🧘🏼‍♀️ Pilates Is My Therapy—And That’s Okay

Why mindful movement and breathwork might be the emotional support you didn’t know you needed.

Jun 15, 2025

This Might Be Controversial…

But I’m not a fan of talk therapy.

There. I said it.

Before you come for me—let me be clear: therapy is important. It saves lives. I believe in it. I support anyone who finds comfort in it. But for me, traditional talk therapy didn’t work. Sitting in a room and dissecting a story on a loop made me more in my head. More anxious. More overwhelmed. And that’s what we have to remember—healing looks different for everyone. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer.

What Did Help Me?

Movement.
Breath.
More specifically: Pilates.

I say it often, and I’ll say it again: Pilates is my therapy.

When I’m on the mat, I feel present, grounded, and safe in my body. I’m not spiraling in thoughts—I’m breathing through them. The breath becomes the anchor. The movement becomes medicine. It’s the only thing that has consistently helped me regulate my emotions and connect back to myself.

Why Pilates > Talk Therapy (For Me)

💬 Talk therapy tries to process emotion through words.
🧘🏼‍♀️ Pilates processes emotion through the body.

Our emotions live in the body:

Stress builds in the shoulders
Grief burrows into the chest
Anxiety locks into the hips

Pilates helps release what words can’t always reach.

The Mental Health Benefits of Pilates (Yes, Science Backs It)

Let’s talk about why Pilates is good for anxiety and mental health—because it’s not just vibes, it’s real:

✨ Lowers cortisol: Just one session can reduce the body’s stress hormone.
💆‍♀️ Boosts mood: Pilates increases serotonin and dopamine—aka your natural mood stabilizers.
🌬 Promotes breath awareness: Controlled breathing helps regulate the nervous system and reduce panic.
🔄 Improves emotional resilience: The physical challenge of Pilates mirrors life’s challenges—and teaches us how to stay calm under pressure.

This isn’t just exercise.
It’s emotional regulation, nervous system support, and self-trust training.

For Gen Z (And Everyone Feeling Overwhelmed)

If you’re a college student or a young woman navigating school, jobs, relationships, and just life—you get it. There’s pressure to have it all figured out, to be well, but no one tells you how.

Movement is the how.
Breath is the how.
Showing up for yourself on the mat is the how.

And if talk therapy didn’t help you? That’s okay. If moving your body is what gets you through the hard stuff? That counts. That heals.

This Isn’t Just About Fitness

Let me be clear—this is not about aesthetics.
It’s not about abs or perfection or “Hot Girl Summer.”

This is about:
✔ Releasing stored emotion
✔ Feeling strong and centered
✔ Creating a daily ritual that supports your mental health
✔ Learning to self-regulate through breath and mindful movement

It’s why I always say:

“Let your movement match your mindset—or help shift it.”

Let’s Expand the Definition of Therapy

Therapy doesn’t have to mean a weekly appointment with a clipboard.
It can look like:

A quiet morning with your mat and your breath
A 30-minute flow that moves stuck emotions through your body
A practice that grounds you when nothing else will
A walk outside

You don’t have to talk it out to work it out.
Sometimes, you have to move through it to heal from it.

✍️ Journal Prompt:

What movement helps you feel most like yourself? Why?

PS: If you are looking for peer mental health support, don’t hesitate to reach out to NAMI West Los Angeles. There are so many virtual offerings to support you in your mental health journey.