The (inevitable) bump in the road

I've reached a benchmark in my Pilates career. I've just figured out how much I do not know. It's a humbling feeling. Although I have a good working knowledge of Pilates, I am at the very, very beginning of understanding how to apply it to the infinitely variable bodies that exist in the universe.

No two bodies are the same. I knew that. But I don't yet know how to modify and adapt this endlessly adaptable method to meet the needs of the myriad alignments that I see whenever I go anywhere and see any people.

If I see you walking down the street I am looking at the way you carry your shoulders, where your head sits relative to your sternum, if your hips move, and where in your body you seem to initiate movement. Unfortunately, I wouldn't necessarily know what to do with you if I have a chance to work with you.

Okay, I'd probably try to get you in hold your head back from where it hangs forward straining your neck muscles all day. I'd probably try to get you to drop your sit bones down over your heels when you stand and let your sternum float up and out so your shoulder blades could slide down your back a bit. And I'd most likely want you to sit up on your sit bones and lengthen your spine up out of your pelvis when you sit. And I'd definitely try to get you breathing into your rib cage to mobilize your thoracic vertebrae and increase your lung capacity. Yeah, and a bunch of other things, now that I think about it. But at some point it's just a bunch of exercises if I don't know what I am trying to accomplish more globally.

I guess ultimately this is a good thing. I have a lot to learn and I know it.