This is a bitter sweet entry. Its the end of blog category, for I soon turn over a new leaf toward my 59th year. The bitterness isn’t really about my age – although getting closer to THAT decade is surely not sweet – more on that taste in my mouth later. The sweetness is about the gift I have found during the year in teaching and sharing everything much more publicly with fellow co-horts as students, teachers and lovers of the Pilates method.
As I stated in the Pilates Style Magazine article that I had the pleasure of participating in earlier this year, I have worked to build my practice, as a teacher, with the intention of inspiring new students to find a way of moving with the depth and precision of the Pilates method. That means I stay true to form, the principles and the quality of teaching and delivering this tough stuff so that it tastes sweet to the novice.
So, perhaps you can imagine my joy, surprise and honor to find that my public expression of this work – with my particular strain of quirkiness through social media images and video – has garnered more than a few friends, teachers and fitness instructors following along and becoming inspired. Hell, even a few of my family and cousins, many now over 50+ years of age, have been inspired to do something that they hadn’t previously thought possible or viable.
Pilates Teacher’s Gift Message
(Click the image to expand and read)
I follow the good examples of those I hold in high regard; those whose energy, perspective and chemistry clicks a button inside of me. I also loudly and proudly support those I see stepping out onto the edges of themselves and making breakthrough statements and actions in the world that inspire others to be the best they can and the most creative their imaginations will allow.
Teaching requires a giving heart. A vulnerable, open heart that tends to give more than it gets back. Receiving an unsolicited expression of love and appreciation, is nothing short of a pure teacher’s gift. A note from a stranger across the country, whose actions you have inspired, makes up for all the long days and full bottles of wine you drank all year long after teaching.
I am grateful for the reminder that this is truly heart work I have chosen to do. I promise to keep making my giving better as I flip the page to the next year.
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Gina Jackson, is a classically trained Pilates Teacher and has been teaching along the Gold Coast of Hudson and Bergen County, NJ for the past fifteen+ years.
Certified by Power Pilates of New York, Gina has trained with Master Teachers Bob Liekens, Susan Moran and Brett Howard; loved workshop training with Cary Regan and Blossom Leilani-Crawford and has particularly enjoyed listening to the personal stories as told by Pilates Elders, Kathy Grant and Lolita San Miguel.
An active teacher and blogger, Gina manages a private personal training business supporting a myriad of clients, teaching all to honor their health, strength and life with the principles of Pilates at its core.