What Paige has to say…
Query: In case your yoga journey have been a guide, what would the title of the primary chapter be—and why?
Reply: “In My Day, we needed to Stroll Miles in Deep Snow to Get to College” – ha! Severely, I’ve been practising yoga for the reason that days when (particularly in case you lived within the Midwest, which I did) there weren’t fairly studios or branded props or fancy garments. My yoga journey started in a giant, drafty ballroom at my faculty. All of us wore sweats and introduced blankets to make use of as mats and did numerous respiratory and delicate motion and not using a playlist – and I used to be hooked!
I like to have fun my birthdays by going the other way up. This 12 months I made a decision to do an inversion day-after-day – I’ve been sticking to it since February.
Query: Your lessons are stuffed with sound. What’s one sound that at all times brings you again to your self?
Reply: The windchimes on my again deck – which I can hear year-round, even from inside. They remind me of what Thich Nhat Hanh teaches as a response to a meditation bell: “Hear, pay attention. This glorious sound brings me again to my true residence.”
Query: You’ve taught in all places from quiet studios to prisons. What’s one second in your instructing life that cracked your coronary heart broad open?
Reply: As soon as I used to be main a weekend yoga retreat that centered on encouraging everybody to take heed to their very own our bodies and their inside compass. Whereas providing a gradual, flowing apply the ultimate morning, I seemed round, and each single particular person was transferring at a unique tempo and modifying the sequence in a different way to satisfy their physique and intention, and I actually choked up. I spotted how revolutionary it felt for everybody to be respiratory and supporting one another as a gaggle and on the similar time being true to themselves.
“Connection Creates Resilience” is the motto of Gentle a Path (based by our personal Sierra Hollister!). It’s the group by way of which I’ve been sharing yoga in prisons and jails for over a decade.
Query: What’s one Zen instructing or meditation second that absolutely modified how you progress by way of the world?
Reply: At a sesshin (Zen meditation retreat) early in my apply, one of many clergymen main the week provided a instructing that sounds so easy and but modified how I see every little thing – and nonetheless does each time I keep in mind to recollect it! He mentioned: “Each second will be nirvana or not, it’s as much as you.” I even wrote a poem just lately, incorporating his phrase as a type of mantra.
Query: What’s one thing sudden your college students have taught you currently?
Reply: I’m continuously studying smart classes from the folks I apply with. Can I give two solutions? The great regulars in my weekly lessons are so variety to one another and so welcoming to newcomers and drop-ins, introducing themselves, serving to them get settled with props, and so forth. Their real friendliness jogs my memory often that constructing neighborhood and connection is among the most vital issues we do collectively. Additionally, I’m so impressed by the individuals within the 200-hr Educating from the Coronary heart program, who train me again and again how significant (and in addition susceptible!) it may be to dive into one thing new as an grownup (while you’re already speculated to be an knowledgeable at issues). A lot in order that I’ve invested in my first two crystal bowls and am studying to play them (with the assistance of AYC’s personal Grace Izzo) – search for sound bathing in my lessons quickly!
So enjoyable to check out yoga studios somewhere else. Right here I’m with my daughter, Ivy, at River Move Yoga, alongside the Cannon River within the candy city of Northfield, MN, the place Ivy goes to varsity.
Query: If you happen to have been to suggest a single episode of your podcast, which one would it not be and why?
Reply: One of the fashionable episodes is named Morning Movemement & Meditation. It’s a brief, 13-minute apply that invitations you to maneuver and breath by way of a easy ritual that units the tone on your day and helps you ease into it with intention. I’d love for folk to test it out both by way of my Embodied Meditation podcast archives or on the Perception Timer meditation app, the place I’ve dozens of free practices
Query: Your Autumn Equinox retreat is developing in September. What’s the magic of this seasonal pause—and why does this explicit day matter to you?
Reply: The Autumn Equinox marks our tip towards the quieter, extra introspective half of the 12 months and has a candy nostalgia about it, making it the right time to mirror on what we’re harvesting, what we’re storing for the season forward, and what we’re able to launch. In a world that may really feel loud, fragmented, and unsure, taking time to assemble with others—to pause, floor ourselves, and reconnect with pure rhythms—feels extra vital than ever.
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