mark twain – Personal Euphoria: Pilates & Fitness Classes in CT

Happy Birthday: Personal Euphoria Turns Ten

Some of the PE team standing outside the studio.

Twelve years ago, I started teaching an evening Pilates class at Healthtrax in Newington. After two years of teaching at the gym and completing my STOTT certification program, I left my job as Assistant Director of Education at the Mark Twain House & Museum to start my own Pilates company.

This was not an easy decision. Working at the Twain House was mostly great. The staff was fun and supportive. I had the opportunity to meet some interesting people like Henry Rollins, Spike Lee, Hal Holbrook, and Ken Burns to name a few. I still kick myself for not meeting Kurt Vonnegut when I had the chance. And, perhaps best of all, I had a key to enter Mark Twain’s house pretty much any time I wanted. I got to help decorate for Christmas. I got paid to read. I got to meet tourists and teachers from all over the world. I gave all that up to teach Pilates and start my own business. It was risky and scary.

When I left the Twain House I had one Pilates class. Now my schedule is […]

Happy Birthday: Personal Euphoria Turns TenMaggie Downie2018-02-14T16:17:03-05:00

Failure is Always an Option

We put so much emphasis on failing. Lately, I keep seeing articles about revisiting our thoughts on failure. Basically, failure is all the rage. And I love it. In a nutshell the articles point out that if you never fail it’s possible you aren’t trying. Arguably not to fail is to fail. We tend to put so much emphasis on success, a term we struggle to define. What makes a person successful—happiness, money, free time, a family, a home, the right outfit? There is no standardized definition of success. And, perhaps contrary to popular belief, failure is always an option.

Thanks to Merriam Webster for the following:

Success: 1) the act of getting or achieving, wealth, respect or fame. 2) the correct or desired result of an attempt.

Failure: 1) omission of occurrence or performance. 2) a state of inability to perform a normal function. 3) lack of success.

I don’t want fame. So, I guess in not achieving fame, I’m successful in my goal. I don’t think wealth is a substantive sign of success. It’s a superficial form. Maybe it’s a way to tally and compare, but wealth is not guaranteed to bring you joy, or a life without pain, or to make […]

Failure is Always an OptionMaggie Downie2017-12-29T19:44:01-05:00

Golf Lesson

Jeannine, Barb, Jess and I get a golf lesson.

Golf is a good walk spoiled. –Mark Twain

Apparently Mark Twain never had a golf lesson, because it has become clear to me that knowing how to golf makes all the difference. This summer the PE staff took a lesson with Mike Vitale at Stanley Golf Course in New Britain.

As a Pilates instructor it should come as no surprise to me that learning how to do something makes it easier and more fun. I had been to a range before and repeatedly pegged the ball into the ground, and much like Twain drew the conclusion that I didn’t really like golf.

It wasn’t the lesson I doubted as much as myself. I presumed I was a little hopeless—a former field hockey player in a decade when they eliminated air balls now attempting to swing a long stick to put a ball in the air instead of send it rolling along the ground.

Golf LessonMaggie Downie2017-12-29T20:39:59-05:00