Your Invitation to Nourishment this week
A set of embodied prompts to help you return to centre — physically, emotionally, and energetically. Grounded in Pilates precision and Zen simplicity, these reflections guide you to:
Embrace precision as a pathway to clarity and confidence, not perfection.
Refine your focus to cultivate presence in movement and daily life.
Prāṇa Activation Practice to Center & Circulate energy.
Explore a Zen-inspired approach to showing up with sincerity, simplicity, and presence.
A gentle call to notice where your energy is going, how your intentions shape your actions, and how nourishment and healing begins by listening and tuning within.
To be honest, this is the first real moment I’ve had to land since returning from my recent trip to Spain. After weeks of planning, studying, travelling and teaching, I’ve finally allowed the words to arrive — not forced, just gently welcomed.
I’m writing this on the evening of the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, from my quiet spot by the water here in Cambridgeshire. There’s a warm stillness in the air where various Dragonflies and paddle boarders skim the surface. The light lingers a little longer — an invitation to pause, breathe, and receive.
May was both generous and genius — full of life, momentum, a few bumps, yes, but also breakthroughs. Since April, a quiet energy has been building — a re-focus, a reset, and perhaps most importantly, a renewed belief in myself and my path.
Working alongside Elena Brower and our Hive consort has offered a grounded space for deep directionality — a word I’ve come to love — paired with clarity and spaciousness. That work was soon followed by my Mat Pilates certification, and now I find myself preparing for the next step: heading to London this week to begin Reformer training with the wonderful Naomi De Fabio.
It’s been a season of authentic connections, unexpected openings, and the sweet surprise of my coaching practice quietly rebuilding itself — proof that we never truly start from scratch when we move from the centre.
One of the core principles of Pilates is centering — the idea that all movement begins from a strong, stable centre. Not just physically, through the core and deep postural muscles, but energetically and mentally too.
To be centered is to return to your source of strength.
To know where you move from — and why.
In Pilates, we train this with focus, breath, and intention. We return to the centre not to control, but to cultivate calm, clarity, and direction. Whether on the mat or in life, when you're centred, your movement becomes more meaningful, more aligned — and ultimately, more free.
And when combined with precision, this becomes a kind of embodied meditation. A daily practice of remembering and refining.
So what does all of this have to do with Prana, Precision, Focus, and Flow, you ask?
Everything.
These four elements have been the quiet threads woven through every endeavour that’s felt aligned, easeful, and purposeful. And the times where things haven’t flowed? I can honestly say one or more of those elements was missing.
Returning to Pilates has taught me the beauty of precision — not to strive for perfection, but to move with intention, clarity, and awareness. A core principle of the method is control — not in a rigid way, but in a way that honours the relationship between breath, movement, and mind.
Just last week, after covering a Pilates class, a student approached me and said:
“I just wanted to say how helpful it was the way you explained the breath. It was so precise and supportive — it helped me feel more in control.”
I smiled, surprised. I wasn’t sure what I had said differently. But it reminded me: people feel when you are present — when you’re focused.
And then, during a mat class this week, the teacher mentioned my concentration, noting how “tuned in” I seemed. Again, a simple reflection, but one that echoed something deeper I’ve been exploring:
Where we place our focus, our energy flows.
When we move with precision, we create presence.
And when we honour the breath — our life force, our prana — we align with a deeper intelligence within us.
In Sanskrit, prāṇa (प्राण) means "life force" or "vital energy."
Breath is its vehicle: While breath (vāyu or shvāsa) is not the same as prāṇa, it's considered the main carrier or expression of prāṇa in the physical body.
In yogic, Ayurvedic, and energetic systems (like traditional Chinese medicine's qi), breath and prāṇa are intimately linked, but not identical.
Breath is the tangible expression.
Prāṇa is the subtle force behind it
Prāṇa Activation Practice: Center & Circulate
Purpose:
To awaken and circulate prāṇa through intentional breath, focus, and subtle movement. This practice calms the nervous system, strengthens internal awareness, and reconnects you with your energetic centre.
Step 1: Ground & Centre (2–3 mins)
Come to a comfortable seated position (on the floor or a chair).
Rest your hands on your belly or heart.
Close your eyes gently.
Begin to follow the natural rhythm of your breath.
Soften your jaw, shoulders, and forehead.
Whisper to yourself: “I am here. I am centred.”
Step 2: Breath + Awareness (3–4 mins)
Inhale slowly through your nose for a count of 4, expanding the ribs sideways and back.
Exhale gently for a count of 6, softening your belly and jaw.
Visualise the breath as light or energy moving in through the nostrils and gathering at your centre (solar plexus or heart).
With each exhale, imagine tension melting and clarity rising.
Breath in — I draw in life force.
Breath out — I release what’s no longer needed.
Step 3: Subtle Prāṇa Flow (3–5 mins)
Inhale: Sweep your arms up overhead as if drawing energy upward.
Exhale: Float your arms down as if moving through water, imagining you're spreading calm energy through your body.
Repeat 5–7 rounds with intention.
Keep the breath smooth and focused.
Tip: This movement can be done seated, standing, or even lying down with just the arms and breath.
Step 4: Seal the Practice (1 min)
Place your hands over your heart or navel.
Whisper silently:
“I honour the breath. I return to centre. I move with purpose.”
Pilates Integration: Ab Prep with Breath-Focused Flow
Purpose:
To deepen core awareness, coordinate breath with movement, and connect with the energetic centre (solar plexus), supporting clarity, calm, and grounded flow.
AB PREP with Prāṇa Awareness
Lie on your back (supine) in semi-supine position: knees bent, feet flat, pelvis neutral.
Arms by your sides, shoulders relaxed, spine long.
Lightly place hands behind the head (elbows just in view) or rest them on your thighs for support.
Inhale: Expand the ribcage wide and back into the mat. Feel the breath circulate through the whole torso.
Exhale: Draw navel gently to spine. Float the head, neck, and shoulders up in one smooth line — gaze toward the thighs. Keep the pelvis and legs stable.
Pause: Hold for 1 breath. Feel energy centered in the core — steady and alive.
Inhale: Lower back down with control, maintaining length in the spine.
Repeat 6–8 reps, syncing each one with a full, intentional breath.
To progress: On your final rep, float your arms overhead as you inhale and slowly sweep them down by your sides as you exhale, echoing the Subtle Prāṇa Flow from your practice.
From a Zen perspective, this is the very heart of practice:
Noticing. Attuning. Returning.
Using Zen practically invites us to show up fully in the moment — whether we’re washing the dishes, walking across the room, or cueing a movement. It teaches us that mindfulness doesn’t need incense or chanting (though those things can be beautiful), but rather the commitment to presence, again and again.
As Zen master Dogen once said:
“To study the way is to study the self. To study the self is to forget the self.”
When we bring precision and presence into our daily actions, we disappear into the experience — the ego softens, and we move into flow. The doing becomes the being.
That’s what happened today, while writing this. The water held the moment. The wind moved just enough. The words came.
So, now I invite you to reflect on the following prompts:
Where is your focus right now?
Are you moving with precision or rushing to the next thing?
Can you invite more prana, more presence, more spaciousness into your flow?
Are you connected to your centre — your source?
Can you move through life with more intention, focus, and breath?
What would happen if you let precision be an anchor rather than a burden?
How might flow arise naturally when you let yourself be fully here?
These reflections aren’t simply journal prompts — they’re embodied invitations. Part mindful inquiry, part movement meditation, they’re designed to help you return to your centre with presence and clarity. Rooted in Pilates precision and Zen awareness, each prompt gently encourages you to explore your inner landscape through the body — to notice where your energy flows, how your breath moves, and where your focus lands. Think of them as quiet companions guiding you toward greater alignment, nourishment, healing and connection — both on and off the mat.
You don’t need a mat or a mantra to begin. You just need the willingness to listen — and return to your centre.
Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance — maybe all of it.
– Jack Kornfield
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