Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 178. Taryn Toomey, CEO & Founder Of The Class

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178. Taryn Toomey, CEO & Founder Of The Class · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: There is absolutely no grief without love. If you're grieving something,
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Speaker 1: it's because there was love. It's just a cycle, right,
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Speaker 1: So there is no easy unless you've experienced difficulty.
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Speaker 2: Hey everyone, Emily Abody here coming to you with episode
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Speaker 2: one seventy.
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Speaker 3: Eight from the AG Studio.
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Speaker 2: You are listening to Hurdle a Lot, this focus podcast
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Speaker 2: where I connect with everyone from your favorite athletes to
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Speaker 2: top experts and industry CEOs about their highest hies, toughest moments,
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Speaker 2: and everything in between. We all go through hurdles in life,
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Speaker 2: and my goal through these discussions is to empower you
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Speaker 2: to better navigate yours and move with intention so that
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Speaker 2: you can stride towards your own big potential and of
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Speaker 2: course have some fun along the way. Today I am
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Speaker 2: chatting with Taren to me, she is the founder and
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Speaker 2: CEO of The Class.
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Speaker 3: Now, this episode felt really special to me.
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Speaker 2: As I talked about in our chat today, the Class,
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Speaker 2: which is often described as a workout for your emotions,
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Speaker 2: it really really helped me through some dark times.
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Speaker 3: I'm talking a breakup, the.
1:22
Speaker 2: Pandemic, you know, the vibes, and so the craziest thing
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Speaker 2: about this for me really is that truthfully, the first
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Speaker 2: time I took the class, I thought it was absolutely ludicrous.
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Speaker 3: But I went back and I went.
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Speaker 2: Back, and I got in on their digital streaming platform,
1:40
Speaker 2: which I'll link to in the show notes, and before
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Speaker 2: I knew it, I craved the emotional release that I
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Speaker 2: got in these classes. You've heard about the class before,
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Speaker 2: likely because maybe you listen to Natalie Kun's episode of Curdle.
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Speaker 3: I'll also link to that in the show notes. But
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Speaker 3: today Tara and I talk about how this.
2:02
Speaker 2: Whole thing came to be, how she came up with
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Speaker 2: the concepts and the method that is used in the class,
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Speaker 2: how she has learned to silence the quote unquote haters
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Speaker 2: and trust her gut, and she, like me, goes back
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Speaker 2: to her why and knows that if she can help
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Speaker 2: just one person, then what she is doing is worth
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Speaker 2: all of this energy. We also talk about how she's
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Speaker 2: navigated some difficult times in her past leaning into movement,
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Speaker 2: and we also address how to do that in a
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Speaker 2: healthy way. Right, many of us lean into movement, and
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Speaker 2: it can get to be a little detrimental if that
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Speaker 2: is our only outlet. So we talk about how to
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Speaker 2: find some balance and some harmony in that. I really
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Speaker 2: just appreciated Aren's openness, her attitude, and I'm so so
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Speaker 2: happy to bring you this conversation. I do want to
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Speaker 2: make sure that I take a second here to call
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Speaker 2: out an upcoming event that I have at the Chicago
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Speaker 2: Marathon this weekend and Saturday morning with Tracksmiths at nine
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Speaker 2: am at the Chicago Athletic Association. We're gonna be doing
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Speaker 2: a live podcast and I would love to see you there.
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Speaker 2: The link to get in on the action and register
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Speaker 2: is in the show notes. Make sure you're following along
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Speaker 2: with Hurdle over on social media. It's at Hurdle Podcast.
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Speaker 2: I am over at Emily Abadi And with that, let's
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Speaker 2: get to hurdling.
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Speaker 3: Today.
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Speaker 2: I am sitting down with Taran Toomey. She's the founder
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Speaker 2: of the class. How are you doing today, Taran, I'm alive.
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Speaker 2: It seems sometimes I feel like when someone says something
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Speaker 2: like that, like I'm alive, there's like a deeper context
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Speaker 2: that like you're.
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Speaker 3: Alive, but film the blank? What's the film the blank
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Speaker 3: for you? Today?
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Speaker 1: I am exhausted. Okay, so I'm alive, but I'm like,
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Speaker 1: I'm here, I'm doing it. I have just been doing
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Speaker 1: way too much output. Over the last two weeks, and
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Speaker 1: I think this post pandemic world putting too much output
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Speaker 1: and not pausing. It's just it leads to that exhaustion
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Speaker 1: inside in your bones. And that's kind of where I'm at.
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Speaker 1: But I'm here and I'm aware of it.
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Speaker 3: So yeah, and where is here today?
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Speaker 1: Here is in while I'm sitting in a phone booth
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Speaker 1: in my office in Tribeca.
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Speaker 3: So you and I are close but still spread out.
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Speaker 3: At the moment. I am a stone throwaway in Fort Green.
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Speaker 2: However, I have been to the class in Tribeca before,
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Speaker 2: and I'm so excited to expose the hurdlers to all
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Speaker 2: that is the class. So just to kick us off
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Speaker 2: here today, why don't you give a little bit of
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Speaker 2: context as to what the class is?
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Speaker 1: Okay, that's always the question that I get skipped up on,
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Speaker 1: which is so strange because it's been around for nine
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Speaker 1: years with a name and eleven without. The first years
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Speaker 1: didn't have one. So it's a matt based workout. It's
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Speaker 1: music driven. We start every class by standing, closing the
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Speaker 1: eyes and placing your hands on your body and just
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Speaker 1: acknowledging that your mind has a function. It creates thought,
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Speaker 1: and you just acknowledge what you're thinking, and then you
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Speaker 1: begin with movements. We'll repeat one movement for an entire
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Speaker 1: song and invite the student to close their eyes and
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Speaker 1: observe what their mind does about the feeling in their body.
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Speaker 1: And after a while you get to know your tendencies
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Speaker 1: by the teacher just holding a space for you to
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Speaker 1: observe your own thought patterns and through a whole series
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Speaker 1: of different movements from jumping jacks into long bridges and
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Speaker 1: contractions and expansions, flushing the body, making sound, bringing the
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Speaker 1: energy from the inside of the body outside with a
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Speaker 1: series of either breathing or a loud huzz breaking up
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Speaker 1: energy and break you thought. You're given the space to
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Speaker 1: allow yourself to reconnect to a different part of yourself
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Speaker 1: that's usually a bit more connected and balanced. And if
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Speaker 1: people have found it to be very very cathartic, and
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Speaker 1: it's kind of an all in one, you know, it's
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Speaker 1: a it's moving meditation because you're aware of thinking as
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Speaker 1: you're moving. It's fun, it's expressive, it can be very
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Speaker 1: healing once you acknowledge how long you've been thinking certain
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Speaker 1: things that have been really kind of self destructive thinking
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Speaker 1: or negative self talk and all that and really giving
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Speaker 1: it a space to move out of your body so
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Speaker 1: you have a deeper sense of space for peace and joy.
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Speaker 3: We like peace and joy.
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Speaker 2: I remember the first time before I took the class
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Speaker 2: in person, I would say this is about maybe three
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Speaker 2: or four years ago, and the way that it was
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Speaker 2: originally described to me was that it would be like
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Speaker 2: a quote.
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Speaker 3: Unquote workout for my feelings. Would you co sign that statement?
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's absolutely. There is this kind of ringing out
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Speaker 1: of the physical body that then allows you access to
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Speaker 1: thinking and then differentiate thinking and feeling. So for sure
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Speaker 1: there's this like ringing out quality in the physical body
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Speaker 1: that that's where your feelings reside in your body. So yeah,
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Speaker 1: I've heard it the two different words work out for
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Speaker 1: your feelings, and that's true, like you work them out.
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Speaker 1: It's you know, there's different ways to work out feelings.
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Speaker 1: You can talk them out. You can take along beautiful
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Speaker 1: EPs and salt bath and haven, you know, somatically drained
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Speaker 1: and pulled out of the physical body. Or you can
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Speaker 1: make sound acknowledge them and then express them in a
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Speaker 1: non judgmental space like yes.
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Speaker 3: Right right.
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Speaker 2: It's so it's so funny because I mean, and I
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Speaker 2: feel as though you for sure probably hear so many
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Speaker 2: stories of individuals who come for their first time and
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Speaker 2: like maybe have an idea about what their experience is
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Speaker 2: going to be like, and then.
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Speaker 3: Come back and come back and come back.
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Speaker 2: And while at first maybe they would be what's the
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Speaker 2: word I'm looking for here, perhaps a little resistant to
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Speaker 2: what happens in the class, as time goes on and
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Speaker 2: they become more immersed in the perhaps self acceptance of
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Speaker 2: being willing to let go on that level, they start
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Speaker 2: to reap more from the.
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Speaker 1: Class one hundred percent. That's exactly what it is, as
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Speaker 1: you become more willing. And it's the interesting thing about
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Speaker 1: the class because when I first launched it with the
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Speaker 1: name of the class, because I couldn't think of what
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Speaker 1: to name it, because it is to each person what
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Speaker 1: it is. Some people, it's just a really great physical workout,
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Speaker 1: and they start there, and then after doing it for
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Speaker 1: a while, they start to have this different sense connection
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Speaker 1: to what it feels like when you let go. But
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Speaker 1: that willingness to go there has to be key. So
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Speaker 1: when people would hear about the class, you know, people
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Speaker 1: would make fun of it or say something like, oh, yeah,
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Speaker 1: that's the place you go on. People cry, or you
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Speaker 1: do six minutes and burpies and you cry like no,
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Speaker 1: thank you. But it's just there's the willingness to go
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Speaker 1: in and be curious about it. And that's the key
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Speaker 1: for me. That for life is like the curiosity, because
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Speaker 1: really what judgment is is the opposite of that. And
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Speaker 1: if you're not curious, there's no space for you to
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Speaker 1: experience something that could have a revelatory aspect to it,
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Speaker 1: or a new way of thinking or being, or a
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Speaker 1: new creative pathway for your own sense of evolution of
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Speaker 1: what your you know, journey through this lifetime can potentially be.
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Speaker 1: That's a long winded answer of saying yes, yes, it's
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Speaker 1: the willingness has to be there and then you can
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Speaker 1: you reap what you.
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Speaker 2: Sew totally, you reap what you sew. I also think
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Speaker 2: it could be helpful. I mean, you just provided a
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Speaker 2: little bit of context referencing, you know, six minutes of
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Speaker 2: burpies and some yelling. But why don't you, before we
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Speaker 2: move on and dive a little bit into your backstory,
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Speaker 2: talk to us a little bit about what a quote
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Speaker 2: unquote typical class could look like.
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Speaker 1: So you'll start on your map, hands on body, chin
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Speaker 1: drops to chest, and then the teacher gets everyone in
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Speaker 1: the room and now on the digital platform just present,
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Speaker 1: so it's simply following the breath in, following it out,
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Speaker 1: following it and following it out. And then a song
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Speaker 1: will come on that's usually a bit gentle, just so
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Speaker 1: you can feel the sensations of your lungs pressing and
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Speaker 1: widening the ribcage, really getting very present by feeling the
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Speaker 1: sensations inside your body. And then the first song will
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Speaker 1: come on. We'll usually have a little bit of beat
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Speaker 1: to it, and we'll start squatting on the beat. The
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Speaker 1: room is usually synthesized. Everybody's moving in tandem and or
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Speaker 1: you can stand there and breathe. You can't do the
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Speaker 1: class wrong, and that's constantly thread throughout the entire practice
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Speaker 1: that if you want to do something different, you do it.
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Speaker 1: And that's the beautiful thing is that when you start
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Speaker 1: doing that, you notice other people do as well, and
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Speaker 1: then it just leads into this whole thing where you
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Speaker 1: start to learn how to be in your own practice
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Speaker 1: in a group of other people. Anyway, the second song
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Speaker 1: will probably be something along a big sound along a
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Speaker 1: song of jumping jacks that's very fiery, creating some heat
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Speaker 1: in the body, or skaters back and forth, some sort
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Speaker 1: of a cardiovascular move just to get the heart pumping.
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Speaker 1: And then after that will probably be a short song
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Speaker 1: just to reestablish your connection to standing in hands, back
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Speaker 1: on body. Notice what you notice, Notice what's coming through,
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Speaker 1: Notice what's coming up, and then maybe another round of
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Speaker 1: some sort of cardio it could be mountain climbers, and
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Speaker 1: then we'll move down to the mat. It's one movement
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Speaker 1: per song, so each song has a certain energy, and
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Speaker 1: the move itself is intentionally placed with that to either
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Speaker 1: contract really deeply or expand really widely, that ringing out
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Speaker 1: quality that we're talking about where you contract and then
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Speaker 1: you flush, contract and flush. After a series of contractions,
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Speaker 1: you may do a long butt move, a long abdominal move,
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Speaker 1: probably bring it back into another cardio song, come back
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Speaker 1: down to them out again, something a little bit quieter.
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Speaker 1: Notice what you notice again, how the conversation within yourself
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Speaker 1: is shifted constantly, bringing the attention to the sensations inside
12:27
Speaker 1: the body. And then notice any emotion that may be
12:30
Speaker 1: attached to the feeling. And then we'll do a long
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Speaker 1: song of birpies and the burpies is the intention of
12:36
Speaker 1: that is really to get some of the sound from
12:40
Speaker 1: the guts moving out. Because now you're embodied, you're self
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Speaker 1: aware that you can practice any way you want. There's
12:47
Speaker 1: enough heat in the body. You're aware of your thinking,
12:49
Speaker 1: you're aware of the feelings, and now it's time to
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Speaker 1: give those feelings a place to air, rate and express
12:54
Speaker 1: out of the body. So hands will come down, you'll
12:58
Speaker 1: jump back, you'll jump forward, and then as you jump up,
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Speaker 1: we'll throw the arms down toward the mat and make
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Speaker 1: a sound that usually sounds like so it's a sound
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Speaker 1: that's like a huff from the guts. And it's interesting
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Speaker 1: because a lot of times people talk about this class
13:13
Speaker 1: being screaming. There's no screaming in class. Screaming, to me
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Speaker 1: is a sign that there's something wrong, and it's quite
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Speaker 1: the opposite that you're so engaged with what you're doing
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Speaker 1: and you're discerning the difference between fight or flight. There's
13:27
Speaker 1: something wrong. I gotta get out of here or I'm
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Speaker 1: going to get in my body so deeply that I
13:32
Speaker 1: can give this thing that needs to move a place
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Speaker 1: to go and do it. Now, that's the pose and
13:39
Speaker 1: then you'll do usually a long sound of shaking the
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Speaker 1: body and jumping jacks usually quite you fork another song
13:45
Speaker 1: with hands on the body. Notice what you notice, stillness,
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Speaker 1: and then we'll come down. We'll do what is the
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Speaker 1: heart opening and heart clearing series where the arms are wide.
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Speaker 1: We into every class and that really connected into the
13:55
Speaker 1: sacred space of your heart and accessing the space where
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Speaker 1: you can find the truth of love, not blinded by
14:02
Speaker 1: the idea of love, with the truth of love in
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Speaker 1: your own heart. Very much self with self. That's oftentimes
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Speaker 1: where people will have an experience where they'll past tears
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Speaker 1: or joy or something because it's just this experience of
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Speaker 1: experiencing yourself with self and what the power of that is.
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Speaker 1: And then we'll move into a on the back rest
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Speaker 1: stretch of short meditation and then move on to the day.
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Speaker 2: So from a movement pov it I would describe the
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Speaker 2: class and please tell me if you disagree. But maybe
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Speaker 2: something kind of like cardio meets pilates from the movement
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Speaker 2: side of things.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it has, it's pliometrics, isometric holds, pulsing. So we'll
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Speaker 1: move into you know, you'll do a butt move where
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Speaker 1: you're kind of pulsing the leg for a while, right,
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Speaker 1: and then another one would be a long deep isometric
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Speaker 1: cold for four minutes. So yes, some plates in there,
15:00
Speaker 1: but it's very you know, and cardiovascular for sure, a
15:05
Speaker 1: little bit of kind of almost hit because of the
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Speaker 1: way that we're working the heartbreak. You know, will do
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Speaker 1: long kind of anywhere from like six to twelve minutes
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Speaker 1: of cardio and then come down and do the deeper
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Speaker 1: contract and then back into the cardios.
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Speaker 2: So right, right, Well, just to share a little bit
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Speaker 2: about my experience with the class again, I had taken it,
15:26
Speaker 2: like I said, a few years back, and had been
15:29
Speaker 2: in person a slew of times, and it wasn't until
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Speaker 2: the pandemic. And I'm sure you've heard tales of this
15:37
Speaker 2: specifically over the last sixteen eighteen months, but I was
15:40
Speaker 2: dealing with a little bit of an injury where I
15:42
Speaker 2: had to lean away from running and look to other
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Speaker 2: outlets to navigate both getting in my regular movement practice
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Speaker 2: but also navigating my emotions during this as people love
15:54
Speaker 2: to term it, unforeseen time, and it was in doing
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Speaker 2: the class within my apartment and wondering, oh my god,
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Speaker 2: what my neighbors were thinking as I released this energy
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Speaker 2: that I started to even more so look into the
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Speaker 2: benefits of expressing in that way. And although we won't
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Speaker 2: call it yelling or screaming perhaps or even shouting. You know,
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Speaker 2: there's so much research about how letting go of you know,
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Speaker 2: your inhibitions and you know, making a noise in that
16:28
Speaker 2: way can trigger some endorphins that create a natural high
16:31
Speaker 2: similar to the high that many would articulate as a
16:36
Speaker 2: runner's high, so to speak. And in doing that and
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Speaker 2: in expressing in that way, I felt as though for
16:44
Speaker 2: the first time, over and over and over again as
16:47
Speaker 2: it continued on and I continued to take the class
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Speaker 2: that I was navigating and dealing with the anxieties that
16:54
Speaker 2: I didn't know how to articulate in the real world.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that really resonates. Understand that on a very
17:02
Speaker 1: deep level because if you think about just from a
17:06
Speaker 1: real practical reality sense, that you have a body, and
17:11
Speaker 1: you live inside your body, and that is where thoughts
17:14
Speaker 1: and feelings are, right, that's where you have the thoughts
17:17
Speaker 1: that those are the sounds inside your body, our thoughts, right,
17:21
Speaker 1: and then feelings or the felt sense of feelings, and
17:23
Speaker 1: then emotions and all that's all inside your body, and
17:27
Speaker 1: if you're not able to find the oriphices or whatever
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Speaker 1: it is, sound or sweat, the ways to release the
17:35
Speaker 1: energy from the inside of the body, things feel very
17:38
Speaker 1: dense and heavy, and that shows up as depression or anxiety,
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Speaker 1: and then we can't figure out how to articulate what
17:46
Speaker 1: we're actually feeling because it's so dense. So if you
17:50
Speaker 1: think about just from this goes back centuries, just expressing
17:56
Speaker 1: energy from the inside of the body, so things can
17:58
Speaker 1: be lighter, so you can think clearer, you can have
18:02
Speaker 1: more sense of presence, which is the way that I
18:05
Speaker 1: self regulate, especially when I'm in fear, be present right here,
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Speaker 1: I'm here, right now, right everything is just it's just lighter,
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Speaker 1: and it's easier to navigate. And I think that what
18:16
Speaker 1: you were saying about, you know the complexities of figuring
18:20
Speaker 1: out where the anxiety is, what it's from. I mean,
18:22
Speaker 1: we've been through what you know, we can call it
18:24
Speaker 1: all these different word logos like unprecedented times, all these
18:28
Speaker 1: things that are yeah, but it's true. So being able
18:32
Speaker 1: to just not have to know what it is and
18:37
Speaker 1: just make sound allows so much more space for one
18:42
Speaker 1: to actually find words to then articulate and then from
18:47
Speaker 1: the words and the realization, then you can take action right,
18:52
Speaker 1: and then the whole thing starts to flow more. You
18:55
Speaker 1: feel less stuck.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, feeling less stuck only the goal for me,
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Speaker 2: at least at the very beginning of the pandemic. Now
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Speaker 2: you mentioned, uh, the idea of kind of expressing yourself
19:10
Speaker 2: from a young age, how did you express yourself?
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Speaker 1: I was always told to like, you know, sit down
19:18
Speaker 1: and be quiet. I remember I used to get in
19:21
Speaker 1: trouble all the time when I was in middle school
19:23
Speaker 1: because I would ask a friend that was next to
19:26
Speaker 1: me if I could massage their hands while I sat,
19:30
Speaker 1: Because I always had to have this like somatic feedback.
19:33
Speaker 1: I mean now, like my kids have fidgets which drive
19:35
Speaker 1: me absolutely nuts. So not only from like the sustainability
19:39
Speaker 1: portion of like oh great, now, let's have like a
19:41
Speaker 1: billion children buying obsessive amounts of plastic toys. They can
19:44
Speaker 1: end up in the seat so they can self regulate
19:46
Speaker 1: this anxiety, but like it's a similar thing. So I
19:49
Speaker 1: would always find myself massaging or hopping around or just
19:53
Speaker 1: you know acting out, you know, talking too much and
19:56
Speaker 1: all that kind of stuff, which I had to learn
19:58
Speaker 1: how to you know regulate especially now, which the people
20:03
Speaker 1: joke inside the company sometimes that I'm the cdo the
20:06
Speaker 1: chief distraction officer because I have a lot of energy.
20:10
Speaker 1: But I always loved movement. Sports were a huge part
20:16
Speaker 1: of my life. I always gravitated toward anything where I
20:19
Speaker 1: can get outside, hiking, rolling around in the grass like
20:23
Speaker 1: all of that stuff. Since I was little, I remember
20:26
Speaker 1: being a really good regulatory, kind of self regulating tool
20:28
Speaker 1: for me. And yeah, so movement's always been a way
20:33
Speaker 1: for me because I did realize too that I could
20:36
Speaker 1: very much burn myself out and relationships around me if
20:40
Speaker 1: I didn't have a proper way to express the kind
20:43
Speaker 1: of fire that was inside my body.
20:46
Speaker 2: You know, right right, And so it wasn't right off
20:50
Speaker 2: the bat as you came of age that you knew
20:53
Speaker 2: that you wanted to figure out a way to make
20:56
Speaker 2: movement a part of your career, even fathom something like
21:01
Speaker 2: the class. In fact, you started out your career working
21:05
Speaker 2: as a sales executive at Ralph Laurrenn.
21:08
Speaker 1: Right. Well, funny enough, I started out my fitness career
21:12
Speaker 1: when I moved to Florida when I was seventeen, and
21:16
Speaker 1: I went to a local gym and I had been
21:19
Speaker 1: playing sports. I lived in New England. I bounced around
21:22
Speaker 1: a bunch when I was growing up, so it's always
21:24
Speaker 1: kind of different schools and all that. And I was
21:26
Speaker 1: always really upset every time I've changed schools because they
21:29
Speaker 1: wouldn't have the sport that I was practicing at the
21:33
Speaker 1: school before. So I found it to be very kind
21:35
Speaker 1: of unstabilizing for destabilizing for me. So I started picking
21:39
Speaker 1: up running, and I started doing all these other things
21:41
Speaker 1: that I knew I could always do. And when I
21:43
Speaker 1: moved to Florida, I was just running a bunch and
21:45
Speaker 1: I went to the local gym and I wanted to
21:48
Speaker 1: teach aerobics. And this woman Holly was the aerobics director then,
21:53
Speaker 1: and this other gentleman saw that was a trainer there,
21:56
Speaker 1: like big soul like trainer, you know, definitely on all
22:00
Speaker 1: all of the protein programs and all of that.
22:02
Speaker 3: The name Saul like demands that kind of like soall, oh, oh.
22:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, who is our general counsel, who's our lawyer? Has
22:10
Speaker 1: been with me for like eight years. It's so funny
22:13
Speaker 1: the souls in our life. But so he I started
22:17
Speaker 1: talking in and I said, I really want to teach
22:18
Speaker 1: and Holly was like, she's not certified and all this stuff,
22:21
Speaker 1: and he was like, there's something in that girl. I
22:23
Speaker 1: would take her under your wing. So she started teaching
22:26
Speaker 1: me how to teach step aerobics. Saul started teaching me
22:29
Speaker 1: how to train the body. So I would do every morning,
22:32
Speaker 1: I would show up on an empty stomach. I would
22:34
Speaker 1: take fifteen hundred milligrams of el carnantine to push her
22:37
Speaker 1: sword fat into mitochondria, which acts like the furnace for
22:39
Speaker 1: your sword fat. So do that every morning, and then
22:42
Speaker 1: would come back in the afternoon after school and he
22:45
Speaker 1: would teach me about the different muscle groups and how
22:47
Speaker 1: to train them separately. And then I started teaching step aerobics.
22:50
Speaker 1: So that was my entry to the fitness world. And
22:54
Speaker 1: I'd always so I taught for a bunch of years,
22:58
Speaker 1: and then I started working at the Wlfloren store while
23:02
Speaker 1: I was teaching aerobics. Actually up in sag Harbor when
23:08
Speaker 1: I was really like twenty two years ago, and started
23:12
Speaker 1: working at the Wlfloren store, and then built my way
23:15
Speaker 1: through working in their stores into a job in the
23:18
Speaker 1: city as an assistant, and then just worked the corporate
23:22
Speaker 1: ladder that way, so it wasn't actually starting as a
23:25
Speaker 1: sales executive. It was a very windy path, but that's
23:29
Speaker 1: what I ended up in the world of account executive
23:31
Speaker 1: and wholesale sales there, and then jumped and started working
23:35
Speaker 1: at Dior for six months, and then did yoga teacher
23:40
Speaker 1: training and all these other series of events happened that
23:44
Speaker 1: led me to creating the class.
23:46
Speaker 3: It's so interesting.
23:47
Speaker 2: A couple of things to double click on here, First
23:49
Speaker 2: and foremost, the resourcefulness from a young age of telling yourself,
23:54
Speaker 2: while if I'm just going to keep switching schools and
23:57
Speaker 2: they're not going to have the sport that the last school,
24:00
Speaker 2: then I guess I should just start running. A lot
24:02
Speaker 2: of people would have maybe made an excuse or some
24:05
Speaker 2: other you know whatnot to just skip out a movement
24:09
Speaker 2: all together. So it seems as though from a young age,
24:11
Speaker 2: movement was a priority.
24:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, it really was. I had a very very dysfunctional
24:18
Speaker 1: upbringing and there was a lot of things that created
24:21
Speaker 1: a lot of fear in me. And when I reflect
24:25
Speaker 1: on it, and especially now having children on my own,
24:28
Speaker 1: I understand why that fear was there. But I found
24:33
Speaker 1: that the way that I was able to feel connected
24:36
Speaker 1: and safe was when I was moving, so I didn't
24:40
Speaker 1: know it at the time, but yeah, it definitely is interesting.
24:44
Speaker 1: I think I have a lot of resilience, a lot
24:47
Speaker 1: of school of life kind of came through me through
24:50
Speaker 1: all of my years of all the things we've experienced,
24:52
Speaker 1: which we all have. But you know, I do think
24:55
Speaker 1: that you start to the more hurdles and you know,
24:58
Speaker 1: speaking of to you that you have to jump and navigate.
25:02
Speaker 1: The more that you the more resilient you get. Sometimes
25:06
Speaker 1: that resilience can work against you, right. Sometimes you need
25:09
Speaker 1: to know when to say I need some support and
25:12
Speaker 1: help and be able to surrender to higher power or
25:15
Speaker 1: whatever it is. But I've learned that in my in
25:18
Speaker 1: my I'm forty three next month. But you know, sometimes
25:22
Speaker 1: being resilient in your whole life, you need spaces to
25:25
Speaker 1: not have to be resilient in order to continue to
25:28
Speaker 1: carry forward with that piece that I was talking about earlier.
25:32
Speaker 2: Talk to me about how you felt in your body
25:36
Speaker 2: as you started to work here in New York full time.
25:43
Speaker 1: That's an interesting question. Well, I was in my early twenties,
25:47
Speaker 1: so I was definitely using New York City for what
25:50
Speaker 1: people use it for, and you know, it was running
25:54
Speaker 1: around live in, live in, you know, live in you know,
25:58
Speaker 1: the nine to thirty pm dinners, the weekends where you
26:01
Speaker 1: just like sleep all weekend kind of stuff. Actually that's
26:03
Speaker 1: not true. I still I wake up at five no
26:05
Speaker 1: matter what time I go to bed, even then. But
26:08
Speaker 1: it was, you know, the city as an energy to it.
26:12
Speaker 1: I really think that the city is meant for driving
26:15
Speaker 1: and creating and kind of churning it out and all
26:18
Speaker 1: of that. So I feel like that was good for
26:22
Speaker 1: me because I was able to be in that current
26:26
Speaker 1: where you just go, you get it, you know, you
26:28
Speaker 1: keep going. So I think if I were to move
26:32
Speaker 1: to the city now, the feeling that I would have
26:35
Speaker 1: in my body is probably like WHOA, I need to
26:37
Speaker 1: find a balance, you know, which is what I feel
26:40
Speaker 1: right now. But that, But back then, I don't really
26:43
Speaker 1: remember feeling anything other than this was where I was
26:46
Speaker 1: supposed to be right right.
26:48
Speaker 2: As you got more acquainted with living here and kind
26:51
Speaker 2: of the hustle and the bustle and the nine thirty dinners,
26:54
Speaker 2: were you making the same time or commitment to a
26:58
Speaker 2: movement practice or were you looking into alternatives?
27:01
Speaker 3: What kind of spoke to you at that time?
27:03
Speaker 1: Oh, it was a I moved probably six times a week,
27:08
Speaker 1: sometimes seven. But you know, for me and I don't
27:11
Speaker 1: think I think overtraining is a thing, and I do
27:14
Speaker 1: think the rest day days when they're placed in a
27:17
Speaker 1: specific way especially or are super important. But for me,
27:22
Speaker 1: having a movement practice helped me self regulate. So that's
27:26
Speaker 1: why sometimes it'd be seven. But I was a member
27:30
Speaker 1: at I remember I used to do the spin classes
27:34
Speaker 1: way back in the day. Wake up at five point thirty,
27:37
Speaker 1: go to the gym, spin and then this is when
27:41
Speaker 1: I was working at Ralph Horn and then go back,
27:43
Speaker 1: get dressed, blow dry the sweat out of my hair,
27:46
Speaker 1: put on one of their like you know, cable mit sweaters,
27:50
Speaker 1: and be sweating on the plane on the train up
27:54
Speaker 1: to work because I couldn't cool down from my morning workouts.
27:57
Speaker 1: So that's what stands out. It would be a lot
28:00
Speaker 1: of that spinning in the morning before work, just to
28:03
Speaker 1: get it out. And it's interesting one of the things
28:05
Speaker 1: that I always noticed about myself at the end of
28:07
Speaker 1: the day that all it was obsessed with from five
28:10
Speaker 1: to six o'clock is getting out of there at six
28:13
Speaker 1: every day. So I could make a six thirty yoga
28:15
Speaker 1: class down and Tribeca and if I was six oh five,
28:17
Speaker 1: I wouldn't make it. And I noticed and kind of
28:20
Speaker 1: put a pin in that in myself early on that
28:23
Speaker 1: that was the thing I looked forward.
28:25
Speaker 3: To every day, right right.
28:27
Speaker 2: I would love to touch on what you mentioned at
28:30
Speaker 2: the beginning of that, which was recognizing now the importance
28:33
Speaker 2: of a rest day. I'm sure that women reach out
28:36
Speaker 2: to you about this. They certainly reach out to me
28:38
Speaker 2: about this about loving movement for the same reasons that
28:41
Speaker 2: you and I do, and that it helps clear our head,
28:43
Speaker 2: it helps us kind of focus in the rest of
28:45
Speaker 2: our day to day.
28:46
Speaker 3: It's giving back to our bodies.
28:48
Speaker 2: But in appreciating that feeling, it can be easy almost
28:54
Speaker 2: to kind of get caught up in it, so much
28:56
Speaker 2: so that some don't offer their bodies that rest that
29:02
Speaker 2: maybe they need, and they're not sure where to lean
29:05
Speaker 2: in for another outlet to provide that same solace. So
29:10
Speaker 2: the follow up questions here two part one, did you
29:13
Speaker 2: ever have a time in your life where you kind
29:15
Speaker 2: of had to realize and be honest with yourself about
29:19
Speaker 2: the need for more rest? And the second part would
29:22
Speaker 2: be what advice do you have for individuals who maybe
29:26
Speaker 2: struggle with this.
29:28
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I mean well the answer to question one
29:32
Speaker 1: is that just this past year, honestly, yeah, is when
29:36
Speaker 1: I've realized that because I've always been the one that
29:39
Speaker 1: gathers people and brings the energy, and you know, I
29:42
Speaker 1: love getting people together. Even like the early days of
29:46
Speaker 1: the class, I would just have these big pot lucks
29:48
Speaker 1: all the time and be like come over and run
29:50
Speaker 1: something like always just and I think it's actually it's
29:54
Speaker 1: This is also answering part of the second question, which
29:58
Speaker 1: I think addiction is to things that are not just
30:02
Speaker 1: what the normal addictions are. You know that people think
30:06
Speaker 1: about it like like whether it's an alcohol or a drug,
30:09
Speaker 1: or sex and love or whatever. It is like addictions
30:12
Speaker 1: to workouts, addictions, Like if you think about what that is,
30:16
Speaker 1: it's oftentimes that you're covering up something that's so much deeper.
30:20
Speaker 1: And if you're using movement as a way to support
30:26
Speaker 1: a deeper connection of a sense of self, that's one thing.
30:31
Speaker 1: But if you're using it because you just don't want
30:34
Speaker 1: to look at something or there's something bigger that's underneath it,
30:38
Speaker 1: that's when there's a time to pause and have a
30:40
Speaker 1: conversation with yourself around that and what part of you
30:45
Speaker 1: you need to talk to, because I think for me,
30:50
Speaker 1: it's always the moving and the gathering. It's that the
30:53
Speaker 1: part of me that was getting really active around that
30:56
Speaker 1: was a really young part that needed to be told
31:00
Speaker 1: by myself that like, it's okay, you can sit by
31:04
Speaker 1: yourself and be alone, and you can take care of yourself.
31:08
Speaker 1: You're an adult now, you can pay your own bills,
31:11
Speaker 1: You've created your own life, you know, and like, I
31:14
Speaker 1: have to have that conversation. So I think that's what
31:17
Speaker 1: sometimes that over exercise or over moving does unless it's
31:21
Speaker 1: something that you're doing or you're moving to self reflect
31:24
Speaker 1: or to explore, to create a creative opening or something.
31:26
Speaker 1: But if you're doing it because you're distracting yourself, or
31:31
Speaker 1: if you're helped into the external feedback of the world,
31:34
Speaker 1: which is quite twisted right now, of what you should
31:37
Speaker 1: or should not look like, then that's when I would
31:41
Speaker 1: ask that question, you know, I mean, and that's all
31:44
Speaker 1: of what we explore in the class is identifying the
31:46
Speaker 1: difference between the internal and the external and when you're
31:51
Speaker 1: living in the feedback of the external world and you're
31:53
Speaker 1: waiting for the external world to validate your worth and
31:57
Speaker 1: then try to figure out how to fit into what
31:59
Speaker 1: the external world tells you. It's going to be a
32:01
Speaker 1: really challenging journey through this ride, in this lifetime.
32:10
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Speaker 2: for sure. I mean it's tiring, and it seems like
34:46
Speaker 2: now would definitely be an appropriate time to talk about
34:50
Speaker 2: some of the ways that maybe you have come to
34:53
Speaker 2: manage stress, because I mean, admitting yourself that over the
34:58
Speaker 2: last year, certainly trying to find some sort of a
35:02
Speaker 2: balance between moving to serve and maybe moving a little
35:06
Speaker 2: too much to cope.
35:08
Speaker 3: I can certainly relate to that.
35:09
Speaker 2: So for you when it comes to managing stress, what
35:12
Speaker 2: approach would you offer to someone to better manage their
35:15
Speaker 2: stress that isn't only movement based?
35:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think it can't only be movement based, right,
35:21
Speaker 1: And Step one with stress is the awareness. It's the
35:25
Speaker 1: awareness that you're stressed out. What does that look like
35:28
Speaker 1: for you? Is that anxiety? Is that depression? Is that overeating,
35:31
Speaker 1: is that gossiping? Whatever it is? Right? Flag it that
35:34
Speaker 1: this is something that's saying it's alarm clock or this
35:37
Speaker 1: signal or this fire bell is going off, you know,
35:40
Speaker 1: and then figure out what that stress is coming from.
35:43
Speaker 1: And I think that if you know, for me, I cry,
35:51
Speaker 1: you know that is a good pass when i'm feeling
35:54
Speaker 1: really stressed out, I will go sit and I have
35:56
Speaker 1: a harmonium at home, and I sit down and I'll
35:59
Speaker 1: play and I'll make some sounds, and oftentimes I'll just
36:02
Speaker 1: let my body pass some tears. And for me, that's
36:06
Speaker 1: you know, it's not because I'm sad or happy or whatever.
36:09
Speaker 1: It's just it's how I'm able to process some of
36:12
Speaker 1: that stress. I think it's super important to get out
36:16
Speaker 1: of our devices, like it's super important to get out
36:20
Speaker 1: of our devices. And the way that people are managing
36:24
Speaker 1: this exhaustion, that is it stress? Is exhaustion or is
36:28
Speaker 1: it complacency or is it lack of movement? Right? Identifying
36:32
Speaker 1: what that stress is. Sometimes stress is actually that you
36:36
Speaker 1: just haven't moved your body and it needs to usher
36:38
Speaker 1: some energy. So move the body. Sometimes stress is that
36:41
Speaker 1: you're super exhausted. And to me, exhaustion is shutting down
36:48
Speaker 1: the flow of external feedback. Put your phone away, close
36:51
Speaker 1: your computer, go lay down in your bed or on
36:54
Speaker 1: the floor for twenty minutes, put an alarm on if
36:57
Speaker 1: you need, and close your eyes and just to breathe. Right,
37:01
Speaker 1: So you're just giving the body the mind a space
37:05
Speaker 1: to get quiet. And I think that it's so simple
37:09
Speaker 1: that we don't do it. It's just like, oh, I'm
37:11
Speaker 1: stressed out, you know. No, just do it and then
37:15
Speaker 1: reflect on if it helped, and if it helped, put
37:18
Speaker 1: it in your toolbox and do it every day like
37:21
Speaker 1: you drink water, right now, find these little things that
37:25
Speaker 1: shut down the flow.
37:27
Speaker 2: And I think so many of us struggle with sitting
37:33
Speaker 2: in that stillness, right in allowing ourselves to be consumed
37:38
Speaker 2: by the silence rather than making, you know, an effort
37:43
Speaker 2: to keep moving, keep going, especially I mean you and
37:46
Speaker 2: I both New Yorkers, like it's just part of our culture.
37:49
Speaker 2: But to figure out how to get more comfortable in
37:54
Speaker 2: that way and to tell yourself that it's okay that
37:57
Speaker 2: it feels uncomfortable, right, because I think that's where a
38:00
Speaker 2: lot of people struggle at the beginning, with learning how
38:03
Speaker 2: to sit still, so to speak, and sitting in that silence.
38:05
Speaker 2: That's being scared of having to navigate the feelings that
38:10
Speaker 2: come up when we allow ourselves to do that.
38:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're actually having to deal with yourself, right, And
38:17
Speaker 1: that's what like movement is, or like if you're using
38:21
Speaker 1: movement in the way I'm not just talking about physical exercise,
38:24
Speaker 1: I mean movement like constantly like always out with someone
38:28
Speaker 1: or constantly like texting people, like all of this type
38:30
Speaker 1: of like moving energy, right as opposed to having to
38:34
Speaker 1: actually sit and experience your own thinking. And the thing
38:39
Speaker 1: about that, that's all the consciousness practice, and that's a
38:42
Speaker 1: huge part of the class, right. It's a movement where
38:43
Speaker 1: you're actually actively conscious of what you're thinking as opposed
38:46
Speaker 1: to moving, so you don't have to think or have
38:49
Speaker 1: somebody tell you what to think or whatever. So that
38:53
Speaker 1: step one being aware of what stillness brings and be
38:57
Speaker 1: what we talked about earlier, willing to be okay with
39:01
Speaker 1: the thoughts because it's just a thought, right, And you
39:05
Speaker 1: can either stay with the thought and let the thought
39:07
Speaker 1: go into a thousand places of fear cycles of what
39:10
Speaker 1: is going to happen, or you can just watch the
39:12
Speaker 1: thoughts from a space of observation and realize you're okay,
39:18
Speaker 1: you're present and you're just watching your thoughts, and in
39:21
Speaker 1: that is all of this beautiful information. And if we
39:25
Speaker 1: can't get to that place where we're comfortable just observing
39:28
Speaker 1: it and being okay with like, oh, this thing is
39:32
Speaker 1: still here, and view it as information as opposed to
39:36
Speaker 1: allowing those thoughts to just work havoc on your piece.
39:40
Speaker 1: You know, it's a different type of time. But when
39:43
Speaker 1: those thoughts can be acknowledged, then oftentimes those thoughts move on.
39:48
Speaker 1: It's like it's like the young child in the back
39:52
Speaker 1: that's like screaming and having a temper tantrum inside of you, like,
39:54
Speaker 1: please listen to me, Listen to me, Listen to me,
39:56
Speaker 1: and like oftentimes experiences in our life show up again
40:00
Speaker 1: and again and again, and it's like, why does this
40:01
Speaker 1: thing keep happening to me? It's like it's that young
40:04
Speaker 1: child and you that's like, are you listening to me?
40:07
Speaker 3: Right?
40:07
Speaker 1: So until you give this, give yourself the space to
40:11
Speaker 1: listen to it, it's going to keep perpetuating the thing
40:15
Speaker 1: and then that's the anxiety, and then that's all the more.
40:17
Speaker 1: You know, So it's that space is so important, and yes,
40:20
Speaker 1: it's uncomfortable, especially because we live in a world where
40:23
Speaker 1: we're constantly bombarded with this is what you should be,
40:26
Speaker 1: this is how you should do it. Look at this
40:27
Speaker 1: over here, let me that this thing is happening over here,
40:29
Speaker 1: and you know, you know, it's like sit down, get quiet, pause.
40:36
Speaker 3: For you at the beginning of the pandemic.
40:41
Speaker 2: Even though you have certainly in your practice gotten to
40:46
Speaker 2: be better at sitting in the silence, did you still
40:50
Speaker 2: find it to be truly difficult considering all that was
40:54
Speaker 2: going on around you in your world.
40:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was pretty horrible, you know. I mean I
41:02
Speaker 1: was having to I was you know, I was having
41:07
Speaker 1: massive waves of frightening feelings coming through, and I was
41:17
Speaker 1: feeling very alone. And I was aware that that was
41:22
Speaker 1: how I was feeling, which is what gave me the
41:25
Speaker 1: ability to be okay with it, right.
41:29
Speaker 2: I think sometimes it's helpful for many, regardless of you know,
41:34
Speaker 2: marital status, geographic location, background, to hear from someone like
41:42
Speaker 2: you who often you know, talks about the benefits perhaps
41:47
Speaker 2: of being okay with being with yourself, and hearing that
41:52
Speaker 2: that doesn't mean that it's always going to be easy.
41:55
Speaker 1: Oh, quite the opposite, right. That's it's that that's such
42:02
Speaker 1: an interesting point. It's always going to be easy. It's
42:06
Speaker 1: what is easy, right. It's the next thing is like
42:10
Speaker 1: what actually fulfills you, what creates a balance inside yourself
42:16
Speaker 1: so you can understand the unique blueprint of your soul
42:20
Speaker 1: and express that outwardly, which opens up the space for
42:24
Speaker 1: you to end up in these feedback cycles of things
42:26
Speaker 1: that actually feel fulfilling because they're connected to a deeper
42:29
Speaker 1: sense of yourself and the idea that things should be easy, hard, better, worse, good, bad.
42:37
Speaker 1: It's actually taking out the idea that you have a preference. Right.
42:43
Speaker 1: We all have a preference, right, I want to feel light,
42:45
Speaker 1: I want to feel happy, I want to feel joy.
42:47
Speaker 1: But it's having the preference and then hooking into that
42:51
Speaker 1: it should only be that way. That's when you're just
42:53
Speaker 1: living in like an illusionary sense of It's the polarities.
42:57
Speaker 1: There is absolutely no grief without love. If you're grieving something,
43:02
Speaker 1: it's because there was love. It's just a cycle, right,
43:06
Speaker 1: So there is no easy unless you've experienced difficulty, And
43:10
Speaker 1: there is no difficulty unless you've experienced what light is.
43:13
Speaker 1: So just being okay with the different cycles and being
43:17
Speaker 1: aware of where you are in that cycle of rebirth
43:21
Speaker 1: something inside yourself, of whatever it looks like, aware of
43:25
Speaker 1: where you're at. And that's why I say I was
43:28
Speaker 1: feeling terrified, and I was aware I was feeling terrified.
43:32
Speaker 1: And I think reflection is such a powerful tool that
43:35
Speaker 1: you can reflect on the times that you felt really
43:37
Speaker 1: really happy and really really terrified, and you could probably
43:41
Speaker 1: go into a hundred of those and just acknowledge where
43:44
Speaker 1: you're at. Know it's going to shift. Be open and
43:47
Speaker 1: willing to learn what it is that's coming through you
43:50
Speaker 1: in that period of time so that way you can
43:53
Speaker 1: use it to evolve yourself. That's the evolutionary process, right.
43:58
Speaker 3: Yeah.
43:58
Speaker 2: And it doesn't mean that these moments aren't going to
44:02
Speaker 2: be emotional, because you understand the importance of having some
44:05
Speaker 2: grace with yourself and that these things come and go
44:08
Speaker 2: and fluctuate in waves.
44:10
Speaker 3: But I.
44:12
Speaker 2: Hear you in that it can be really difficult in
44:16
Speaker 2: these moments to kind of like find that grounding.
44:19
Speaker 3: But once you start to recognize.
44:21
Speaker 2: That you are capable of doing so, and you get
44:25
Speaker 2: out of your own way to recognize that, that is
44:29
Speaker 2: just like I mean, I would say it's a superpower.
44:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it doesn't just like you don't just like
44:35
Speaker 1: put in your tool belt and it's there. That's that's
44:39
Speaker 1: a practice, you know. And that's the thing you know,
44:42
Speaker 1: is you practice things, they become easier and then you
44:45
Speaker 1: become your practice. It's like, but you have to have
44:48
Speaker 1: that like daily you know, willingness to do it. It's
44:53
Speaker 1: like and then and then it's in you, you know. Yeah,
44:57
Speaker 1: but it's not it's not easy, something I still struggle
45:01
Speaker 1: with every day. But it's incredibly powerful and I'm aware
45:04
Speaker 1: of that. So I practice, you know.
45:06
Speaker 2: Right, and it's powerful to share that as well. Now,
45:09
Speaker 2: I'd be remiss if I didn't at least give a
45:12
Speaker 2: little bit of airtime here for us to talk about
45:16
Speaker 2: you going through yoga teacher training and after that kind
45:21
Speaker 2: of concepting or starting the class, which we touched on
45:24
Speaker 2: a little bit before. So talk to me about the
45:26
Speaker 2: decision to go through yoga teacher training.
45:30
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was at Dyor and I was there for
45:32
Speaker 1: six months, and it was a satellite office that was
45:36
Speaker 1: working for a French company and I have to go
45:38
Speaker 1: over there for market. It was just kind of like
45:41
Speaker 1: different than my years at Ralph Lauren, which it's either
45:44
Speaker 1: here nor there. I just was like I went over
45:47
Speaker 1: here thinking that, like, let's just open up a new
45:50
Speaker 1: space and new creative space, and I just felt myself
45:52
Speaker 1: even more unhappy and feeling more disconnected. I didn't know
45:55
Speaker 1: if it was like the company or the time of life.
45:58
Speaker 1: And I was interested in going back to Ralf Lauren
46:02
Speaker 1: and there was this yoga teacher training with this woman
46:04
Speaker 1: alse In West, who was one of my teachers teachers
46:07
Speaker 1: at the time, that was launching a training and it
46:10
Speaker 1: was starting in January, and I said, you know, I'm
46:12
Speaker 1: going to resign. I'm going to do this training and
46:14
Speaker 1: then I'm gonna I was back in conversations with Ralph
46:18
Speaker 1: Lauren and just you know, take a month to do
46:22
Speaker 1: this and then move back into fashion. And I finished
46:26
Speaker 1: the training. I absolutely loved it that month of just
46:30
Speaker 1: diving in. I'm such a girl that loves like blending
46:33
Speaker 1: science and spirituality, so studying something for me was really awesome.
46:39
Speaker 1: And then I was like, you know, let me just
46:41
Speaker 1: give this a couple of weeks to try to figure out,
46:45
Speaker 1: you know, if I actually want to teach. It such
46:47
Speaker 1: a conundrum. You have to teach to learn to teach
46:49
Speaker 1: and find your voice and all that. And then right
46:52
Speaker 1: after I started teaching a little bit in New York,
46:54
Speaker 1: my children's father, Mark, Mark was the same gut transferred
46:58
Speaker 1: to Boston for work. So we moved to Boston, which
47:01
Speaker 1: basically took out my ability to go back to fashion
47:05
Speaker 1: unless I wanted to find something in Boston. So when
47:07
Speaker 1: I was. I just started teaching yoga in Boston and
47:10
Speaker 1: I I taught for about two years. That's really when
47:13
Speaker 1: I found my kind of teaching style. I always had
47:16
Speaker 1: this very always music driven, always been a music person
47:20
Speaker 1: since I could remember, So I really use different kind
47:23
Speaker 1: of music to bring people, you know, through a flow.
47:27
Speaker 1: And then got pregnant with my first daughter up there.
47:30
Speaker 1: Ten days before I had her, we got moved back
47:33
Speaker 1: to New York. Moved back to New York. Wanted to
47:37
Speaker 1: teach at a local yoga studio for a woman that
47:40
Speaker 1: had passed away named Mama Kiah in her memory, and
47:44
Speaker 1: just donate the money from the yoga studio to her
47:48
Speaker 1: children that she left behind. She'd adopted, She had a
47:51
Speaker 1: children's home and prow And then I ended up finding
47:54
Speaker 1: out that that was the class was not going to
47:55
Speaker 1: get put on the schedule one day, so I just
47:58
Speaker 1: decided that I was going to teach what is now
48:01
Speaker 1: the class in a room in my building, which was
48:03
Speaker 1: then a storage closet, and then would just ask the
48:07
Speaker 1: students at the end of every month if they would
48:09
Speaker 1: donate to her children, and just kind of developed this
48:14
Speaker 1: way of moving in that space. It first started with
48:16
Speaker 1: some weights because it was three of us, and then
48:19
Speaker 1: there were too many of us, so it evolved into
48:21
Speaker 1: we all moved on the same beat, you know, and
48:25
Speaker 1: from there we just it grew and it grew out
48:32
Speaker 1: of that room, and then after about two years, I
48:36
Speaker 1: started renting a studio out of a kid's dance factory
48:40
Speaker 1: down the street, and just you know, kept growing from
48:43
Speaker 1: that space. So it was never really you know, going
48:46
Speaker 1: to be what it was supposed to be, what it
48:48
Speaker 1: is today. It just was kept moving through me and
48:51
Speaker 1: I kept saying yes. But it was really blending all
48:54
Speaker 1: the things that I've always learned throughout my life and loved.
48:57
Speaker 1: You know, I'm an efficient person. I like to get
49:00
Speaker 1: a lot of things on at once. So I was
49:03
Speaker 1: blending community with music with like deep holding contracting, with
49:07
Speaker 1: flushing the cardiovascular and changing, you know, really getting a
49:10
Speaker 1: body physically strong, while having a consciousness of practice, a
49:14
Speaker 1: space to express, to be together in community, to have
49:16
Speaker 1: a non judgmental space, you know, where you don't turn
49:20
Speaker 1: to your neighbor if they're having an emotional breakthrough and
49:22
Speaker 1: be like are you okay? You just like hold the
49:25
Speaker 1: space for them to process that, you know. So that's
49:29
Speaker 1: you know, and then here we are today.
49:31
Speaker 3: And then here we are today.
49:33
Speaker 2: Earlier, toward the beginning of the recording, you made reference
49:37
Speaker 2: to those people who may say that class is just
49:41
Speaker 2: a bunch of weird burpies with some yelling. How did
49:45
Speaker 2: you learn to let those people have their opinion about
49:50
Speaker 2: the thing that you have built and continue building regardless
49:56
Speaker 2: of that opinion.
49:59
Speaker 1: Well, I took it on as truth, and then I
50:02
Speaker 1: self hated, which is my story in my whole life.
50:07
Speaker 1: So I realized that that internal self hate, negative stuff
50:12
Speaker 1: was getting really activated, and I would go to class
50:16
Speaker 1: and teach and process it out of my body. And
50:19
Speaker 1: in that I realized that I was now becoming very meta,
50:23
Speaker 1: where I was able to have a sense of acknowledging
50:28
Speaker 1: that what the external world was doing making fun of me,
50:31
Speaker 1: doing all the things they would do, how I would
50:34
Speaker 1: use it as truth, and then I would hate myself.
50:37
Speaker 1: And I realized that I wanted to unlearn that behavior
50:41
Speaker 1: because I had a daughter, and I don't ever want
50:45
Speaker 1: either of my children to have to experience the things
50:47
Speaker 1: that I have done and said to myself inside myself.
50:50
Speaker 1: So I really, really really had a drive in me
50:53
Speaker 1: to break this chain which I feel is very much
50:56
Speaker 1: deeply embedded in my family, in both sides, my masculine en, feminine, paternal, maternal,
51:05
Speaker 1: and I would just keep going because there was something
51:10
Speaker 1: in me that was like, I needed to break this thing.
51:14
Speaker 1: I'm still very sensitive around it. It's still very hard
51:17
Speaker 1: for me. It's a daily practice. But I think that's
51:20
Speaker 1: what happens when you grow up a certain way or
51:23
Speaker 1: you're not given the tools a certain way, that it's
51:25
Speaker 1: a practice. But something in me always said keep going.
51:28
Speaker 1: I realized that there were people that the class was touching,
51:32
Speaker 1: and people that were telling me that it was really
51:34
Speaker 1: supporting their life and their process, and people would share
51:38
Speaker 1: stories with me about the ways that it did, and
51:41
Speaker 1: I just kept saying to myself, if this work is
51:43
Speaker 1: going to help at least one person, I'm going to
51:45
Speaker 1: keep going because that's it. That's how we keep moving.
51:49
Speaker 2: I think it's a really beautiful moment when we digest
51:54
Speaker 2: and truly get to a place where we're okay with
51:58
Speaker 2: recognizing that we won't be a person for everyone, and
52:03
Speaker 2: in that recognization understanding also that if you try to
52:09
Speaker 2: be a person for everyone, then you're a person for nobody.
52:14
Speaker 1: Yeah. I hear that, and It's complex though, right, because
52:18
Speaker 1: it's easy to you know, articulate and intellectualize that, but
52:23
Speaker 1: the actual going through it and understanding it's okay if
52:28
Speaker 1: who you are doesn't resonate with everyone, and that's deeply
52:32
Speaker 1: embedded in the work of the class. It's that the
52:36
Speaker 1: world needs to just show up in a different way
52:38
Speaker 1: to say, if this person doesn't resonate with me, I'm
52:41
Speaker 1: just going to let it go, but I'm not going
52:43
Speaker 1: to talk poorly and shame them and gossip and make
52:47
Speaker 1: fun of them, because then that's all that real, low
52:50
Speaker 1: vibrational stuff that makes people sick and stressed out beyond.
52:53
Speaker 1: And if we could just get to that point, like,
52:56
Speaker 1: this person doesn't resonate with me, but I'm not going
52:58
Speaker 1: to go trash them because I feel like I want
53:00
Speaker 1: to make fun of them because I'm so unhappy inside
53:02
Speaker 1: that I'm going to talk about them. You know, if
53:05
Speaker 1: we can all start to show up and take personal
53:07
Speaker 1: accountability around that, imagine where we could go.
53:10
Speaker 2: You know, Yeah, yeah, no, I definitely hear that. And
53:14
Speaker 2: it's certainly easier said than done to just like let
53:17
Speaker 2: these judgments roll off. I mean, especially in these days
53:21
Speaker 2: of social media and connectivity. It's like every second you
53:24
Speaker 2: have an opportunity to find someone who feels some kind
53:27
Speaker 2: of way about something that you're doing. But it's finding
53:29
Speaker 2: the strength within to not let these judgments be the
53:33
Speaker 2: thing that dictates how we feel about ourselves.
53:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's the idea of allowing
53:40
Speaker 1: the external world to tell you what your worth is.
53:42
Speaker 1: If we're just constantly trying to see what the outside
53:44
Speaker 1: world is. That's honestly what space, that space we were
53:49
Speaker 1: talking about earlier, That quiet time gives you. It gives
53:52
Speaker 1: you time to understand yourself that you can be so
53:57
Speaker 1: deeply connected with that that you can get a little
54:00
Speaker 1: little bit more resilient around that. Somebody can say something
54:02
Speaker 1: and you can flush it faster, you can move it
54:04
Speaker 1: out quicker. You don't own it as your truth, you know.
54:08
Speaker 1: So that's you know, what that quiet space does.
54:10
Speaker 2: In my opinion, What are you looking forward to right
54:16
Speaker 2: now when it comes to the future of the class?
54:22
Speaker 1: My goodness, gracious, there's just so much that's been going
54:24
Speaker 1: on behind the scenes, you know. I definitely think that
54:28
Speaker 1: there's this thing that happened with us during the pandemic
54:33
Speaker 1: where suddenly we became a digital company, and it felt
54:36
Speaker 1: like it was a divine and intervention that we'd been
54:39
Speaker 1: working on the digital platform for so long before it
54:41
Speaker 1: got launched, and it really was launched about three months
54:45
Speaker 1: before lockdown, so it was there. It's how do we
54:51
Speaker 1: get and allow everyone that needs this work to have
54:55
Speaker 1: access to it, you know, and how do we get
54:59
Speaker 1: ourself into a place where it's not Humans in general
55:05
Speaker 1: can understand that if we are not moving our body
55:11
Speaker 1: and differentiating between inside and outside what we move through
55:15
Speaker 1: these times, it's going to be really heavy and hard
55:19
Speaker 1: to navigate. So that's why the you know, I say
55:22
Speaker 1: that with the intent to get this to as many
55:25
Speaker 1: people as it possibly can reach and navigating that that
55:32
Speaker 1: kind of hybrid of like in person and digital because
55:36
Speaker 1: we just can't be everywhere in person, you know, and
55:40
Speaker 1: how we can do that. I see it, you know,
55:44
Speaker 1: I see it just there.
55:47
Speaker 2: I mean speaking of seeing right now, if someone was
55:50
Speaker 2: to go to your social media page, they would see
55:55
Speaker 2: a woman, a mama with almost one hundred thousand followers,
55:59
Speaker 2: founder and the EO of the class. When you look
56:02
Speaker 2: in the mirror, what is it that you see looking
56:05
Speaker 2: back at you?
56:08
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's a very That's an interesting question
56:11
Speaker 1: right now. For me, I have a like I was
56:14
Speaker 1: saying earlier, I have a very you know. Uh, I
56:21
Speaker 1: struggle a bit sometimes with the old kind of stories
56:25
Speaker 1: that come up in me that I have to talk
56:29
Speaker 1: myself into that person that you just said, and Lon.
56:32
Speaker 3: You give me an example of that.
56:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just feel I feel scared a lot, and
56:39
Speaker 1: I feel like I don't and have not caught up
56:44
Speaker 1: with the fact that I've created something that is what
56:47
Speaker 1: it is. I still go into these cycles where I'm like, oh,
56:51
Speaker 1: it's all just going to go away one day and
56:53
Speaker 1: I'm going to be homeless, you know, that kind of stuff.
56:57
Speaker 1: And I think it's just a lot of stories that
56:58
Speaker 1: come up around me when I was moving around a lot,
57:01
Speaker 1: when I was young and things were so hard. It's
57:05
Speaker 1: just very loud. So I have to do that where
57:08
Speaker 1: I'm like, I have these two girls, I've created this community,
57:12
Speaker 1: I have wonderful people around me. I have the ability
57:16
Speaker 1: to do these things, you know. So it's I don't
57:22
Speaker 1: have a part of me that goes like puff the
57:24
Speaker 1: chest up and be like, oh, I feel so great
57:27
Speaker 1: about myself. You know, it's just not there. But I
57:30
Speaker 1: don't know what that is. I don't know if that's
57:32
Speaker 1: just a part of me that is me, or if
57:33
Speaker 1: that's a part of me that I'm still trying to heal,
57:37
Speaker 1: or if that's a part of me that you know,
57:38
Speaker 1: I very much believe in just being able to be
57:42
Speaker 1: you know, I know everything can change tomorrow. I don't
57:44
Speaker 1: know if that part of me that comes up is
57:46
Speaker 1: the one that doesn't want to acknowledge it because I'm
57:49
Speaker 1: scared about not having it, you know. So I just
57:53
Speaker 1: I don't have the answer to that question.
57:55
Speaker 2: Do you find moments in your day to day where
58:00
Speaker 2: maybe you do feel more proud of yourself.
58:05
Speaker 1: Yeah. You know, sometimes when we have like town halls,
58:07
Speaker 1: company wide town halls and we're all on you know,
58:11
Speaker 1: zoom and we're talking about some really complex conversations or
58:15
Speaker 1: about all the things that we're doing or whatever it is,
58:18
Speaker 1: I just feel really proud of the team.
58:22
Speaker 3: Yeah.
58:22
Speaker 1: And you know, and I do have a moment sometimes
58:26
Speaker 1: where I doubt myself a lot. But I have really
58:30
Speaker 1: good business instincts, and I have really good instincts about people.
58:34
Speaker 1: I see things and feel things happening before they do.
58:37
Speaker 1: I've always had that weird kind of opening into a
58:40
Speaker 1: channel of something that feels very much, you know, connected
58:43
Speaker 1: to divine. I think a lot of because of practices
58:46
Speaker 1: or a higher power, call it whatever it is that
58:48
Speaker 1: one does. But I think that when I when I
58:53
Speaker 1: look around the people that I work with, that is
58:56
Speaker 1: when I'm able to feel proud because I say, if
58:59
Speaker 1: that person's yes to working with me, then okay, like
59:05
Speaker 1: there's something to this, because I'm so proud of this
59:09
Speaker 1: team and I can't believe that the people that work
59:13
Speaker 1: with me work with me. You know.
59:16
Speaker 2: Sometimes I think it's like even bigger than that though,
59:19
Speaker 2: because maybe they don't say yes to working with you,
59:22
Speaker 2: but someone pulls a chair out for you at the
59:25
Speaker 2: table just to like have a seat at the table
59:28
Speaker 2: and have an opportunity. Although it doesn't always like strike gold.
59:31
Speaker 2: I have these moments, even in the times where you know,
59:34
Speaker 2: I'm beside myself and I'm crying because the thing didn't
59:37
Speaker 2: come to fruition and I really wanted it so badly,
59:39
Speaker 2: and I started to think about what it could be
59:42
Speaker 2: and it doesn't happen. And of course I give myself
59:46
Speaker 2: that time to deal with the feelings that come hand
59:48
Speaker 2: in hand with that disappointment. But I always really really
59:52
Speaker 2: really try to come back to appreciating the seat at
59:55
Speaker 2: the table, which is hard, right.
59:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know that's a really interesting things, especially the
1:00:01
Speaker 1: way you said it, where you give yourself the space
1:00:03
Speaker 1: to process what needs to process, because it's yeah, and
1:00:08
Speaker 1: the seat. It's like, it's just what is the balance
1:00:15
Speaker 1: between being at the seat, having enough humility to know
1:00:19
Speaker 1: that anything can change it every day, being grateful for
1:00:23
Speaker 1: what you currently have, and also seeing where it can
1:00:28
Speaker 1: go without attaching if it doesn't go. There to the
1:00:32
Speaker 1: word failure, Yeah, you know, it's like, it's it's it's
1:00:37
Speaker 1: interesting because it's it's like and that's why I think
1:00:42
Speaker 1: it's beautiful for you to say if it doesn't go
1:00:43
Speaker 1: the way you don't want it to go, that you
1:00:45
Speaker 1: give yourself time to process it. I think sometimes we
1:00:48
Speaker 1: view it as failure, and it's not failure. It's just
1:00:51
Speaker 1: that I really believe in when things do not work out,
1:00:55
Speaker 1: that it's so important for us to go through the
1:00:58
Speaker 1: process of what we feel about it not working out
1:01:01
Speaker 1: and absolutely understand that it's because it's rerooting you. Yeah,
1:01:07
Speaker 1: and if we get hooked into this didn't go this
1:01:10
Speaker 1: way instead of rerouting and allow yourself to process it
1:01:13
Speaker 1: and move forward. It's only in reflection do you look
1:01:16
Speaker 1: at it and go, oh, that made sense, right, But
1:01:18
Speaker 1: when you're in it, oh.
1:01:22
Speaker 3: It's a top of the burpie ooh ooh moments.
1:01:26
Speaker 2: Yes, Well, as we wind down here, the way that
1:01:29
Speaker 2: I end every episode is by asking the same question
1:01:34
Speaker 2: right now, Taren, you mentioned the beginning of this pandemic
1:01:37
Speaker 2: being a really difficult time for you, and having trouble
1:01:43
Speaker 2: for maybe the first time or more so, and having trouble,
1:01:48
Speaker 2: maybe more so at that point than in the months
1:01:51
Speaker 2: leading up to it, finding some grace with that stillness.
1:01:56
Speaker 2: You have an opportunity right now to offer yourself a
1:01:59
Speaker 2: piece of advice looking back on that hurdle moment.
1:02:02
Speaker 3: What do you tell you.
1:02:06
Speaker 1: It's going to be okay? Take it day by day.
1:02:13
Speaker 2: I feel like that's like a mantra that I would
1:02:14
Speaker 2: be able to repeat to myself, like every.
1:02:18
Speaker 3: Moment when I get to my desk.
1:02:20
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, thank you so much for your time today,
1:02:23
Speaker 2: for your energy. So many beautiful takeaways from this conversation.
1:02:27
Speaker 2: How do the hurdlers keep up with you? How do
1:02:30
Speaker 2: they follow along with you?
1:02:32
Speaker 3: And the class? Give us all the details?
1:02:35
Speaker 1: Yes, so you can go to the class dot com
1:02:37
Speaker 1: and the digital platform has a two week free trial.
1:02:40
Speaker 1: There's one hundred and twenty live stream classes a week,
1:02:43
Speaker 1: which is so fun because you just know you're doing
1:02:45
Speaker 1: people all over the world. And then we have an
1:02:47
Speaker 1: on demand library with music collaborations and little We have
1:02:51
Speaker 1: classes for kids, we have meditations, we have yoga, nidras,
1:02:55
Speaker 1: all the things. The class dot Com is the website
1:02:58
Speaker 1: where the digital studio, as well as ways to sign
1:03:02
Speaker 1: up for in person classes in New York. We're building
1:03:04
Speaker 1: a studio in LA that will hopefully open in January
1:03:08
Speaker 1: with a class on social Media. I'm just tearing to me,
1:03:12
Speaker 1: and I don't have a big presence on there personally
1:03:14
Speaker 1: because I've had to pull back. But yeah, you can
1:03:17
Speaker 1: find us in all those spaces.
1:03:19
Speaker 3: I love that one hundred thousand people is in a
1:03:21
Speaker 3: big presence.
1:03:24
Speaker 2: I'm over at Emily Avadi and at Hurdle Podcast Another
1:03:28
Speaker 2: Hurdle Conquered.
1:03:29
Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time.