Seasonal Reset: How Pilates and Polarity Therapy Help You Transition into Fall

As summer fades and fall settles in, many of us in Santa Cruz feel the effects of seasonal transition, fatigue, scattered energy, or trouble focusing. Shifting routines, travel, heat, and overstimulation can leave the body and nervous system off balance. At Studio Emilio, we combine Pilates and Polarity Therapy to help restore alignment, ease stress, and ground you during this seasonal shift so you can move, breathe, and live with greater flow.

After Summer: Why We Feel Out of Sync

After a long and fruitful summer full of fun and adventure, many of us finding ourselves a little sluggish and out of sync.  The light-filled days that once felt energizing may now feel scattered or overstimulating, a lot to take in if you will. Traveling (while awesome), the heat, shifting routines… These joyful parts of summer can leave the body depleted and the nervous system out of balance. 

At Studio Emilio, we have come to expect this sort of unsettled anxiety at this time of year with our clients having the desire to reset, to ground and return to our centers. That’s where the integration of Pilates and Polarity Therapy become so powerful. It’s like the super hero dynamic duo of health, wellness, movement and happiness on mental, physical, spiritual and emotional planes

Why Seasonal Transitions Feel Hard

These seasonal transitions are more than just the dates changing on the calendar, they’re physiological ones. When the days get shorter and the temperature drops, these changes can be jarring or unsettling, especially if we’ve been pushing hard in aspects of our lives and the external noise has gotten louder. Some clients notice trouble focusing or sleeping. Others with shallow breathing, or holding tension in the shoulders and hips. These aren’t just mental and emotional states, they are signs that the nervous system is asking for some recalibration.

When Alignment is Off, Everything Feels Harder

When the body’s out of alignment, everything feels more difficult. From climbing stairs, to rolling out of bed and paddling out at your favorite surf spot, movement becomes more difficult when we are out of balance. Through Pilates, we restore alignment by engaging the deep stabilizing muscles of the hips, spine and everything they’re attached to while engaging the core and mindfully breathing. With Polarity Therapy, we work with the body’s energetic system to create space and flow, supporting the nervous system and bring the being back into balance. Together, they offer a full-spectrum reset: structure of softness, care, strength and stillness. Cause we can all use some assistance in slowing down sometimes.

3 Ways to Support Your Body and Mind During Seasonal Shifts

Here are three simple ways to support your body and mind and overall energetic system during this seasonal shift. These can be done at home or wherever you feel comfortable to connect with yourself.

1. Grounding Breath With Gentle Pause

Sit tall with both feel on the floor, upright but not uptight. Inhale slowly through the nose, letting the breath expand downward into the belly, pelvis and side body, feel the ribs expand. At the top of your inhale, pause for a moment, no rush, then exhale slowly, letting the body soften.Why This Works: This breath calms the nervous system at the same time bringing awareness out of the mind and into the body.

2. Pilates Shoulder Bridge

Lie on your back, knees bent and feet flat on the mat hips-width apart. Inhale to prepare and as you exhale peel the spine off the mat like a sticker, from the tailbone, waistline, mid-back to the bottom of the shoulder blades. Hold at the top as you inhale, and exhale as you peel yourself back down one vertebrae at at time, repeat.This is a full flexion and extension for the spine massaging each and every vertebrae and softly working the entire body, breath and all.

3. Mindful Moment Outdoors

Without rushing into Fall, or anywhere for that matter, we always have the opportunity to pause and have a mindful moment. Step outside, preferable around sunset or in the morning, calm transition time of day. Take a few breaths and notice your feet on the ground, the temperature of the air, the way the light looks, its quality. Just a few moments of stillness reconnects us with our natural rhythms and of those around us. This makes us feel small and large at the same time. We aren’t a drop in the ocean but the ocean with a drop.

Supporting You Through the Season

At Studio Emilio we are here to guide you through this transition in a mindful, relaxed and choreographed way to give our clients what they need and carry them through the day and the changing seasons. It’s always an opportunity to connect with ourselves, to invest in our present and future by being present and mindful right now. Pilates will stretch and strengthen you while Polarity Therapy will calm the nervous system and bring the body and mind into balance. All of our offerings are to celebrate you and the power you have right now to make a difference in your day and the rest of the season.