Ellen Barrett Mindful Movement

Like a Well-Oiled Machine

Symmetry is honest to God so important yet often ignored. Alignment gets more play, and while alignment is just as crucial, function and flow need both. When bodies are misaligned and asymmetrical, they feel strain and unease, like a sliding door with a wonky track. If you’d like to move like a well-oiled machine, here are five things to do that facilitate the one-two punch of symmetry and alignment:   We all have some specific nuances within...

Express Barre With Ellen Barrett

“Express Barre” is Here

There’s a new workout and its goal is truly effective, feel-good fitness. Express Barre is mindful and graceful – just 20minutes delivers a head-to-toe Ballet conditioning workout. In honor of our newest workout, I thought it’d be nice to share the five signature components of a barre class:  So there you have it folks, Barre in a nutshell. Don’t worry – it’s not Ballet, but rather Ballet conditioning (big difference). Be sure to give Express Barre a try this week (today!), and experience these five...

ELLEN BARRETT Mudras

Another Tool In Your Toolbox: Mudras

Mudra is a Sanskrit word meaning “gesture.” The most common mudras arehand gestures. Doing the peace sign is a mudra. Waving the hang loose symbol is a mudra. Giving the middle finger is a mudra. You and I have been “mudra-ing” our whole lives without even realizing it. Our hands are extensions of our hearts and a reflection of our mental state, so by placing our hands in intentional ways, we potentially direct attentions and energies in...

ELLEN BARRETT Mindful Movement

I’m a Big Fan of Freedom

There are two things I really scratch my head over. One is crazy impractical foot wear. I don’t see it as much in real life anymore (thankfully) but every once in a while I spy a stiletto at the supermarket on an icy winter day, and inwardly feel pain. The second one actually is very common these days, and that’s extreme nails. Just the other day at a clothing store, the store clerk waved around...

Five-Star Fusion With Ellen Barrett

There’s a New Workout (and it’s an Extravaganza!)

Five-Star Fusion is a smorgasbord. It’s not a restaurant review (as my husband thought it sounded like 😂), but it’s just as delicious. Yes, movement when it keeps us in an invigorated state – and doesn’t cross the line into irritation – can be downright delicious.  I love taking classes and I do try new workouts whenever I get the chance. My favorite types of classes to teach and to take run the gamut, but they...

Back At It

Back at it

There are 33 individual interlocking bones that form your spinal column. The top 24 bones are moveable, while the lower vertebrae (in the sacrum and coccyx region) are fused together and therefore don’t articulate. This is so “yin and yang” – stable and set at the trunk, free and flowing at the crown. Did you know the spine, your spine, is a genius, sophisticated design? What a stroke of luck it is to have one! Here are 10 ways...

Ellen Barrett "let's move!"

Tap Into Truth

Ever since I read, “The body is a sacred garment. It’s your first and last garment. It’s what you enter life in and what you depart life with, and it should be treated with honor,” I’ve been intrigued with Martha Graham, the famous American dancer/choreographer (and the author of the quote). I just learned that Martha Graham created not just dances, but also her very own, very specific, body conditioning method. I’d describe it as...

Ellen Barrett "Wellness is a Journey"

Wellness is a Journey

Fitness is a self-help tool for authentic wellness. The goal is wellness. Or another way of looking at it is, the destination is wellness. And you and I are never not on a journey towards wellness. We never get to the top of the wellness mountain and stick a flag in it and say, “Done!” If you’re breathing, you’re journeying!  Remember when Oprah showcased her dramatic weight loss on her talkshow? She even wheeled out...

Five-Star Fusion With Ellen Barrett

New Video Workout: Five-Star Fusion

It’s a Pilates, yoga, barre, old school calisthenics, and breath-work extravaganza!  Build all over strength and suppleness in this 45minute, mostly standing, fluid and non-stop workout. A “sticky” yoga mat is all the equipment you’ll need. Barefoot is best. This video will begin streaming on Let’s Move! by Thursday, March 23, 2023.

Change With the Seasons

Seasons change. Right now, wherever you are on Earth, there is a shift. For us in the Northern Hemisphere, we’re leaving summer and entering autumn. When we think season change, our minds go to weather change, wardrobe change, schedule change. Lots of change outside of us. There’s energetic change within us too. Personally, as I approach autumn in New England, USA, I feel a little more ambitious. Like the squirrels, I feel an urgency to get things...