Hilary Opheim Pilates Studio

✨ SEPTEMBER, YOU WERE A GOOD ONE. ✨

Pilates. Friends. LA adventures. A little pumpkin spice. And A LOT of people I love.

September brought a visit from my Pilates soul sister, Kimberly, which naturally meant Pilates, catching up, laughing, eating, exploring and getting out into LA together. Because sometimes the best part of Pilates is the friendships and adventures that grow from it. ❤️

Back in the studio, it was a full month of Teacher Training, Mentoring, our Fall 2026 Workshop, and of course… CLIENTS!
So many bodies moving, brains thinking, teachers learning, questions being asked, conversations happening and plenty of those little moments that make this community feel like home.

And then there was LA. ☀️

The city doing its September thing… sunshine, walks, good food, friends, movement and that little shift in the air that says FALL IS HERE.

Which obviously means…
🎃 Pumpkin Spice Latte season has officially entered the chat.
I mean… I couldn’t NOT mention it. 😂

September felt full in the very best way — full of Pilates, full of people, full of connection and full of life both inside and outside the studio.

And now…

OCTOBER, I’M READY FOR YOU. 🍂
More Pilates.
More community.
More learning.
More adventures.
More LA.
More laughs.

More moments that remind me why I love what I do.
Let’s see what we get into. ❤️

So… what are you practicing?
And I don’t just mean your Pilates exercises.

Because after 30+ years of teaching Pilates, I can tell you…

I’m much less interested in whether you can simply “do” the exercise.

Did you check the box?

Did you get it right?

Did you make it look good?

That’s only part of the conversation.

When my students come to study with me, I want them to learn the choreography.

Of course.

But I also want them to learn how to think.

To notice.

To listen.

To question.

To reflect.

To make choices.

Because sometimes the most important moment in a session…
…is the moment outside the exercise.
That little pause.
That moment when you notice something.
When you realize,
“Ohhh… that’s what is happening.”
When you have to think instead of simply follow.
That is practice.

We practice trust.

Trusting ourselves.

Trusting the process.

Trusting that sometimes we don’t have the answer immediately.

And maybe being okay with that.

Listening to our bodies.

Listening to what is actually happening instead of what we think should be happening.

Listening before we decide what comes next.

The BIGGER practice is what happens when you walk out the studio door.

How do you listen?

How do you respond?

Can you pause?

Can you stay present?

Can you trust yourself when things don’t go exactly as planned?

Can you think critically instead of simply reacting?
My students were talking about this today…

and I loved hearing it.

Because those moments when the work moves beyond the “exercise”…

when you begin to recognize the same skills in your actual life…

that’s when Pilates becomes a practice.

Sunday Reflection. 🤍

This weekend was a little different.

No big plans.
No rushing around.
No trying to be productive just because I could.

Just… space.

Walking. Resting. Letting my brain wander wherever it wanted to go. Sitting quietly. Being home.

And I needed it.

I’ve been trying to find my ground lately.

Especially as my Mom shifts again on her path and I find myself trying to follow along, adjust, understand, and navigate all of the thoughts and feelings that come with it.

There is so much that you can’t plan for when you love someone deeply.

You just keep showing up.
You adjust.
You feel all the feelings.
You try to understand what is happening while also figuring out where you fit into it all.

And sometimes, if I’m being completely honest, I don’t feel particularly grounded in any of it.

So this weekend, I stopped trying to figure it all out.

I let my brain flow without needing to solve anything.
And slowly, I could feel myself coming back to myself a little bit.

Maybe that’s what I mean when I say I needed a meditative recharge.

Not necessarily meditation in the traditional sense, because if you know me that is probably something you would think..uhhh nope! LOL ,

but creating enough quiet that everything I’ve been carrying could settle a little.

I needed to feel the ground again.

Which feels especially meaningful when so much of life lately has felt like the ground underneath me has been shifting.

I spend a lot of my life teaching about grounding, connection, breath, presence and movement.

And this weekend reminded me that those things aren’t just Pilates concepts.

They are life concepts.

Sometimes grounding doesn’t mean having everything figured out.

So today, I’m feeling a little more settled.

Not because anything has magically been figured out.
But because I gave myself some room to just be.
And maybe that is enough for today.

Happy Sunday, friends. ❤️

Here’s to finding our ground again… even when the ground keeps shifting beneath us.

PILATES TEACHER CONFESSION: We turn EVERYTHING into a movement metaphor. 😂

A walk between clients with Davita in Brentwood somehow turned into this. ⬆️

Because apparently we cannot simply walk past a light post like normal people.

We have to hang from it.

Swing from it.

And immediately start talking about weight shift, opposition, suspension, connection to the ground and what the body is doing in space.

I mean… look at that picture. It’s practically asking for a Pilates metaphor. 😂

My metaphor for this one?

Sometimes you have to find your point of support, let go of what you think you’re supposed to be doing, and trust your body and what you CAN do.

And yes… I realize we are hanging from a light post in the middle of Brentwood.

But this is what I love about Pilates teachers.

We see movement EVERYWHERE.

A sidewalk.
A staircase.
A coffee cup.
A person getting out of a chair.
A dog walking down the street.
Apparently… a light post. 😂

We’re always noticing, wondering, connecting and asking, “What if…?”

So Pilates Teacher Confession😉🤓😝
What movement metaphor do YOU see in this picture?

Drop yours in the comments. 👇🏼

I promise Davita and I will probably turn it into a whole podcast!