The Jennifer Kries Blog

At thirteen years of age, as an aspiring student at New York’s School of American Ballet, I knew Pilates was something special. After my very first class with Eve Gentry, I was able to execute movements that up to that moment in time, had eluded me. I performed my first-ever triple pirouette that day after Mat class with Eve. I was astounded and delighted. I was enchanted and inspired.

Since that time, Pilates has been a central part of my life and I have dedicated myself to sharing its inspiring, life-changing brilliance with the world. For over twenty years now, carrying on Joseph Pilates’ revolutionary contribution to the world of the mind-body-spirit, healing arts has been one of my passions.

Since the late 90’s when I released the first Pilates video under “The Method” title, the work has exploded in popularity and continues to grow by leaps and bounds as more people discover Pilates’ genius and its myriad applications. With this popularity comes tremendous benefit and at the same time, a tremendous responsibility on the part of the practitioners. There are so many different training programs available now for people who want to pursue a professional track in The Method, and it is imperative to be discerning and do proper research to locate programs with great integrity. Equally as important is learning that becoming a truly superb teacher takes time, dedication, focus, determination and experience. There is no substitute for life experience and real hours logged “in the field.”

After I graduated from my first teacher training course, I felt that I had a great understanding of the work in my body and had clocked literally hundreds of hours working with a wide variety of people with different body types, and needs; everything from rehabilitative requirements to strength-training and pre and post-natal conditioning. I had confidence in my ability to provide clients with the appropriate exercises that suited them; however, as difficult as this is to admit, what I didn’t know how to do was communicate the work concisely and confidently. I didn’t know how to choose exactly the right words with which to literally transmit what I knew to the client and how to physically interact with the client. I didn’t know the specific hands-on techniques to use in each and every scenario! And I knew that I was not alone in this feeling. Read the rest of this entry »

Before the new moon arrives at its apex this evening, I wanted to write a welcome note to the Tiger who blesses us all with its presence this weekend!

In the words of my dear friend, Maya White …
1) Act decisively and be on time - Tigers hate to wait.
2) Get in shape - Tigers like it when you are sleek & healthy.
3) Speak up & use your voice - a tiger roars!
4) Be playful and joyous - Tigers like to have fun.
5) Adorn yourself with beautiful jewels - Tigers especially like collar style necklaces, and the enlightened ones wear fake fur.
Now is the time to act with your highest intentions and step into the light!
The blazing light of the sun– shine light on the truth– your truth and move into what calls you from the very depths of your heart and soul.
There is no time to waste!

Leap out into new realms, places you have always wanted to go, but never have.

Walk the path you have always been curious about and marry your thoughts and words with your actions … inhabit true integrity and see what manifests as a result!
This is a special, deeply spiritual weekend— the new moon for new beginnings, the new chinese year– a bold, beautiful WHITE metal tiger to leap forward with … and Valentine’s Day!
Today is a day loaded with the most auspicious cosmic energy and love.
Love yourself and see how the doors and windows to your innermost self open wide and how that attracts all that you wish for …
Trust to love and the rest will follow.

Happy NEW YEAR to all!
Welcome, you beautiful tiger! Come on in and hear me roar with you!

Sending my intentions up through the kundalini snake starting at the root and traveling all the way up through every chakra into the universe where the moon smiles from her perch on high in enlightened acknowledgment and celebration!

Love love love ~~~~
Aum Mani Pad Me Hum–
May the lotus of possibility blossom for you this year 1,000 fold!

Happy New Year Everyone!

I was just downstairs eating some wonderful french toast with blueberries and bananas, drenched in maple syrup and suddenly, Snatam Kaur” started singing on my ipod random play,” and before I knew it, I was out of my seat, jamming like there was no tomorrow! Right there in the kitchen, swiveling my hips, carving through space with my arms, in big, celebratory flourishes, shaking every part of my body in this beautiful, driving, harmonious, rhythmic flow– letting the music ignite my every cell, coming alive and being the music, every nuance, every subtle sound. GOD! It was AMAZING! Her voice is so pure, and so powerful because of that– so true … and the music, the mesmerizing, pulsating beat behind the purity of her clear voice that floats above the bass, but somehow lives inside it at the same time was the very thing that called me– and literally lifted me out of my chair, onto the “dance floor …” Read the rest of this entry »

As I sit here at my computer this last night of 2009, I can hear the “test run” for the fireworks over the Camden River here in Philadelphia.
What a year this has been … a year, one of  the most challenging ever, but by far, the richest in life lessons, lessons that have been fully integrated and absorbed– true gifts that I have opened myself to and taken in fully. They have changed me. I am changed forever. And I am grateful. So grateful.
For every loss, there has been a gift offered in its place.

Tonight, on the eve of this turning of the decade, I want to give thanks to the people who have helped me to move into this new space and time, and I offer them love and forgiveness and compassion and send them all, human and canine alike, wishes for peace and happiness and freedom.
And to all of you out there, take a moment to give thanks to the people who have helped you to arrive at this place where you stand today.
And then set an intention, make a wish for what you want to do, to be, where you want to go in the coming year … what you want to manifest.

Wish on this blue moon and on this New Year’s Eve … take a deep breath into your belly, feel it expand with your life force– give thanks for that!  And then as you exhale, let go … let go of what you no longer need so that you can make way for what you want to bring into your life. It’s real, all of it– your energy, your intention, your wishes. Think carefully of what they are, these wishes—-breathe into them and then watch them sail into the ethers, carried upward by the currents of air swirling up, higher and higher towards that big, blue moon.

Wishing you love, health, happiness, freedom, peace and true JOY this New Year’s Eve 2009!

Jennifer

Helen watching Quail TV ...

Today’s entry is a very personal one … today I went to visit my new Vizsla puppy, Helen. I didn’t know who the wonderful breeder was going to match me with, and today marked the 4th time I went out to the country to visit the amazing Vizsla family I have been invited to join. As a child, I was raised with Labrador Retrievers on the farm where I grew up in Chester County, PA., and I thought I was destined to have another Lab, and in fact had been on the path towards finding one again, until a little over two months ago, I found my new Vizsla family on the net and as soon as I saw the website, I knew that theirs was place I wanted to be. When I first contacted the breeder, all of the puppies were spoken for, but then, about a week and a half after our initial conversation, I got the email that changed everything: “I have had some movement on my puppy list, and would you like to come out and visit?”

Read the rest of this entry »

This entry today (Which was really written yesterday, June 11 and this morning, June 12th) is a preview of my next installment called “Let Us Recognize Ourselves in One Another.”

Consider this a multi-media forum of offerings from friends of mine and people who have moved me recently with their soulful contributions about the workings of the spirit and our collective destinies …

I have been thinking lately about the process of healing– the gift that challenges present us with after we have figured out how to meet them and work through them, rather than avoiding them with “quick fix” solutions, that are not solutions at all, but mere bandaids. When we choose these “easy” solutions, which are in fact not solutions at all, we rob ourselves of the chance to experience healing from the inside out … we completely circumvent the very process that will set our souls free from the suffering that we all create for ourselves. The expression “pain is inevitable, but suffering is a choice,” is really true in the end. I never wanted to admit to it, but how true it is. What we fight, we continue to repeat and repeat, like the water wheel that keeps turning round and round. If you want to get off of the merry-go-round of repetition, break the cycle. Make the choice to stop the madness, and you can do it. You can do it by sitting still long enough to f e e l and breathe … even if what comes up doesn’t feel pleasant, it will be real, and when you give yourself permission to feel, whatever hurts, whatever makes your heart ache is allowed to surface and bubble, and boil and then dissipate, just like the water that boils in a pot and then evaporates as steam into the air that surrounds it– the same thing happens with our emotions when we give them space and  a way out– a way out of the body and the mind.  Pain and heartache, anger and frustration– when we give ourselves permission to “be with” those feelings and we allow ourselves to respond, we move them out– we feel lighter, we feel better, we feel more spacious, we feel more peaceful. We create space for what is new and we move the old, stagnant “chi” or energy OUT. We cry, we moan, we express. We do exactly what we, as human beings in society are told NOT to do! “Don’t cry– you’ll ruin your make-up,” or “Big boys don’t cry– be a MAN!” Oh the robbery! The robbery of the very thing that would set us all free! Express yourself, breathe, cry, let it out– it’s okay. It’s better than okay– it is the thing that will set you free and make you feel better– without that pill, or that drink, or that smoke, or that tryst.

Read the rest of this entry »

So for the past few weeks I have been ranting to my friends and family about how modern technology–cell phones in particular are truly the demise of civilization as we know it. Then enter Facebook, a networking service that I myself profit from and participate in … admittedly I am somewhat fascinated by it because it is a social study in and of itself– how people literally invite you into their very private, albeit sometimes mundane moments, expecting that you will be interested, or thinking that they will feel less alone if they tell you that they are doing things like getting plastic surgery or leaving their husbands—but are they really connecting the way they think they are? Or is Facebook, like the cell phone yet another way for us to delude ourselves into thinking we are growing closer– widening the world-wide gap and creating greater intimacy with our peers, our “network?” Another layer of effort and distraction, bells and whistles, clubs to join, virtual hello kitty stickers to plant on your friends, instant messages and on and on and on— what about the good old fashioned meeting for tea to catch up?!!!! What ever happened to that? So you can’t meet your old friend who now lives in Barcelona for a tea, and in that way, Facebook is great– it helps you to know where old flames, old acquaintances and people you sort of knew in your circle somewhere —wind up. But like cell phones and text messaging, which really bloody drives me crazy, is Facebook a time-eater that is literally taking us away day by day, removing us from our ability to interact with others in a quality way, in a patient way, is it compromising our patience and our ability to listen to our friends before speaking? Privacy! What about privacy? All of the information you post on Facebook is public domain. And anyone and everyone will know at some point, usually at lightning fast speed those incredibly personal, private, sacred facts you chose to mount on “THE (infamous) WALL” during that momentary lapse of reason you had when you drank a bit too much and pushed “send” or “post” for all to see. Read the rest of this entry »

How do You Make Your New Year’s Resolution Happen? The answer may be radical for you: Love yourself just as you are!  It’s that time of year again– when the year changes, and through tradition and history’s shaping, it has become that time of year for us to change too—it’s 2009 and so many of us are telling ourselves that we are ready to embark on the path of change once again … we want to lose weight, eat right, exercise more, become the person we have always wanted to be.

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When I think about where we all are right now in this time of tremendous economic strife and strain, my mind goes to the wisdom of my old friend, William James, the 19th and 20th Century psychologist and philosopher. William James was a big proponent of respecting and nourishing the body-mind connection, and evidence of this shows up in a good bit of his philosophical writings. I have often found myself smiling when I go back into my own archives and read what he wrote all the way back in the late 1800’s—nothing has changed really about human psychology and our pre-dispositions … our tendency to allow ourselves to get pulled off-center and become consumed by the concerns of life. And in so doing , we forget to take care of ourselves, we neglect ourselves. Tell me, do you neglect your pet? Forget to feed him, walk him? Do you neglect your child? No.

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  Welcome to my blog everyone! I look forward to sharing my thoughts and exchanging ideas with you here.