Cut your mirror some slack

A friend of mine recently joined a pilates group at her gym. She loved it. She sang its praises! Naturally, I agreed. Then the gym changed the space where her group met.

She was bummed about the new space because it was full of mirrors. "Before I could imagine I looked cool doing pilates," she said. "Now I just see how much I have to improve."

Earlier that same week I had covered one of my mirrors with photographs because I was so tired of constantly critiquing my workout. And I'm no beginner.

It got me thinking about reflections and how much credit we give them. When I look in the mirror, I'm only seeing an image. It's not me; it's backwards me.

Reflections are good teachers. They can guide you. But they are no substitute for the real thing. Only we can make our reflections move.

I propose we give our reflections a break and start believing what our minds see. You're a natural at pilates. My belt looks great with these jeans. Every day is a good hair day. I'd be willing to bet our reflections will follow suit.

Pilates trains me for mental gymnastics

I have been a big fan of pilates for a few years. It helps tone and strengthen core muscles, which are arguably the largest and most important ones in our bodies. We use them for almost every movement, big or small. And I'll be honest, I like flat abs too.

One of the main things pilates helps with is balance. I'm still a klutz, but I fall down and run into things a lot less these days. The stronger our core muscles are, the easier it is for our bodies to maintain balance.

As I was working out this morning, I realized this could easily translate for my newest quest in my life: balance! I tend to swing back and forth on the pendulum without a thought to where my extremes take me. I wondered: If my core is strong, wouldn't it be easier to maintain and achieve balance?

A lot of times when starting on a new endeavor, it's hard to know where to begin. Striving for balance is a life-long project, which can make it seem daunting. But now I know what direction to point my feet in, a starting line for this self-improvement. Strengthen my core values. Know where I stand. And anyone that knows me knows that I've definitely got some strong opinions. So I guess I've already started my workout.