Are you moving lightly in body and mind?

Are you walking lightly?

About three years into my Pilates Reformer training, I worked with Amy Taylor Alpers of The Pilates Center in Denver.  Amy is a 2nd generation Pilates instructor, meaning one teacher removed from Joseph Pilates.

All I remember from her class was walking around the room.

Lightly.

Imagine, she says, each joint moving lightly, your feet light, your legs light, your arms lightly swinging. Her soft voice explains how to move lightly in this world and how we can move lightly on the reformer.

Occasionally, my joints and spine feel crunched and stuck, or I hear the glasses rattle in my cabinet when I walk on my wood floor. I think of her words: Mary, walk a bit lighter!

This week, I came upon this quote by Aldous Huxley (thanks to James Clear) on approaching life with lightness, even in the face of difficulty:

"It's dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you're feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. I was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humorless little prig.

Lightly, lightly– it's the best advice ever given me... So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly."

Source: Island ​

Aldous Huxley died in 1963. I'm always amazed that things written long ago are still relevant today. 

May you enter your week lightly and if it feels like a heavy week ahead think about how you can bravely walk lightly into it.