January 2026
Hello Pilates People!
I hope that you have all had a peaceful holiday season filled with joy and reflection.
Oftentimes, the New Year is seen as a time for fresh starts and big goals. While this is not a bad thing, I prefer to use it as a chance to reflect on where I've been and where I am headed. For me, it is about going back to my intentions. Who do I want to be as a person, as a wife, as a mother, and as a Pilates teacher? Where do I want to be with my business and financially? How do I want to spend my free time? By leaning into my intentions, I'm able to act more thoughtfully and purposefully, making even the most challenging moments and decisions clearer. I show up more present, more enthusiastic, and I am able to share my brightest energy with those around me.
This month, I am excited to share the work of Megan White, a TPC grad, Pilates Teacher, and beautifully clever mind. In October, she presented her postgraduate research on what health meant to Joseph Pilates. I absolutely loved it. She created a 3-week (21-days builds a habit!) assessment allowing us to observe our personal health trends and build new habits. I am so excited to share this with all of you, as it is really a great way to prioritize your own health by being intentional. I can't wait to hear how you all incorporate this into your lives!
What Did Joe Pilates Say Health Is?
By Megan White
Joseph Pilates had strong and unapologetic views about health. Long before “wellness” became a popular concept, he was already questioning why so many people accepted poor health as normal. In his books, Return to Life Through Contrology and Your Health, Pilates outlined a philosophy that went far beyond exercise alone.
Although these books are often required reading in teacher training programs, they are frequently treated as boxes to check rather than texts to study deeply. When we slow down and truly engage with his writing, a clearer and more holistic definition of health emerges.
For Joe Pilates, health was not simply the absence of disease. He believed it was a natural state—something humans are meant to experience when the body and mind function in balance. Poor health, in his view, was largely the result of modern living: shallow breathing, lack of purposeful movement, disconnection from nature, limited sunlight, and weakened community ties.
Across his work, a consistent theme appears: true health depends on a sense of tensegrity, a dynamic balance between several foundational principles. These include breath, movement, the mind-body connection, nature, sunshine, and community. None of these elements stand alone; each supports and strengthens the others.
After months of researching these basic principles, I created a simple assessment tool to help people examine their everyday habits. Many of us believe we are consistently meeting these needs, but when we look more closely, we often realize we are not engaging with them nearly as often as we think—let alone daily.
The assessment is intentionally nonjudgmental. By recording habits honestly, it provides a clear reflection of current patterns. That reflection often leads to greater awareness, mindfulness, and insight. For many students, simply completing the assessment has helped establish a new habit of health—or at the very least, a deeper understanding of the importance of these six foundational ideas of holistic well-being.
As a Pilates teacher, viewing Pilates as more than just exercise continues to shape the way I teach. When Contrology is understood as a holistic system rather than a series of movements, it naturally supports many of these basic needs for health: breath, movement, focus, and integration. With a small shift in awareness—such as being mindful of our environment, sunlight, or sense of connection—we can “stack the method.”
By stacking the method, we meet multiple principles of health at once, with less effort and greater efficiency. In this way, Pilates becomes more than something we do for an hour—it becomes a framework for living well, exactly as Joseph Pilates intended.
To contact Megan to host a workshop or learn more, find her on instagram.com/thecontrologymethod
Download Printable PDF's HERE!
To begin, print Assessment and Worksheets.
Using the first bullseye on the Assessment sheet, place dots within each health category reflecting your current daily habits.
Draw a line connecting each dot to show your health web.
For the next 3 weeks, fill in the boxes of the worksheet.
Try using different colors to fill in the boxes: one for fully completing, one for not completing, and one for partially completing.
Each week notice where you're excelling and where you have room for improvement.
Upon completing the 3rd week, go back to the second bullseye on the Assessment page.
Take time to reflect upon any changes that have occurred and areas where you have improved.
Consider restarting, continuing to reinforce new habits.
Encourage family or friends to join you for the second round, cheering each other and creating new habit stacks together. Share it within your workplace, a friendly challenge for the whole staff. Perhaps a lunchtime walk will lead to a greater team atmosphere, enhanced creativity, and more productivity!
