Carolyn and I met nearly ten years ago because of a life changing accident. I was a Pilates Instructor in a Studio in Brooklyn, New York and Carolyn walked in, having been discharged from physical therapy after being hit by a truck in Seattle, and now she wanted to start her real journey back to physical fitness.
Carolyn is a dancer and yoga practitioner and is quite possibly the fittest person I have ever encountered, although not at this time in our shared history.
My story was similar. When I was twenty-five years old, I suffered a severe road accident that should have killed me. It didn't but after a year of intensive physical therapy I was signed off as fixed and with my body stitched back together I looked and walked like the Bride of Frankenstein.
I had spent my short life time riding horses, ice-skating, playing tennis and swimming and I was horrified by my broken, physical body and from that moment on I decided to rehabilitate myself. I never allowed being a victim of an accident to prevent me from scuba-diving, boxing, fencing and dancing and over the years I engaged in many systems offered in the world of exercise and complementary therapies. The ones that I thought worked best for me, I decided to train and become a Teacher of that modality.
I had been a Buddhist since the age of 15 so Meditation was part of the healing process. Later I became an Ordained Teacher from a small, yogic tradition within the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism and now I teach Tibetan Yoga and Meditation. I became a Pilates Instructor and I later a Feldenkrais® Practitioner and more recently a Sleep Disorder Therapist in the Sounder Sleep System®. All of these methods recreated me to be a person of complete mobility, flexibility and strength with an awareness that the mind plays such an important role in the success of a reinvention.
Carolyn walked into that Pilates Studio still suffering the physical and mental trauma of her accident but she was an incredible student and quite determined to be better than the best. She was so fit and eager to try anything I threw at her and she never really complained ...well. Carolyn allowed me to become creative with what I was teaching and her phenomenal ability to learn hard exercises and routines and perform them beautifully encouraged us to begin talking about combining our various talents to hit the world with fun, intelligent exercise routines and movement styles that we had proven to ourselves, could benefit any person of any age at any stage of their life.
All teachers bring their own history and personality to their teaching, and Carolyn and I certainly do that. With humour, intelligence, enthusiasm, self knowledge and magic we want to provide a client with a complete package of well-being, whatever they need at any given time. Sometimes that might be rehabilitation from injury, trauma, stress, fitness training to run a marathon, pass a dance audition, get pregnant, get married, lifestyle reinvention or whatever. We can motivate, encourage and allow a client the strength and space to dream, imagine and succeed in their goals. We are constantly motivated by our exceptional clients with their inspiring goals that they will achieve or have achieved through their devotion to the challenges of learning to change.
ö-Sel Nyima @enlightenedmove @NyimaOsel
No comments:
Post a Comment