Melting Glass and Hardening your Abs

Over the summer, I met a woman named Stephanie who makes and sells beautiful hand-made glass baubles, and I just fell in love with her work.  It’s colorful and whimsical and funky.  Stephanie also knits and crochets and generally is crafty, and she is one of those crafty people who make it work.  When I found out that she gives lessons in bead-making (also known as lampworking), I signed right up.  I’ve had a few lessons so far, and am loving it.

At first, I was incredibly intimidated.  I’ve watched glass-blowing before, and I have seen the glass melt to the consistency of honey.  I had visions of liquid glass falling on my fingers.  Or maybe the torch would explode.  Or maybe the kiln would catch on fire.  None of these things have happened, of course, and I got to tackle a little fear along the way.  But, I think that having those fears in the first place helped me a bit.

Having a healthy respect and awareness of those fundamental things translates into extreme concentration and focus while you’re working.  At one point Stephanie and I were chatting, and I realized that the bead I was working on was not going according to plan.  Not only that, but I felt out of control, and I felt my belly jumping a bit as my nerves (and that fear) started to kick in.  I had to stop talking and really focus on what I was doing.  Once I did, my nerves calmed, and I felt like I was back in control again.

Watching molten glass is mesmerizing – it takes on a life of its’ own, and you can’t help but allow all your senses to be captured.  It dawned on me that there are similarities between lampworking and Pilates.

How?  It all comes down to concentration.

Concentration is a fundamental component to any practice of Pilates.  It’s the “bridge between awareness and movement”, according to Rael Isaacowitz.   Awareness about what your body is doing, about where you’re placing your arms, legs, ribs, pelvis, lower back, shoulders… awareness about your breath, and what muscles you’re engaging.  There are so many moving pieces, so many different things to keep track of.  If you don’t have awareness and aren’t concentrating, you’re likely to do it wrong.  Or at the very least, not getting the full benefit of the movement.

If you’re not concentrating on what you’re doing, you lose the meaning of the movement.  Every movement in Pilates has a purpose, every placement, every breath.   In Pilates, you use muscles that are unfamiliar, used less frequently,  or harder to access.  This requires concentration to facilitate the engagement of that muscle.  If you’re working with an injury or other muscle imbalance, the concentration required will be much greater.  But without the concentration, you won’t fire the correct muscles.  And you put yourself at risk of hurting yourself.

Which brings me back to lampworking.  No focus and concentration is a recipe for disaster.

The other thing that this experience touched on for me was fear.  My friend April  is a serious yoga student, and she recently wrote about tackling fear and timidity in her practice.  As I read, I was struck with how true her words rang.  There are poses that I like, that look beautiful and get your core working like nothing else.  They are tricky and challenging and … well, frightening.  And I am timid in pushing my body too much.   I stick with the safe movements.  I know I can do them, and I feel comfortable there.

This week has brought me face to face with the reality that comfort is great, and wonderful… but if we don’t push ourselves out of that zone once in a while, we will never allow ourselves the chance to create beautiful things, or learn new tasks, or take our bodies to the next level.

So, my goals for the next week:  Take some time to practice melting more glass into beautiful things.  And I’m going to work  a bit on perfecting my Teaser.  And maybe try Crab…

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