A Personal Note from Leslie Hopkins
BY: LESLIE HOPKINS
Content warning: This is about breast cancer, and can bring things up for a reader. So read if it feels right for you.
Hey there Muse friends,
For those of you who do not know me, I'm Leslie and I have been teaching at Muse for almost a decade. I wanted to share my personal health journey with the Muse community and how Pilates helped me.
In December 2024 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. The following months were a blur of appointments, research, therapy sessions, lots of phone calls with friends and family and lots of crying and luckily some laughter sprinkled in there as well.
There was also a lot of Pilates, and this was a gift.
When I got the news that upturned my life, I knew I needed to keep my mind and my body grounded and Pilates would be the anchor I needed. When I was early in my diagnosis I didn’t have any pain and did not yet have an active treatment plan, which allowed me to move my body daily and get ready for what I would go through physically and emotionally over the following months.
I took time off teaching (thank you to the amazing Muse crew that stepped up and took over my classes for me, and sent me lots of love and support) and I switched my role to become solely a Pilates student. MuseMovement was a space where I was able to get out of my house, where I could move through a class at my own pace, modify as I needed, take breaks, or push further. Every day was different and the studio was a space I could safely explore and get curious as to what I needed at any given moment. I wanted to get my body and my brain ready to go through everything that was coming at me; treatment, drugs, surgeries and everything else.
My body went through a lot over the next few months, I had a terrific medical care team that helped me through all the various stages of my treatment. But what also really helped me in my recovery was the lessons I have learned at MuseMovement;
movement does not have to look a certain way
movement and breath can help your nervous system regulate
slow and small movements are great (as are big ones)
it is important to strengthen, and it is important to rest
showing up is huge, be proud for doing that (and don’t be hard on yourself when you can’t)
progress isn’t linear there will be good days and there will be tough days
Pilates is pretty fucking great
Pilates slowly let me build back my strength and a connection with my newly changed body. The Muse teachers were always thoughtfully allowing me to move how it makes sense for my body at that moment in time, and holding space for me to reconnect to myself.
Yes it sounds like I did a lot and am fairly positive about this experience. Did I have bad days? Absolutely, I still do. But I want to spotlight what MuseMovement has meant to me before, during and after cancer treatment. I honestly know that Pilates and the Muse community made this journey a lot less hard. I am so glad I can continue post treatment in a space like Muse that gave me so much strength to get through and out the other side.
I am also in the process of creating a workshop for teachers to understand more about not only the physical challenges that come with breast cancer, but also the impact a diagnosis and treatment can have on our mental health. I want to help teachers understand how the relationship with your own body can change, and how moving your body through the healthcare system can impact you. What may or may not show up for people going through breast cancer at any moment. How to respect privacy, autonomy and to encourage holding spaces that encourage people to move their bodies in a way that feels good for them.
I’m beyond grateful to be able to say: I am now cancer free.
Survivorship is another battle, fear of reoccurrence, continued drug therapy and accepting how my body is now with scars and healing and movement all having permanently changed. But if I’ve learned anything from this wild ride is that I have so many people who love me in all the various stages of Leslie, and I have a damn great Pilates studio with amazing people to come back home to.
I am forever grateful to my Muse Community for being such a source of strength to help me get through this. Moving with community can be such a powerful part of the healing journey.
Positional statements:
I recognize that I am in an amazing position to have a studio be so accessible to me
I recognize that everyone’s breast cancer journey is uniquely their own, and that this is only my story
I am giving back to the breast cancer community and participating in the CIBC Run For The Cure.
