A little life story

Hello and welcome!

As I’ve been MIA for a while I thought it would be nice to start with a bit of a personal blog.

So hello! Nice to “meet you”.

If we haven’t already met, I’m Gemma. Pilates teacher, mindset junkie, mummy and DREAMER (some people may say scatterbrain!) You will normally find me walking in the woods with my little mini me, drinking tea with my fave people, listening to podcasts or enjoying snacks and netflix.. If you couldn’t tell I’m abit of a homebody!

I became a Pilates instructor after my son was born, but it has been a part of my life since I was a teenager… my teenage dream was to open some kind of holistic wellbeing hub full of different ways to help people feel good.

And as with most dreams like that it came from personal experience, and not a good one. As a teenager I was diagnosed with a number of really crap diagnoses.. Fibromyalgia, arthritis, IBS, chronic pain and fatigue, raynauds. Basically I felt absolutely awful and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

After a few years of trying everything, physio multiple times a week, all the therapies, consultants, scans, pain relief, the lot, I had pretty much accepted that this was my life. In pain and exhausted.

Then my life changed. The stars aligned and 2 things transformed my life. And I don’t say that lightly. I was on track for a life filled with debilitating pain and fatigue and these 2 things saved me.

The first change, and the one I want to talk about today is that I got a new physio. The second is a long story for another blog, but to keep it short, my mum signed me up to something called “The lightning process” which is one of the very best things I have ever done… I wouldn’t be able to live the life I do today if I hadn’t done it…thanks mum xx

So, back to the physio…I had been going several times a week for about a year when my nice physio left and I was given a new physio. Well, at first I HATED her. I left the session in tears. I told my mum I was never going back. I was in pain. Alot of pain. But ever the sensible one, my mum told me to give it another chance. And I did. I made my feelings known to the physio and this made all the difference. She changed her approach. We started slow, really slow! And gradually we built up. Until my body started to feel stronger. More able to deal with the movements. More able to deal with every day life.

I didn’t know it at the time but what the physio had me doing was Pilates. Gentle Pilates. And here I am today, trying to bring that gentle, healing movement to you.

Obviously there were lots of steps between 15 year old me finding Pilates and 32 year old me here now sharing it with you. I tried Pilates at the gym and hated it. I had several more health issues. I had a difficult pregnancy and a long and difficult recovery from birth. These last few years I have been dealing with new, scary health challenges that have knocked me ALOT and that I'm still trying to figure out.

But one thing I have found through it all is that gentle movement helps. I don’t do Pilates because I like fitness… if you’ve been around for any length of time you know that I DO NOT. I don’t do it because it tones you up or to look good.

I do Pilates because I don’t want to go back to feeling like every single thing I do is a struggle. I do it because I want to be able to pick up my son, to play on the floor with him and walk through the woods with him. I do it because I want to age well..to stay mobile, to stay WELL. To keep doing the things that matter to me.

I tell you all of this partly so that you can get to know me - it’s nice to have an idea of who is teaching you. But I also share it to give you hope. I have been at rock bottom. More than once.

Right in the pit of feeling like I would never be ok. That I’d never be able to do normal things. And if you are there, and you’re reading this blog take it as a sign.. A virtual hand hold to guide you in the direction of hope.

And even if you aren’t at rock bottom, maybe you are just a bit meh, feeling a bit lost or unmotivated.. I am here for you. I’m here for the average Joe who doesn’t love fitness and wellness but who wants to feel GOOD. I am here to make it simple for you to feel well.

Gentle movement can heal your body, calm your mind and change the direction of your life…it has for me! As I get back into this little newsletter I will be sharing more on how you can implement this in your own life but for now, my inbox is always open if you can relate to any of this and would like to chat x