Meet The Blogger - Part 1

Since it’s been over a year since I started my Yoga business and new website, I thought I’d do a re-introduction/”Meet the Blogger” type post, but interview style. I asked people to send me questions, and they delivered - so much sot hat I decided to break it up into two posts, and even with that, they’ll still be lengthy posts. For this first post, I decided to focus on questions about my businesses and passions overall, as well as those questions about yoga. The next post will include questions about Mental Health Advocacy, writing/my novel, and travel (though not much to say about that one right now!).

I see that you are passionate about a variety of things -  yoga, travel, mental health, writing.   How did you come to follow these various interests and did any one thing lead to the others?  If so, how?   

I love this question (these questions) because they allow me to journey inward a bit, and to examine my path both backwards and forwards. 

Writing & Mental Health Advocacy: I’ve always loved to write and it’s always come naturally. I’ve always been best able to get my ideas and thoughts out on pen and paper (now computer, though I still prefer the pen and paper). I’ve journaled since I was a kid, both as a creative exercise, as well as a way of keeping track of life.  As an adult, when I’m struggling to make sense of the jumble in my head, when I’m inspired by an idea, when I have a ton of thoughts at once that I need to organize, I write. When I was diagnosed with my mental health condition, rapid cycling cyclothymia, and I could find so little about it and so few others discussing it, I decided to start a blog about living with it (it’s been a while but you can find that here). From there, I began advocating on social media, sharing my posts on mental health and chronic illness related sites, and looking for organizations to be involved with. As for writing fiction, see further down in “Will you write another book” for how I got into that. 

Travel:   Like writing, I’ve loved to travel since as long as I can remember. I took my first overseas trip with my high school in my junior year (and another in my senior year). In college, I studied in Australia for six months. After college, I started planning trips for myself and my family just for fun. Others learned about trips, heard that I planned them, and asked me to help them plan their trips. I enjoyed doing this enough that I decided to take a correspondence (i.e. long distance, before online learning days) course from a travel college in Kansas. It was one of the few nationally recognized travel schools at the time. I completed my courses, and by then had enough clients and potential clients that I decided to take the plunge, quit my full time job, and open my own travel company, which I ran full time for about 10 years, and still run part time. 

Yoga: The short version of this answer is that when I had my travel business brick and mortar location, a yoga studio opened across the street about six months after I opened my business. I reached out to the owners, new business owner to new business owner and established a rapport. One day, I got the courage to go try a class. I was going through a divorce at the time, and I was more or less restarting my life. Yoga, along with my business, gave me a place to focus and come back to myself. 14 years and many, many classes later, I graduated yoga teacher training from the yoga school that was part of that same studio (albeit owners had changed and it had moved down the block). So in a very literal way, travel led to my yoga, basically out of proximity! I actually wrote a more in depth post about my yoga story here). 

Do you have a goal on how to bring all of your various passions together?   Where do you see all of this leading in the years to come?

I always have big goals and dreams! 

One of my biggest passions is using yoga to help people - not just on the mat, but off the mat as well through yoga benefits, where we raise funds for causes/charity.  In the more immediate future, I’d love to increase the number of yoga benefits and workplace (or virtual workplace!) programs I do.  I have a long range goal of raising $10,000 per year for charity with yoga benefit programs. So far in this first year I’ve raised close to $2000, so I have a bit of a ways to go, but I’m hoping as I’m able to expand the number and types of benefits I do, I’ll continue to grow the amount I can raise. 

In terms of combining efforts, I have a vision of a “thing” (that’s a super technical writer term, ha!)  that I call the Spread Hope Project Road Trip:  I’d do a road trip across the US, holding yoga benefit classes in each state I visit to I raise money for a local (to each area) organization involved in mental health, or a cause in which mental health is often impacted - i.e. homelessness, child hunger/food insecurity, to name a few.   I’m still thinking on how I’d like this to work. Possibly partnering with local studios and organizations along the way, something like that. It feels like a nice way to tie my mental health, travel, and yoga work together, and I’m sure I’d blog about the trip, so I’d get to tie in writing too!  Obviously, any actual potential planning isn’t going to make sense in COVID times where classes are mostly online and most travel requires a quarantine. 

I’m brainstorming an online community/program in which participants have access to my yoga/barre/workout video library, my virtual classes, and an online community forum for support/motivation/sharing their efforts or questions. This would be particularly geared at those who may be at the start of their yoga/wellness journey, getting back into it, or who don’t have a full 45-minutes to hour to do a class or workout each day, but may be able to do 10-15 minutes at various times to build their routine (i..e think parents with young kids at home during quarantine). I’d likely incorporate some journaling and such as well.  I need to be clear - this wouldn’t be a group where you had to post daily workouts online to promote it or anything - the community part would be closed, for support and accountability and a bit of private group wellness coaching/help. The big thing for me is that not everyone can do a “workout of the day” or get to a class, or do x amount of exercise at y time, nor does everyone want to. But I know that even a small amount of community can help to motivate and hold us accountable and, quite frankly, right now give us that connection even if virtual, and I want to provide that. 

Eventually, I’d love to do some retreats, which would bring in the travel portion. There’s a house in Catalonia that I stayed in a couple of years ago with my family that I have my eye on for a yoga retreat some day! For obvious reasons, that has to be put on hold right now.

Finally, I’m interested in getting trained in trauma informed yoga, so that I can offer some classes particularly geared for those who are struggling with mental health and trauma recovery. 

The yoga studios in the area that I live still remain closed but I would like to get back into it. Can you recommend some good websites that would not be too difficult for a beginner to follow? Are you offering any online yoga sessions to the general public yourself?

I’ll answer the last part of your question first in hopes that this is the most appealing haha!  Yes, I am offering a weekly virtual class Tuesday evenings at 5:15PM. It’s pay-what-you-can/donation optional, and all-levels, so beginners are certainly welcome. My class info is here.  I also have several other pop-ups each month, and I’m working to introduce classes such as Yin and Slow Flow into my schedule,  which might appeal to beginners/those getting back into it. I’m also considering a Beginners class or series in the near future.  Additionally, I offer private virtual sessions, which are of course created for the level of the person doing the session. Finally, I’m  building up a virtual video library which has some beginner and all-levels videos. It’s currently free to my Newsletter subscribers, which you can sign up for here (also free).

Many area studios are offering on-demand and live virtual classes, so if there are studios in your area you’re familiar with and have practiced with before, you may want to check those. Most of the major yoga websites, such as Glo.com and Yoga International offer a variety of on-demand classes. Both have free trials with subscription options. 

The nice thing about virtual is that you don’t necessarily have to stick to one studio or source - you can choose from a larger variety and try things out and have variety, without having to travel to numerous locations. 

Can you explain what Kids Chance yoga is about?  Who does it benefit and how would someone join the group?  Is it still going on now that yoga studios are generally closed?

Kids’ Chance Yoga is a weekly All-Levels Yoga Class that I hold on Tuesday evenings (mentioned above). The proceeds for the class benefit Kids’ Chance of New Jersey, which was created to provide scholarships for college and vocational education to children of New Jersey workers who have been fatally or catastrophically injured in a work-related accident.  Right now, and for the foreseeable future, this class is being held virtually, and while virtual, the fee is ‘Pay-What-You-Can”. The class is open to the public (virtually) and you can sign up on my website “Classes & Offerings” page. (Once on the website, choose the block that says “Yoga to Benefit Kids’ Chance”, and follow the prompts. It’s a new sign up system, so you’re welcome to contact me if anything doesn’t work as planned!). I should note that while this is a weekly class, it’s not a series - new attendees can join any time, and you aren’t committed to a certain number of classes or anything like that.  

This is a very stressful time for most people between COVID, the 2020 elections and current political climate, protests, etc. Have you considered holding any yoga classes focused specifically on stress management?

Awesome question! Yes, I’m working on adding in some yin style classes, which are slower paced classes of mostly seated and supine poses that often use props (home-props like books for blocks work) and allow people to relax into poses for longer periods of time. I’m also working on adding more breathwork (pranayama) into classes as well as meditations/guided visualizations and body scans, all of which can be helpful with stress management and relaxation. And for those that would like a little more movement, but would like to slow things down a bit, I’m looking to include some Slow Flow pop-ups soon! 

How do you feel about hot yoga? Safe or risky?

Truthfully, hot yoga is…. not my favorite, either to take or the general idea of it. My instinct and training tell me to say “risky!” but I’m trying to not let personal preferences get in the way and to answer as pragmatically as I can. I think for me, some of it depends on the specifics of the class. (Also please know I’m not a medical professional, I’m a yoga instructor with a degree in Exercise Science/Kinesiology, so for anyone especially concerned, I’d check with your doctor before taking it). 

1.) Are you allowed to drink water during practice? If not, I’m going to say it’s unsafe - not even as a yoga practice but in general. Any situation in which you’re dehydrating yourself (which is most likely the case in hot yoga) and not allowed to re-hydrate doesn’t feel safe. 

2.) Is it warm or hot? I ask because it’s summer here with temps in the 90s, and basically any outdoor yoga (which is basically the only class we can do with COVID restrictions right now) is “hot yoga”. So if it’s just slightly heated and you’re allowed to hydrate/pause/take the class at your own pace, and if you’re given instructions on what to do to safely stop if you aren’t feeling well, you’re probably alright *as long as you don’t personally have any contraindications*. 

3.) I’d recommend against it for anyone with hyperelasticity or anyone that’s not supposed to get their heart rate high - i.e. if you’re doing yoga because it’s low impact and exercise you can do that isn’t going to jump your heart rate up, I wouldn’t do hot yoga. 

Also, a huge caveat to all of this, and this is a personal opinion but I think it’s sound: I do not think indoor hot yoga is safe during COVID time. (I’m actually not practicing or teaching any indoor classes that aren’t virtual at this time). Bottom line - we breathe harder when we’re hot. The harder we’re breathing, the more likely we are to open our mouths to breath. If you’re practicing with a mask and sweating, there’s more of a chance of it slipping down. Or sweat dripping and you pulling the mask away to wipe sweat off without even thinking about it (i.e. not intentionally harming anyone). 

Are there any yoga poses that you flat out hate?  Why?

I wouldn’t say I hate any poses, but I have a bit of difficulty in belly backbends (especially ones where my bellow is fully on the ground and my chest is closer to the ground - salabhasana, Dhanurasana) . Because of severe sinus and allergy and possibly other yet to be discovered issues that affect my breathing, I tend to not ever feel like I’m getting a full breath when I breathe normally, i.e. in everyday life. One of the things I love about yoga is that it helps me focus the breath, breathe into the belly, be acutely aware of the fact of my breath being shallow, and to work to more consciously breathe deeply. When my belly is on the ground, I feel like I can't get that deep breath, and  I almost feel like I’m gasping for air. I do try to focus on intercostal breathing (into the side body, feeling the ribs expand out to the side), but my anxiety kicks in and tries to convince me I’m running out of air and can’t breathe. Naturally, that makes me breath faster and shallower, and the cycle repeats. I’m getting better at this, but it is a work in progress. So, in case you needed a sneak peak into the extreme humanness of yoga teachers and how we are definitely not all calm and serene during class, here you go! At least speaking for myself. 

I also want to be clear that I’m NOT saying that belly backbends make it tough for people to breathe, so please don’t worry about that - that’s my brain doing it’s thing, as probably all of ours do from time to time. 

If you could attend a yoga retreat anywhere, where would it be?

Oh this is tricky, because the answer is everywhere! But I’ll try to narrow it down. Let me say here, I’m not great at “roughing it”, and I don’t do super well being told what I can and can’t do, so I’m not sure I’d want a place that was specifically created for retreats, where every minute of your day is planned out for you. I’d prefer to be maybe in a big house or B&B/Inn that can be used as a base for a retreat. The first place that pops to mind for me is Greece.  I was there a few years ago, and I absolutely loved it - not the touristy cruise stop type of places, but I particularly loved Crete and I think it could make an amazing spot for a yoga retreat, as well as to experience the outdoors, a unique culture, and amazing food! 

That was fun! Thanks to everyone who sent in questions. If you have yoga or overall business questions for me, I’m always up to answering and sharing about myself and my yoga journey (this is a family-friendly blog, so keep them appropriate :-). Feel free to ask in the comments or message me on any of my social media accounts!