Find Your Center Wellness Arts

By Kate Feinberg Robins Pilates? Yoga? What Is It? Sometimes it feels like everywhere we look there's a Pilates or yoga studio. Every gym and community center seems to offer Pilates, yoga, or a combined Pilates-yoga class. Are they the same? Are they different? What are they? Mind-Body Practice on a Mat Pilates and yoga are both mind-body practices done on a mat. As mind-body practices, both Pilates and yoga focus on coordinating breath with movement. Because of the focus on mind-body connection, Pilates and yoga are typically done slowly, with careful attention to the details of each movement, position, and breath. Both tend to focus on flowing from one movement or pose to the next, with deliberate transitions in between. Like many mind-body practices, the principles practiced in the studio (such as harmony, flow, and centering) are intended to be applied holistically in everyday life. Typically, yoga exercises and sequences are done on a "sticky mat" or "yoga mat....

By Kate Feinberg Robins What Is a Back Spasm? If you’ve experienced a back spasm, you know it can be incredibly painful, start suddenly, and last several days. The good news is most muscle spasms can be managed through home exercise and over-the-counter medicine. (For more on causes and medical treatments, we recommend the Cleveland Clinic’s website .) A back spasm is basically when a muscle in your back contracts involuntarily and will not release. In our experience, it feels like sudden shooting and debilitating pain (usually accompanied by crying ☹️). Here are some tips we’ve learned that help get us through when it happens. 1. Slow Down Be patient with yourself. It can take weeks for the pain to go away fully. Often a spasm is (in part) your body telling you that you’re doing too much and forcing you to slow down. (And maybe next time, we can remember to slow down before it happens and avoid it altogether 🤔.) 2. Keep Moving This is the hardest and most important part. When it feel...

By Kate Feinberg Robins, PhD Embrace Your Ballet "Accent" I know as a linguistic anthropologist that languages are not made up simply of words, but of grammar, sounds, and cultural understandings. The same is true for ballet.  Ballet is not about what steps we can do. It’s about how we move.  If we know a few words (steps) and understand the principles behind them, we can communicate. If we know lots of words but don’t understand how they fit together grammatically, what they mean culturally, or how to pronounce them, communication is difficult at best. There is a myth that both ballet and languages must be learned in childhood.  Children’s brains and bodies do have greater plasticity. Children can speak new languages without a foreign-sounding accent. Their bodies can be shaped to the aesthetics of ballet. But anyone at any age is capable of learning.  Adults have a lifetime of experience that we can use to learn deliberately and purposefully. Whether learning a la...

  By Kate Feinberg Robins Exercise for Older Adults As we age, it may be tempting to focus exclusively on safe, low-impact exercise. But weight-bearing exercise is equally important. After age 40, the effects of inactivity increase. When we are inactive, our muscle mass, strength, bone density, and heart health all decline at a higher rate than when we were younger. After age 40, we use it or lose it. Non-weight-bearing exercise helps us build and maintain muscle tone and strength . Weight-bearing exercise builds and maintains our bone density and heart health . What is Weight-Bearing Exercise? Any exercise where you support your own weight with your muscle strength is a weight-bearing exercise. This includes walking, running, dancing, capoeira , and many yoga poses. What is Non-Weight-Bearing Exercise? Any exercise where most of your weight is supported by water, the floor, a bicycle, or other apparatus is non-weight-bearing exercise. This includes swimming, Pilates, and cyc...

By Kate Feinberg Robins Working on creative projects reduces stress and anxiety, and improves problem-solving skills. So that’s great! We should all do it, right? But for adults who don’t make art as part of our jobs, it doesn’t always feel so simple. Here are some tips. Focus on the process, not the product. Give yourself a regular time and place to do your art, where you can focus on the doing without judgement. This might mean closing your door, covering mirrors and cameras, or putting on headphones. Any kind of creative expression counts. Make a list of creative activities that you can easily do. Remember—focus on what you have the resources to do, not what you consider yourself good at. Your list can include things as varied as writing, baking, playing music, dancing, or designing inventions. Choose anything on the list that you’re in the mood for. Play and explore. Try letting go of things like recipes, sheet music, and choreography. Give yourself the freedom to play with your m...

By Kate Feinberg Robins Creativity improves brain plasticity. When we improvise dance or capoeira movements, we create and strengthen neural pathways in our brains. This conditions our brains to learn and process new information more readily. It makes us better learners and more skilled at coping with new situations. A growing number of scientific studies show that engaging in artistic endeavors physically changes the brain structure. Art helps with focus, memory, and creativity, as well as reducing stress and anxiety. Read more at npr.org and neuroartsblueprint.org .