Author: gracefulfitness

“As a Medical Massage Practitioner I believe in incorporating stability, mobility, & targeted muscle activation into your everyday life. Pilates is an amazing way to do this and Faith’s passion and knowledge of Pilates is astounding. Her gentle and graceful personality is intoxicating. Her professionalism and attention to detail keeps me loyal. Pilates is already Physical Therapy in motion and her dance background brings and fresh and needed perspective to the field. She’s seriously the best!”

-Ainslee W.

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Hi, I’m Faith Levine.

I love sharing my passion for health and physicality with every body. 

Movement has always been woven into my life; I was running around the West Virginia farm where I was born, trying to keep up with my big sisters, as soon as I could walk. I started my formal dance training at 6 years old and started teaching dance at 18.

 I began working as a personal trainer and group exercise instructor in 2005 after graduating from the University of Utah with a B.F.A in Modern Dance.

Over the years I have taught Modern Dance technique, yoga, running, strength training, HIIT/interval training, Mat and Equipment Pilates, and Dance Conditioning and incorporate any or all of those movement styles into my classes and sessions today, depending on what YOU need. I have taught in corporate gyms, independent gyms, community centers, community colleges, universities, boutique fitness studios, yoga studios, and am now operating independently, teaching virtually and in-person in Charlottesville, VA.

Through decades of personal study and working with amazing mentors and clients I have seen time and time again that exercising with a keen awareness of form is paramount to deriving absolute benefits from the work.

I incorporate dance and yoga principles, aspects of traditional strength training, and my knowledge of Interval/HIIT training into sessions that are primarily a Contemporary Pilates practice. My classes and training sessions emphasize working through correct posture and alignment and are individually tailored to suit participants needs.

I strive to be a “teaching assistant” along the path to you becoming the ultimate authority on your body. 

BOOK PILATES EQUIPMENT PRIVATES HERE

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“I am so happy that I found Faith at the beginning of my Pilates practice! Faith is deeply knowledgeable about Pilates and other forms of movement and is a warm and encouraging teacher. More than that, she’s able to effectively apply her knowledge to an individual’s needs with a keen eye, perceptive cueing, and a holistic outlook on fitness. I’ve learned a ton about anatomy and the way bodies work just from taking her classes! Also, as someone who is more interested in functional improvement rather than changing the way my body looks, I *deeply* appreciate that I have not once heard talk of “beach bodies this” or “slimming that” in her group classes or in our private sessions. I’ve worked with Faith for just under a year and have made remarkable progress in my strength and movement patterns, and have experienced total abatement of my chronic back pain. This is particularly impressive because the majority of our time together has been virtual. You really can’t go wrong with Faith’s guidance!”

-Christine S.

Check out Gracefulfitness on YouTube for examples of my teaching style

gracefulfitness@live.com

I used to be a major procrastinator.

(my husband might say I still am…)

I’m not sure when I started to shift away from avoidance and more regularly towards being proactive but I think it was somewhat gradual around late 20’s into my 30’s as I really started to get the hang of this “adulting” thing.

Even though I can’t pinpoint the transition, I do know that it was a conscious effort in stress mitigation.

In other words, I realized procrastination was a source of stress in my life, both in the repercussions of having to push back deadlines or opportunites missed and in the emotional weight of the inevitable embarrassment/shame/insecurity fallout I experienced.

Over the last several years I’ve developed a system to continually check-in with myself and keep me honest about mental, emotional, and tangible procrastination.

First, I check in with myself and ask

“What am I avoiding?”

Sometimes the answer is responding to an email or text or having a difficult conversation with a loved one, sometimes it’s as simple as a house chore.

For example, one thing I recognize I am avoiding this month is renewing my business licenses.

Next, I evaluate

“Is this task I am avoing necessary or self-imposed busyness?”

As an under-employed, self-employed person, it’s easy to feel like I am never doing ENOUGH to keep myself moving forward professionally. It’s certainly important to have goals and checklists but when it comes down to brass tax, a lot of it is optional (obviously client communication is not optional, accounting is not optional, for example, but social media presence is optional IMHO).

Using the above example: NECESSARY to complete my license paperwork but not due until March.

“What’s holding me back from this task?”

This one gets especially interesting when the task I am avoiding is confrontational (concern over hurting the other person’s feelings, insecurity about my self-worth if it involves “sticking up for myself”, unsure of being interpretted clearly…etc) but we’ll stick with the very tangible example of the license.

The main thing holding me back is that I realized I was out of checks and so I ordered more checks.

Except, this morning I double checked and the order hadn’t gone through.

Ugh. I ordered checks.

I will file my license as soon as the checks come in. In fact, I will complete the paperwork today and it will be ready to go when the checks arrive. Check!

I learned this last question from studying goal setting.

In successful goal setting, after you set the endpoint, the goal, you have to outline all the steps necessary to achieve that goal.

When faced with a task I am somewhat avoiding, I make a mental or physical list of all the bite-sized steps necessary to accomplish that task.

Asking myself, “What am I avoiding?” has become such a profound personal check in that I actually have the picture at the top of the page as my phone wallpaper.

Sometimes the answer is drinking water. Or quietting my body and mind for a minute or even thinking about something that is emotionally challenging.

Whatever the answer is, it is empowering to me to address what I am avoiding and move through it.

I would love to hear if you have any similar tactics to face your procrastination/avoidance. <3