Dancing and swimming. Until I was twenty, those were the only exercises I ever did. I was born and raised in Hawaii and would spend my mornings in the ocean and my afternoons in the dance studio. By the time I left Hawaii for Scripps College and was figuring out if a professional dancer’s life was my path, injuries and scoliosis made the decision for me.
I bid adieu to Balanchine and with no ocean nearby, I found myself without an outlet for exercise. I was drinking too much, eating terribly and naturally just did what all of my friends were doing: cardio...lots of cardio. After college, I got a cushy corporate job and spent ten hours a day sitting on an uncomfortable chair in my tiny cubicle. My posture began to suffer, my back ached and no matter how many hours a week I spent on the treadmill or elliptical, I was seeing limited results. Plus, I hated working out!
It was a means to an end, where I had to either shut off my brain or distract myself with hectic classes just to get through it. To top it all off, my scoliosis was more aggravated than ever. I was miserable and in constant pain. So much so that it seemed like I was seeing my chiropractor more than my own family. Until one day that chiropractor recommended Pilates - and meditation.
After just a few sessions with a truly inspired Pilates teacher, my entire perspective on exercise shifted. The low impact flow of pilates helped heal my scoliosis pain and I was seeing more results in a month than I had in a year of cardio. I loved it so much that I decided to get certified in classical pilates. My only problem now was time. I was working my corporate job while training for my certification and was more stressed than ever. I was getting my body right but having trouble getting my mind right. I felt disconnected. So I took my trusted chiropractor’s advice once again and tried meditation. And tried. And tried again.
I loved the idea of transcendental meditation but it just didn't feel right for me. I wanted the mind-body connectivity and flow state I felt when I was dancing or swimming in the ocean. What if there was a way to get the calm stimulating awakening of meditation AND the low-impact, full-body benefits of Pilates? And what if I could do it all without the expensive, clunky equipment? That’s when the idea for B The Method was born. So I quit my day job.
After over ten years of teaching Pilates and studying anatomy and nutrition, I focused in on how the mind affects the body and the body affects the mind. My goal was to strip away all of the noise, all of the useless extras, leaving something grounding, present and real. As I trained my clients in classical Pilates, I would mix in some exercises I was developing with a small stability ball - a light, portable, multifunctional prop. I discovered that a Pilates foundation, mixed with ballet and swimming-inspired movements, plus the core-stabilizing ball, tapped into every layer of muscle while forming a flow state within the mind. Slowly but surely, my clients, no matter what their body type or age, were telling me exactly how I had been feeling - the method was a deep, challenging full-body workout that left you feeling strong, protected and connected, both body and mind.
When the global pandemic hit in March of 2020, B The Method in-person classes in New York shut down. We were all stuck at home obsessively watching the news, scared for our lives and stressed out. My clients would confide in me about the steady decline of their physical and mental health and asked what they could do from home. My husband and I were already developing an online platform but it wouldn’t be ready for months.
As the stress and isolation of Covid became unbearable, I knew I needed to help in the only way I knew how, so I told my clients to meet me on Instagram Live. Every day for five months, we showed up for each other, moved together and connected through B The Method. What started as a few hundred clients and friends, mostly in New York, grew into a passionate community of tens of thousands all around the world.
