinda getting lost in whatever that looks like for you. Calming down and just rock. For me the most human of all human movements is just walking.

So I invite you to get out of am I doing it right and into this is what it feels like. Just walk around your space. Notice what you notice. What posture are you in? Rather than right or wrong, is it happy?

Is it sad? How does that posture make you feel? How are you feeling and how is that echoing through your posture? Height. As you walk, how tall are you?

And can you be that tall from the back of your neck? So I'm gonna walk around the room, like I'm six foot one from the back of my neck. And I'm gonna notice what swings, what doesn't, where do I move? Where don't I? Pause, go backwards.

Now, my right arm forward and back. My right arm and my left leg are friends and partners and vice versa. Can they swing and move together? Can they travel together in the way they did in my crawl? Do they know where each other are from that touch and go stuff?

Can that rotate my spine and allow myself to kinda just play, pause, go backwards again. This time, exaggerate your steps backwards. How big of a step? And forward. Almost like toy soldier, and back.

Turn to look at the monitor. Side shuffle. Again, how many times do you move laterally in a day? Probably not a lot, I know most of us know. Big steps, and back.

Tiny steps on your tip toes. Feet down, toes up on the outside edges of your feet and the other way. Tip toes, flat feet, toes up, walking around the room like a regular human being. Notice, whatever you notice. Where do you move?

Where do you not? And just to take a moment and be feel your feet, shake your hands, let your body move. Notice. (exhales) Pick your heels up, drop them down. Pick your heels up, drop them down.

Pick them up, drop them down, pick them up, drop them down, pick them up, drop them down, up, down. It's like you're waking up your heels. I can bend my knees. Let my whole spine move. Let the internal organs jiggle.

Everything gets to move. If I can do this, can I make it bigger? Can I make it so big that I begin to hop? Maybe I jump or side, forward, small. Ground yourself, right side, left side, right side, left side.

And on your favorite side, liberate that leg, pick your heel up, drop it. Jumping. Quiet, down, relax. Homestretch guys, I promise. Other side, liberate, lift.

Test it out, test the waters. And ground. Take a walk. Let yourself just be there. Notice what you notice, take an inventory.

What am I feeling? What feels important right now? If the hopping skipping jumping practice was difficult, stay there. I wanna bring us into a full joy experience. Heels, arms swing, hop, jump, walk.

Otherwise known as skip. When was the last time you let yourself skip around the room. How old were you? Can you really get into it? Can you go in a circle or the other way?

What does that gonna require of your spine? Of your body? Quiet that down, walk. What do you notice? From there, bring yourself centered.

(exhales) Check in, check in with your legs, with your trunk, with your arms, with your head. Check in with your spirit, your mind, your emotions, your gut, your heart. Listen, be there. And then, let yourself express that with sound, maybe it's a sigh, maybe it's a hum. Maybe it's a word, say it.

Allow that internal experience to come out. I'm gonna take you through mine and then we're gonna be done. (laughs) I feel good, I feel delighted, I feel like I played, I feel like I moved. I felt like I got some juices going. How did that make you feel?

Put your hands on your heart. Take a nice deep inhale into your own heart and tell yourself thank you for showing up today, for getting curious about how to find delight, how to make the choices, how to be aware and resource your knowledge and your body and yourself, thank yourself. Then, and especially today, take a look around your space. You could not have done what you did today, without the obstacles in the room, the floor, the mat, the lack of mat, the room, the space. You are influenced in a part of your world, don't you forget it.

Take a look at your community. Whoever is there in the space with you, dogs, cats, small animals, people included, whoever's here on screen with you, whoever you're going to be with today, you can not get through life without your community. We are interconnected. You are influencing people and they are influencing you all the time. So be grateful and conscious of the company you keep.

So thank you guys so, so much. Again, I'm James Crader. This has been Curious Movement. This is the seventh of eight classes. Join me next week where we organize all of this into a Pilates practice.

Yeah, you heard me right, we're gonna do Pilates next week. My way, join me to then. Thank you so much, I appreciate your time.

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Playful Learning
James Crader
Intermediate
55 min
Balanced Body
Mat
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Comments

I have loved nearly all of the classes I have done on PA over the years;  this one is my new favourite.  I found my movement home! Thank you so much James. It brought together the movement practices I do..energy healing movement, 5 stages, functional movement, Nia and of course Pilates..but in such a fun, uplifting and joyful way. It's really inspired me to bring this energy into my classes. Much gratitude
Naila B
2 people like this.
That's a VERY cute and GREAT fun class! You James Inspired me!!
4 people like this.
Was this a Workout masquerading as Play? Or was this working out &  lengthening in a playful way.  Seems to have been a bit of both. James gave everyone the option to modify so I substituted head stands for shoulder stands (i can't do a shoulder stand). This class flew by.  Michael King is another playful instructor whose classes fly by.  I had Fun & feel much better!  note~ my granddaughter and I were skipping last week. I am always surprised how fast one can move while skipping. Thanks Again James:) 
"The opposite of Play is not work ...it is nervous system depression." I can sometimes forget how good I am at playing!
James Crader thank you for reminding what I am good at and for this class! 
Claudia D
2 people like this.
Thank you for all this mad/funny/active story though, that really brought out the child .Very inspiring this class, James. 
2 people like this.
inspiring and amazing as always!!!! I will miss this program, I do not like the idea it's quite ended :) thanks !!!!!!

2 people like this.
I really enjoyed your class! Thanks so so much for your creativity !!!
Patti
1 person likes this.
Christine Morling Thank you so much! I'm so flattered that you'd find familiar feelings in my work related to so many joyful expressions of movement. 
Kristi Cooper  Thank you, Dear Friend! I'm honored you enjoyed the time spent with me. I truly appreciate you. Looking forward to our next hug. 
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