Walk The Talk

Walk The Talk

(Practice What You Preach) 

Means putting your words into action — showing that you mean what you say by actively doing it yourself.

How often have you found yourself saying something but not actually doing it yourself?

Take sugar for instance, we know we’re not supposed to eat too much, it can have a detrimental effect on the body such as tooth decay, weight gain which can then lead to health problems such as heart disease, inflammation, Type 2 diabetes, I won’t list them all.

Gandhi

There is an inspirational story attributed to Gandhi:-

A young boy was obsessed with eating sugar. His mother was upset with this and tried many ways to stop her son from eating it. However, none of them seemed to work so she decided to take him to meet his idol, Gandhi.

They walked for miles in the hot son and once they met with Gandhi she explained about her child’s addiction to sugar. “My son won’t stop eating sugar”, she told Gandhi. “Please tell him to stop.” Gandhi listened to her, and then asked her to come back in two weeks.

Two weeks later the woman and her child returned. He looked at the boy and said “stop eating sugar”. The mother was perplexed. “Why couldn’t you have told him this two weeks ago?” To which he replied, “Madam, two weeks ago I was still eating sugar”.

Gandhi could have used his position to just command the boy to stop eating sugar and as Gandhi was the boy’s idol he probably would have listened. Yet he didn’t. He first gave up sugar himself so he could then speak from a position of understanding which has more of an impact.

Moments In Time

As a Pilates Instructor there have been moments where I’ve told my clients to slow down and listen to their body.

There have been moments I’ve told my clients to work with their body, not against it.

There have been moments I’ve told my clients to allow movement to happen, not force it.

And there have been times I have not followed my own teaching which led me to question how effective I really was if I wasn’t experiencing it myself.

I attend a Pilates class myself because not only do I love it, it helps my body in the long run. There are some movements I find hard and to have that one to one guidance is priceless. To have my own alignment and positioning checked helps me become more aware of my body, especially as I’m blessed with a uniquely shaped spine, it allows me to work with my body more effectively, it helps me slow down and allow movement to happen.

So yes, I have my hiccups every now and then, there are times I get frustrated and force a movement, I’m human.

But I know what happens when I don’t walk the talk.

My body tells me loud and clear.

What does your body tell you?