Michelle & Stephanie

we'll be ready to go soon again we're not doing it again welcome it's Monday I'm sorry so we're lucky to have Michelle in the studio with us thank you for coming thanks for having me you surprised me this morning because I got this little notification that is a great little tool that I did not know existed within maps to let someone know that you're actually on your way yeah yeah I I tend to run late so my life runs late this is we're here it's fine and there's no shortage of work to ever do on a Monday so you never have to stress about being on time on a Monday all right good but I like that tool because that takes out excuses for people that says they're on their way I'm five minutes away are you share your location with me liar ah exactly accountability for my for my teens yes I need that perfect yes mind blown this morning so you and I got to talking hi welcome into your Monday I hope you're doing well in your neck of the woods whatever it is that you've got going on today and I thought it would be a great idea to have you on Monday I know Mondays are tough for a lot of people to get going the all right we're transitioning especially yesterday when it was rainy and cozy and I think people were doing a lot of in their house stuff yesterday and it football's on I know is that no no one's even watching that anymore anyway so it doesn't even matter ex um and I it was like one of those tough mind spaces yesterday for me I had to go to a um a friend of mine's mom's wake and it was yeah it was just a really I feel like R days I had like three cries yesterday just like why am I like this right now yeah it's the pre holiday like you know and things throw you for a loop like wakes funerals that kind of and then just like everyone's in general Mar mode or shopping you know this week is is Hanukkah uh we're full into the holiday season of just everything all at once and I was just really excited to have this conversation with you on a Monday in this season because you have been on this Quest I feel like your whole life for like the whole the whole thing right the wellness all of it and I myself about six weeks ago started making some small incremental Chang changes to a better me in 2024 and I figured this would be a great conversation like let's jump in and talk about all the things yoga nutrition uh Wellness um just stuff yeah all of it because all the stuff you are that way too like whatever wellness and give it to me so maybe talk about your journey a little bit um where you started and and how here wow okay so how I'm here here on the cape I was a teacher I was a health and wellness teacher so I came here in 2012 um and I spent a year teaching middle school which I love don't get me wrong I'm like bring me the kids bring me the teens not everyone's like that I love the teens um and then I had an opportunity to open a yoga studio which happens to be at mashby Commons and then I decided not to go back to school so for 10 years I've been doing that Inner Glow yoga by the way the Mas Comm yes Mas Commons been there for 10 years I'm in a second location at the um Commons so um I'm now getting um studying to be a therapist because all the tools of yoga can only go so far and something I learned that hit me was that only 3% of the population can afford out of pocket care so major problem right now major problem so I have some friends who will not be um they're all out of pocket um therapists because they don't want to deal with insurance I don't care bring it on like if we have to get paid through insurance we get paid it opens it up to more people because that's what we do as healers so it seems to be the way that Wellness is going because it's just not everything is covered not everything's covered so and I don't want to get into that whole conversation not that fun but yeah on a Monday it's way too much to think about this at 8 o' just for everything how serious but things are evolving like over the years there's been um you know reimbursement for yoga there's reimbursement for um chiropractic care and um acupuncture and all those things so it's slowly evolving but it takes so long as we all know to get anything passed or done or approved so there's a lot of nonprofits that do that and do that care one of those is we'll talk about later within love yoga Fest is one of the things that um the missions is to support organizations that do help the community and wellness so um yeah so I started gosh became vegetarian in college years ago and was that because of your studies or what was it no it just it something triggered me we had to do it a persuasion speech okay and mine was I'm gonna persuade people to stop eating meat and then you persuaded yourself right on myself yeah yeah and then it just became this natural way how I ate and every so often through the years I when I went to culinary school after college and um spent years working in restaurants and that kind of thing and the first day I walked in with my knives and my I got a job cooking in Boston so I walk in with my my whites and my night I'm all like proud am I ready and the chef said try this Dock and I'm like okay sure and I was like and so Birds freak me out a little bit that might be another show but birds kind of freak me out and I'm like I'm eating a duck oh so yeah so kind yeah no you're not the only one yeah my daughter also has this like bizarre bird phobia and I didn't really realize it until we went to one of those interactive Zoo things and she's likeing screaming and it wasn't the birds the movie Sor yeah it wasn't the movie The Birds it wasn't anything like that it was just they it's like the circling Hawks like after you so we were not eating the birds we're not eating the birds somewhere in that college exploration you decided no longer going to eat meat and it wasn't for anything other than you talk to yourself out of it which I love yeah and then I just got used to it so I was I started running in college I'm not a fast runner we were just talking about rock was support runner for rock it was amazing I was in the military uh right left right left and I will get there eventually it's not a speed competition but I won't stop that's how I roll that's my speed I love it yeah that's basically it yeah um yeah so that did start everything started all my interests were always in there and it wasn't until I was a business owner that I started sparking that business owner brain that's that's a a terrible brain for a Capricorn which we both found out yeah yeah like I'm to like we're grounded and we we like peace and calm and then accounting brain it's like numbers and just all that got do it all and for some reason I triggered that in my brain so now I'm like you know can do it all in my head it's great not always not the big num though I like talking to other female entrepreneurs because we have a whole another set I feel like of issues but strengths in our toolbox as being female I feel like um yeah it's just a little bit harder for us to be entrepreneurs because it is sometimes difficult to make these decisions yeah oh for sure and especially if you have employees which one of Avenues are we going to grow right now you know so I mean you're you're grow growing through all of these Wellness spaces exactly yeah so what I've done so when that entrepreneur brain turned on then what happened yeah turned on you know Flash Forward from college graduated in 90 I went to graduate school to become a teacher and then eventually taught family consumer science I taught Health Wellness um I taught yoga in the fette department my hometown of Framingham yay and then um Framingham North is where I went just in case anyone's curious I love it but yeah the distinction it's very much a distinction it's all one school now but it's in the north building so be like that um and then I moved here so um when I opened the studio in 2013 it was through a collaborative effort from my friends had a studio and we decided to do a popup and their studio is um in denim so we did a popup and then at the end of the summer I said you know this there's something here like I felt it and I didn't know that I never had that feeling before but I'm like this I'm in the right place and so I kept going with it and here we are you know 10 years later pretty amazing yeah I feel like it is evolutions of yourself though as my husband loves to say in our own business that we do it's the iteration I'm like how many more iterations are there forever it's forever it keeps going and going I think like a really important lesson for a lot of people it's we think that we reached something and it's like the be all end all and then it's like well now what yeah know instead of letting it evolve yeah it takes a lot to let it evolve you know and that's it takes a lot of letting go to let it the process happen and I'm in my two-thirds of the way done with my studies to become a licensed therapist and um one of the buzzwords at my school Godard college is um trust the process so we trust the process I'm like but what's the process you know what I mean sometimes we question it then what is the the golden Bachelor it's like watching that I can't trust that process I'm watching I still don't know who won so I'm not going to ruin anything for you because I didn't really watch but well that's that's just a bachelor nation buzzword is trust the process but sometimes you have to and it's that's the only way you can explain the unexplainable is just let it Let It Go seriously yeah sometimes and sometimes it's really challenging you know in relationships or in you know even relationships with your parents or with children is sometimes just like let the process happen let things unfold it's so hard because we want to control everything so in all of her free time she's putting herself back to school but when you find those like pieces of of the whole that need to be filled with the breadth of Education it's like you can't talk the talk without all the fact exactly you're exactly right and so what I found through yoga is that it's only you know getting on your mat and practicing half an hour hour 90 minutes three hour Whatever It Is by the way kind of scares me a little bit I I I don't know what it is about the yoga space that has eluded me my entire life I don't know what it is I don't know if I I naturally do it anyway it's one of those things that I kind of just piece out of my brain and I just naturally do and I don't know whether that was a military skill to survive or well it was but it was just one of those spaces where I will have the aob body experience or be like oh I was just meditating but I've never formally done it and I don't know what part of it scares me or maybe I like it too much I feel like sometimes it gets a little fanatical it's a rush you know what I mean like anything else running food good this it's one of those High I feel like a lot of people chase a little bit it's it's funny because there's a whole conversation about about that the yoga World about practicing and then you feel so incredibly amazing after like you're chasing it chasing it chasing it like like an adct you know like you're constantly chasing that high but the beautiful thing is that you can create that and release those natural endorphins yourself yeah and that's a good thing without anything on the external so um yeah not a bad thing no no but what you get used to it so what eventually happens is that you you become that okay yeah so you the way you feel after your first class second class 12th class 100th class is hopefully the same you know you're still feeling that incredible sense of peace and relaxation and calm yeah yeah oh it definitely need that I don't that's why I'm talking to you about it I'm like I don't know what about it is like frightened me I don't why yeah so I got my when I first became interested in yoga I was living in where was I living I was living in New Jersey that was fun did that for a few years um you're here I'm here you're here now I'm here on Cape Cod it's nice and happy um no I love I love living there because it was so close to the city and I worked in New York City one afternoon a week for a retired music executive who I didn't know who he was at the time but he was he's now passed but he was the um characters oh my God he was amazing amazing person and um was in recovery and like in 1999 2000 we didn't talk about recovery it's like talking about mental health we just didn't um back then and one day he was leaving and I said what are you doing he's like oh I'm going to yoga I'm like what do you mean going to yoga and he said I'm going to yoga helps me with recovery and like what's recovery you know and he explained all of this he said helps with anxiety ding ding ding ding ding so I have had a debilitating anxiety for most of my life you would never know this yeah i' because I practice yoga good morning Don Dave thank you guys for checking me out check out oh check out Ken Cal for positive affirmations I will I Love Ken he's my favorite yay I don't know we will check that out for sure debilitating debilitating anxiety and I went home and I went to the Li library and I got DVDs on yoga and practiced in my little apartment with my cats and I felt like okay this is going to help me and then I moved back to Massachusetts and in 2001 and I moved back in May of 2001 and so we all know what happened in September of 2001 crazy crazy so I had my yoga and I my I remember there was a studio that open in my hometown and I went and it was a hot um we don't use this teacher's name anymore but it's the 26 to Original Hot Yoga his name was bickram but we don't there's a lot of controversy there so we just I did one of those classes one time I am I laid on the mat with my face down sweating yes so that's yes and there was a guy in front of me with a TIY TIY tiny little bikini on and I was like I don't feel comfortable well it's 105° 40% humidity and you were not supposed to leave room I don't think that that was a starter class for me it's not a it's called a beginner series but it's not like for a lot of people it's not it's the first series yeah so I started there and I remember there were two women in the front row that well the sign said yoga I'm like oh cool there's yoga like because i' practice I want to try this I want to yeah I want to try this in like a place and not do it at home so I went to the place and there were two pregnant women I swear they were nine months pregnant in the front row and they were doing these like incredible postures and they were my drive and I'm the back row because I'm brand new so I'm not like foot wear like hand wear like where do I look and um I watch them and it just kind of it sparked something within me but the biggest thing was my mom said to me she's like something about you seems really calm and I'm like really so I there was something to it yoga just feels good I like the hot room as we age changes a little bit absolutely I mean yeah bones and yeah but it gets it's hot um and I do like the Heat and my studio isn't heated it's not cold but we don't heat it to that you know yeah will go to 80 tops and you can feel it for sure but may it's usually in the 70s we keep it in the 70s nice low humidity 70s it's good to stretch in too I mean really good yeah yeah um so that yeah that's how I found yoga was through his name was Walter yetnikoff that's who it was um and then I just kept going with it and it really made it's made a world of difference in my personal and then my professional life I never thought I'd be doing now what I but when I went to my first training but my teachers were at um through the studio I was practicing at there was a flyer for a training and I asked one of my teachers like what's yoga teacher training like what is that yeah now I was a school teacher my friend she's like do it she's like you're already a teacher yeah you're a natural teacher already so you got that background she's like do it take the training and there was with 12 women I had two wonderful teachers Abby and Sandra and it was just incredible and I kept unfolding and then I kept taking trainings and trainings and trainings and so I I keep up with it that's really important in yoga is to keep up with um the study the self-study um and there's so many Avenues too you can go down I mean for sure I had a friend of mine Chrissy who my husband used to work with and she had an epiphany cashed out her 401K went to Costa Rica and was gone for an entire year and mentored under a yogi and came back and is running her own Studio like it's it she was Allin it's one of those things you do go Allin for sure good morning Lauren we're talking to Michelle she's the owner of innerglow studios in mashby and also love yoga Fest which we're going to get exced excited to talk about coming up in a little bit but I thought it was just great to have this conversation on a Monday get our bodies going get our brains going and talk about some other Wellness practices that we can incorporate I feel like this time of year everyone gets crazy and finding your Center gets far and Far and further away we're reaching for it yeah we're we spiral this time of year and so for a natural spiral as well it gets really challenging I always say yoga is you know a lot of people say yoga saved them yoga we all have it we all have the tools we just get so far away from our natural state that we're like ah especially this time of year so it's bringing back the tools that we already have it's recognizing what we already have within us yeah they're not SK it's not hard like the the skills themselves aren't hard I mean putting your feet behind your head is but you don't have to do that yeah yeah I mean for some people that's and I'm only saying that I don't know anyone who teaches that in my studio number one or in other studios around here but um the yoga physical practice has shifted a lot there's many options for everyone in terms of class and honestly you come to a class you don't have to keep up like a boot camp you breathe at your own pace you move at your own pace it's not synchronized yeah I just feel like I need as we age uh a little bit more flexibility in my life got to this point six weeks ago where I was doing something and since I now pretty much sit all day long I was reaching for something and I was like really struggling and I said to myself we're not doing this anymore we're getting back to moving our body yeah I know we get caught up and especially the past few years where so many of us are working from home or we're back at desks and we're not mobile as mobile it's definitely um affecting our bodies and our minds so when things get caught what would you say to be a jump in point I feel like that's what a lot of people have this analysis paralysis what if I could I and then this one and then and then I don't know these people and I'm like there is a whole build up whole build to deciding you're going to change something it is is very difficult so if you're out there like I really want to do it but it's so daunting and it's stressing me out now I have anxiety thinking about doing it where's the good jump in point oh yeah anytime's a good jump in point and so basically the first thing is look at your day and what's a good time for you you do morning come in the morning if you could do we have at the studio we have nine o'clock 11 o'clock 4:30 and 6 most days during the week and then the weekends are um 9 9 and noon are yoga and then at 10:30 we have Pilates and bar so we do offer other things at the studio besides yoga but within yoga there's Yin there's restorative there's gentle there's vyasa there's um that might be all maybe that's what's like a little scary to me because I'm one of those if I don't know it fully I I don't speak the language I don't know so yeah so when we think of yoga some people have in their minds like well I can't touch my toes that's the most common thing I hear I can't do yoga because I can't touch my toes well guess what I've never heard that but I love that my like favorite thing well that's why you come to yoga so you can learn how to touch your toes you know there's certain things within flexibility that we all have naturally but also that we have to work at yeah so any any class you go to you'll gain flexibility strength balance peace calm all of it every class starts with some kind of warm-up it might be standing it might be seated you might be lying down when you start those are my favorites same okay yes I'm right ready for class I Surrender what are we doing exactly and then there's the you know the movement part like any say physical class that you might take and then there's a restorative piece towards the end and then we finish with a few minutes of relaxation it's called shavasana and that's the pro the fan favorite for sure that's where I yeah yeah I train yoga teachers they're like I'll demo shabas yeah right yes just lie down that's that's it relax yeah so any CL is set up that way it's just the the work of it in the middle say the the middle 45 minutes 50 minutes is um shifts so it might become if you think of it on an arc some arcs are lower as far as energy and some are higher so but we're not talking about like aerobics we talking yoga so you'd be surprised though some of that stretching I'm just like a lot work but we also you know if you think about as for what we do as teachers we teach you as people we don't teach poses so everyone can do everything it's and that's what's right for you so we don't force you I say yoga police isn't here today you can L your back the whole class that's my line yeah um well that's also a thing you know we are people that follow the program so when you feel like you're out of step with the class it makes you feel off and looked at so that's a really great point when I was practicing um I think I had just become a teacher and I was practicing at a studio and the class that I would take that fit into my schedule I think was called intermediate so I just think classes that have levels are BS because that's fair anyone can do anything it's the way you do it it works for you so I'm not talking about doing handstands and cartwheels and that's like that's gymnastics yoga you know and there's time and place for it but for daily practice if that's what you seek and you want that strength for some reason to be able to do a handstand yeah great go for it but for others it might be that you want to find that peace throughout your day and gain tools so that you can calm I was part of Both Worlds like I like have to do my hand down but but that's a personal goal it's a personal goal yeah there's no expectation from a teacher no and if there is then you're in the wrong class good morning Sandy Erica Sue Carrie thank you so much for joining us we're talking to Michelle owner of Inner Glow yoga in Mash P Commons and we are just talking about basically where to jump in if you've never done any yoga or maybe it seemed a little too scary because I was just saying I've it's always eluded me and I don't know whether it's because I don't speak the language or if it's more of um a for me I'm an object emotion stays in motion it's almost fearful for me to shut it down CU I'm like oh it's going to take so much work to get my gears going again honestly it really is the way my brain works sometimes so that it's a scary space for me I know I have to embrace it yeah I need to or else I'm just going to die so for some like I never a team sports person I was on pom poms I was Captain I have to announce that because it was this pivotal point my senior year in high school yeah yeah Fring him North yeah so still have the uniform my mom threw up my pom poms was devastated still have my jacket with my letter you know all these it's a big big claim to fame so I could that was the only team sport I did but I SCH moment leave her be big moment thank you thank you thank you in 1986 you so I um I tried lacrosse I love lacrosse I went to the first day of practice and I was like they're so loud why are they yelling like I'm like I'm not a team aggressive doing I'm like no no even now if I I wanted to do the roller umby yeah and then I watch some videos like they're so mean I'd be like oh excuse me I would Excel I love that it's aggression get it let me in it like oh you want to go you go okay you go ahead of me I'll just stay right here they made me fight men I'm in I'll take care of us Michelle but what I found was yeah I never thought I was competitive too funny until yeah so yeah we'll be in roller derby you'll be out there I'll punch them and then you can just skate on and for the win okay thank you open the gates I'm just gonna team sport thank you that I can handle that I can handle yeah and all have my pom PS everything exactly so yeah but I found yoga I found through yoga that I was I became competitive with myself Y and it was the same with running you know I I train to run and run up certain Hills and when I accomplished those because it's your mile markers it was me and I never knew I had that within me so I do that I did that with yoga and when I hit certain markers like being able to balance on my hands or being able to sustain a posture for a period of time or whatever it was it's never about what is going out it's all about what's coming in for me and how I embraced it so it it affected every part of my life I never thought I would be able to do I taught at an event at Gillette Stadium um yeah called yoga reaches out and it was in 20 when did I teach in 22 last year um it's every year it's the 11 years that they've been around um and that's like crowds it's it's thousand people and it's nonprofit that was eventually taken over by Boston Children's and my good friend Sarah Gardner if you're listening hi yay plug for yoga reaches out it's all for Boston shon's hospital so I was asked I've been part of that since it started as a volunteer and I've always had a team and then I was asked to teach and I'm like oh my God it's these are like um what are they call like a bucket list for yoga teachers there's like two there's like two things that I've wanted and there's one I'm still seeking but the other one is was to teach at this and I taught and it was outside on the field so imagining like the field at Gillette and all these yogis it was so cool um that was one of my things like wow okay so all this information that I have now as a teacher I can share because I had been teaching for a long time when I was asked so that was that was a pretty pivotal thing but again that was working towards something you know that was that competition Within Myself yeah and it's yoga and and it doesn't have to be that way for everybody but I found that's how I I really embraced it being a business owner I also think that no matter what you do you own a store you own a gym you own a roller derby you whatever it is you own it like you need to know every single piece of what you're promoting so I took it upon myself to be as educated I have thousands of hours ofal training my teachers in India were I just finished I think my third year working with him and it's a thousand hours I finished a thousand hours and now because you're the god you're the person that people are going to answers and you want to have them and you want to understand how to have them yeah and all of my teachers are the same all of the teachers are educated I have a certain I don't say threshold or certain you know they have to hold certain credentials to do anything for me I'm the one that gets the credentials like as the owner I have I've studied here I've studied there with this teacher with with that teacher microphones um and understanding and knowing more so my deep dive is now in arua which is the science of yoga but that's where the my worlds of food and yoga combined yeah and like literally for me crashed I was like boom wait really like I I stopped cooking for a bit I went you know I went to culinary school and I cooked and I taught cooking and all that and because of a relationship I was in I was cooking everything vegan and the person I was with not currently so I don't want anyone to think about that but just this is like years ago we talking about years ago yeah exactly he I remember he like I made this cornbread and it was vegan and gluten-free and he took a bite and then I went in my kitchen I saw her just sitting on the counter and it broke my heart so it like turned me off from cooking I'm like I'm not doing this anymore but I will say that the more I studied the more I studied yoga gain I gained confidence back and then I was like f that you know right I know know it tastes good people who I make food for like it so that was just him but it's amazing how we're affected by that yeah so I took this deep dive and I rejection I mean honestly when it comes down to it it's rejection it's difficult to take sometimes and that was a whole can't please everybody all the time and sometimes as moms and women we are people Pleasers yeah but one of the deeper levels of what I found is through my yoga practice is I didn't have that strength to step out of this relationship and then I did and I thought wow when you it's like you do one thing you could do everything kind of well that's a great conversation to have because it's a it's a mental muscle it is for sure you know it's it's a different way of thinking that's I feel like yoga is also that mental muscle that you're flexing yeah and growing that it's not just your physicality of everything it's like really that growth here as you're strengthening your body you're for sure strengthening mind yeah and you just your mindset starts to shift and again back to those like maybe more challenging in postures that some people do um is trying them out like and you know when you do something if it feels right or not and I'm not talking about like you break something please don't break anything in yoga we're well insured but please don't um but trying something you know and then you'll be surprised at like what you can do yeah you know I've never had anyone leave the studio knock on I know right don't don't open that less happy than when they walked in yeah you know and I mean there's people who are like well I like the class but you know it wasn't my regular teacher and and so there's all that stuff too and that's a whole other subject but and that has validity don't get me wrong but for the most part people walk in you might be stressed out stuck at The Rotary and mash B because your whole outside life construction on 151 like trying to get to the studio is a a feat within itself in the summer right around here so people get Studio know it's so bad what happen we're just gon to cut this road off sorry figure it out just go go there yeah it's a one way I don't care just drive C cot in the win fall and winter it's crazy um yeah so people come with all this stuff right and then maybe something happened beforehand they had a phone call happens all the time and then they come to practice and they leave like I'm so glad I came to class yeah I mean really once you leave there it's great but it's the work up get in it's the work up to get there yeah and that has to do with so much that's a whole like peel the Band-Aid and take a class yeah and come for free so just say you heard it here please do yep and if you're listening and you've been to the studio you get a free class too because that makes me so happy that you're here and listening yeah and I'm definitely going to come and take a class because I just need to to just get in there get in the practice you more than class you can have to so she's plant-based she's back to school where you know offering classes to everyone um but also you've got some really cool things that are happening in the studio right now that are just not your regular class you've got an evening with Spirit coming up which uh we've got friend mutual friends in common Y and um also some grief groups which I think is so important I feel like we're talking about the whole aspect of wellness and hi Cindy did you sit free we Cindy yes come on down do you want to go take a class with me I will take a class with you if I've got I'll take it she says yeah part of this is all about um sharing and being in the community and I have to just plug that since the Enterprise has been doing their best of we've won Number One Yoga Studio out of the five years we've won number one number one number two and then I was not having so number one number one just guys we're not going down we get the number one forever yeah but it's okay because we're in such great company with other Studios yeah and I do want to also say that yoga is all about community and that'll lead into the love yoga Fest conversation in a bit but we're all friends you know people are always so surprised with like aren't you in competition with the other Studios I'm like no go practice in Falmouth if that's where you live like go take a class I know thement to geten just get to yoga like it's you know if it's on we have virtual classes too so if that's easier for you sign up for a virtual you know there's just go practice Laur yes you're in the group me you and Cindy are gonna go we're gonna take a class come on down yeah I um yeah it's about the practice I I I belong to other Studios I have class cards at other Studios on the cape I think it's really important to support each other and also to be um to get my own practice and sometimes for me like if some of you might know this if you have your own business and you're in your business if you own a store you you're worried about everything else all the time but if you go shopping in someone else's store you have the best time it's the same thing in yoga like sometimes I just can't relax I'll hear a noise like what's that who's that who's at the door you know why is the phone ringing yeah it's your own space the light's too bright there's a dust ball under there you know and then my brain starts going and so if I go into someone else's Studio yeah I don't care yeah right just let it go yeah we've got a lot of great friends that are yogis and I just really appreciate their energy no matter where it is but they are definitely different people in their ho in their house in their space yes oh it's funny that you had mentioned that yeah and I have people one of my girlfriends stopped by yesterday and I kind of spaced but I was running a training this weekend and then I left and I just just missed her but I needed to go yeah like I needed to go and I felt so bad but I people stop by all the time and then want me to just sit and talk and I love that more than anything yeah but I'm also working so I hope that just didn't make anyone sad but no I mean that's part running a bus but I can meet anyone at Starbucks like I'm happy to step out of the studio I will go C coffee of course we'll go local y perfect go right over to Cap Cod coffee and and have have a snack you know happy to do that anytime with anybody um it's really hard we can meet at the studio do they have snacks for you oh they do right salad and Fries salad and Fries when and doubt salad and Fries friends I led that yep salad and Fries now at least I could offer that little bit of wisdom to our um wannabe uh vegans and vegetarians these are your choices yeah and when in doubt oh yeah we might have to do another show on that like how to dive in just go slow go slow you just yeah that's another thing on there so like yeah my body is not a yoga body we've already talked about this and yes maybe going slow into Less meat in our lives so everybody is a yoga body than everybody everyone can do yoga if you can do this if you can do this you know my nephew used to go is this yoga is this yoga and then he would do all these like arm things I'm like yes any way you move your body is Yoga well that's why I wanted to have you on for this conversation because it's just good to all of the things that I've heard over the years of collection and and stuff rattling around in my brain still yeah to dispel that so let's talk about love yoga Fest because this has had a lot of Evolutions it's had a lot of evolutions and I'm pumped for this year because you you're taking all of this community and all of your friends and all of the other people people from afar as well yeah thousands of people are coming to this Retreat yes so we're having a little thing keep this in mind as I'm talking about this that we'll give away a day pass o right that's exciting but what will that be you ask so love yoga Fest started in 2014 um through the wonderful ladies of live love local and um they had it for um a few years another one of the there were four women who ran it and one of them took over for a few years and moved it to seest it was in um in hyenas outside asdon park it was really cool in the summer these big tents everyone practicing yoga Marketplace if you been to live love local at anyway that their they just had their big Winter Market yeah and it's just so much fun so picture that and then yoga all over the field it's so cool so that was for a few years and then it moved to CEST Beach Hotel in Falmouth and then we had this thing happen in 2020 you know I think we're all in a blur still about that so past few years it's been kind of a a little bit of a blur um and then I took over last June and we did a couple couple of events at inglow um and then we're having the first one back at seest and in the past it's been like it's been a three-day event and I just cannot handle event so one day and what does this event entail you might be asking yes so you have a choice of up to 12 classes through the day so we have three rooms with um four classes happening in each room throughout the day they're 90minut classes some are there's an intro to Power Yoga which is more of like an intro to yoga with um Jill Abraham who owns Power Yoga in harwitch um Shera Bole is a local celebrity and author she's presenting energy work um Lauren Turner is based out of Framingham and she has an organization called Warrior within it's um yoga for um the military so she's when connecting her with awesome heroes in transition um there's there out of the some there's sound healing there's I mean there's so many things to do yeah day and we'll have a vibrant lunches or breakfast and lunch just so you know seest is a really high food budget like okay food food food food we love food so breakfast buffet it'll be all wonderful things um and then lunch you choice of a box lunch shout out to Jennifer Murphy over there working hard at the seest you're the best so Foods include um and there's a marketplace with like-minded businesses and um and Studios so you can learn more about it's not just on the C it's not just cape and this isn't just me representing from inglow this is collaboration of the yoga community so all studios are welcome everybody's welcome to this you could stop by we might be doing some drop-ins but are giving away a day pass and the value is uh$ 1999 but you have access to all classes so the marketplace the food a swag bag all the fun stuff yeah so it's going to be really fun it's 8:30 to or 800 to 5:30 actually is there still time for somebody that might be watching that has a studio to be involved in it vendors so V we're still looking for vendors um we have everything from jewelry to clothing to um Pottery to um I'll just call them chachis to anything you want to sell or promote you can do it and it's all welcome again so this is not innerglow sponsoring this this is love yoga Fest but I have to differentiate that because people think that it's just an innerglow event and it's not it's a it's a love yoga Fest event and the bigger thing with this is that it's not just getting Community together it's to support the community so every event we have 10% of proceeds go to a local nonprofit and we've partnered with wellstrong so if you're not familiar with wellstrong it's a center for people in recovery and that's in Falmouth and they do incredible yeah I mean incredible the founder was formerly with goald also does incredible work in recovery and so she founded it there's been a few different directors since then they they just do amazing things and as any other nonprofit always need support right so Community Support is the best way to do it so 10% my my goal pledging to donate $5,000 to them amazing and it's through all of you so sponsorship levels are available anything from 250 to 10,000 that'll be available on the love yoga Fest website um this week um perks include on the higher level hotel stays at CEST so you can make a retreat out of it so we're calling it a January Retreat a New Year's Retreat um by the sea but I like it I feel like January is also a contemplative time for everybody changing your regular all right what am I going to do differently so for this upcoming year yeah and there's something called a New Year's resolution and there like honestly how many resolutions have we set that we don't keep so they're more about intentions and in yoga we call it something else we don't make resolutions we do set intentions for the year and that way it takes s the like the uh pressure off a little bit but the retreat is January 20th so after the holidays after you get through New Years you kind of getting into your groove for the new year like oh cool nothing's going on in January and February around here so come to yoga y it is a good time and I find a contemplative time especially the entire month to just really what am I doing yeah what do I like what do I don't like what am I leaving off yeah and I was just introduced to a book it's the last quarter I think it's called the last quarter it's the last so if you look at the year in terms of quarters yeah like what can you accomplish within those few months so I was at a retreat in September and another presenter natana Ruth Silverman she's feel free Institute she's based out of Plymouth and she's she's teaching at at love yoga Fest as well she's a really good friend um and I was on a retreat with her and she was telling us about this book and what do we want to accomplish in this last part of the year that put so much pressure on my brain I can't even explain it oh my God like I didn't do this I didn't do that you know um but if we look at the beginning of the year yeah you know being a contemplative time what what are the goals that we want for our lives it doesn't have to be necessarily within the year within those three months but it's a nice time frame to think like okay you know not to lose weight not to do any of that stuff because anyone who has those goals will have the same goals every year I'm just gonna throw that out there yeah so it's about shifting your mindset and perspective of what are the things I want to do that are really great for me yeah you know so maybe it's practicing yoga and it's taken me a long time to finally have this conversation where it's just like we're making incremental changes we're making small shifts in the way we're doing things it's not gonna because I'm an extreme All or Nothing person I was gonna just yeah so this is a big thing for me yeah to be able to do this so finally but we do that we look at everything as big like I mean I'll do that sometimes too I'm training for the Boston Marathon and I'm like that's big just so you know long race which is also on my list of things I would like to accomplish at some point in my life yeah I'm going be 55 in January like I'm these are goals that is a goal for me so I'm in training right now and I've run a marathon before yes so if anyone's out there thinking like this is what you should do and if you run a marathon part yes I ran San Francisco but can do this 10 years later no it's longer I ran in 2010 yeah so it'll be 14 years I ran a marathon and like I was a support for rock but I'm slow I'm just sharing that but what I shifted you're going to be a support Runner this year cuz my team needs it and I'm I just go I just go yeah and I have like endurance most of the time if I'm well trained but um it's not about how fast I'm going I think in rock we have to stick with a 10-minute mile like because we don't want to like be one but tag go ahead just go let the other person go I've committed my time I'm still here rolling around don't worry about it it's so much fun so if you're not familiar but I like that it's not the time it's not the time commitment it's I start a dialogue with myself we all know I talked to myself a a month prior to actually employing anything oh gosh yeah but we can talk ourselves out of it so EAS 100% but she's been good lately and we've been talking ourselves into things but it takes it's a slow roll to get me to go okay we're that shift is very difficult yeah so yesterday was funny I was at the studio and I was finishing up a training and then next door to the studio and then class was starting so I opened the door and I like see people come Hi how are you and I'm getting hugs and and then someone brought a friend and she's I'm like this is what we do every day we just hug and say Hi how are you go practice yoga but life is great and it was really funny I thought about it that was all it was but that it kind of is though so I want to just throw that out there if you come to love yoga Fest you come to the studio you come to anything the events we'll get back to that too actually about um yeah before we go 16th yeah um that you're always greeted with a smile and if you're not call me I'll be very upset Michelle I was not greeted with a smile today I don't know what the problem is yeah somebody was rude yeah like that should not happen in studio I couldn't imagine getting that call but then again this year has just shown me we we get those calls exactly and we yeah and we're always ProMed a good time yeah I've had people come in crank and we just them we just nice nice nice them you know people come and cranky all the time I cranky sometimes we just nice nice like it's okay we'll take wonder and not I'm not being condescending like absolutely true but that's you know part of your job it's the aura that's what people are seeking when they come to you but that's how we feel Serenity yeah Ser yeah so I'm doing my internship at Falmouth High School yay AWS y I love it so I'm even wearing my burgundy today sorry I know we're all but I'm my husband's fouth Kid born and raised I'm married to Towny I'm I'm one mile from the border it's on my run route I love it um what was I gonna say about that oh we're just talking about Serenity and you're doing there's a we have a sign in in the room so Tracy and Dre if you're listening this is about the sign so it says serenity now and then there's when Tracy's not there she's the director of this whole thing's incredible work that they do there um my wonderful friends um but there's somebody who works for the school and he'll come in and hang up the Serenity Now sign funniest thing yeah I'm like yeah it's good so we need those signs everywhere remember that visualize that imprint that on your brain so now like anytime you're at stoin shop or you're at um you know when the the self Checker yeah does not recognize your code take your inner George castanza and put him aside exactly take him out oh my gosh yes yes yes yes um yeah so in December so it's a busy time at the studio of gift certificates for sale we have class card specials right now year this a nice thing I know no one we're not talking a gym membership here we're talking about give a class or maybe we're going to make a class because I've made this distinction even in my own household that we're giving experiences we're doing experiences we're doing things together we're going on trips we're doing Wellness whatevers we're we're you know we're going to try this yeah and I think that that's awesome that's a great gift to give somebody is maybe um a ticket to this fabulous day of Wellness this Retreat yep so yep absolutely so we love yoga Fest will be doing gift certificates reach out to me my info is on anywhere yeah right I will share it with you we'll drop it in all of the chats to make sure if you're interested in getting a gift certificate for love yoga Fest and we are doing a special okay so it's usually $199 um I took it would be 149 so I'd spend 150 to go for a whole all classes lunch classes taking two meals yoga classes um you know there's Raffles and all kinds of stuff going on throughout the day but just for a whole day of wellness and to be in community with my friends like yeah I definitely spend that yeah the ticket just so you know the tickets used to be 249 and I thought that was a little too expensive we kind of like re we regrouped a lot of stuff over the past few weeks so the price has been dropped to$ 1999 but we're having a special for $49 um if you're interested in joining as a vendor as a um sponsor because sponsorship helps us give more money yeah to wellstrong um and help us run things you can sponsor the marketplace Cape Cod life is our in-kind sponsor and they're in charge of the marketplace um as well but sponsors for anything and then any Studios if you're listening we'd love to have representation for Studios on and off Cape I love it yeah then the studio um on the 16th we have yoga for grief I want to hit on that for a second it's a workshop I run with another teacher Sue Anderson um much needed yeah it's tools of the tools of yoga and applying it to to grief so I'm gonna rewind back to when I was 24 a few years ago last week and I lost exactly right and I lost someone really close to me uh to suicide and it's 30 years in August it was 30 years but when that happened I was like wait what you know and my curiosity peaked I became a seeker and I was always a Seeker but that started my path in all of this I became you know like I said I became vegetarian I was curious about that but when he passed I was really confused it's a shock and sad and shocked and so I'm running for running Boston for the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention it just seemed like a natural fit to for awareness M and back to yoga you know my friend and I are doing this Workshop because I've lived with that grief and it was debilitating for years and it kept me from doing a lot of the things but yoga is what really helped me get out of that and it was understanding that I'm in control of my life I wasn't in control of his choices or anything that he did and I don't need to understand why it's just I need to understand myself better and be at peace with it and like okay that was something that he did he didn't do it to me and we we go through these stages yeah what could stages yes oh big time and the guilt and the a lot my anxiety got really bad because I thought I was a horrible person that I couldn't have stopped this and there there's so many things we could go on that for hours but what I found is that teaching this workshop with the focus on Grief helps relieve it it changes your mindset a little bit Yeah so through breath work journaling gentle movement of course and being in community and being with people who are like-minded and just sharing and whatever that grief is we've had people come who have ended relationships it wasn't a death yeah or lost a pet you know the stages of grief are shared amongst every aspect of Our Lives we go through those same emotions feel the same same I mean don't get me wrong there's extremes of course yeah uh and there's and I experienced one of those this year and it was it was absolutely devastating and we had two suicides in a month and I was just coming back from dealing with one situation I had to go DJ the dance marathon and I'm watching all these beautiful dancers doing you know interpretive dance and I'm balling my eyes out and it was one of those moments where I was like these mothers probably think I'm insane doing this but it was just that total release of all of that feeling and it you know that helped me in that moment um I didn't suggest that I wouldn't suggest that a release but I mean it gets stored and you don't even feel like you're feeling it so I mean I really do suggest that you even step into something like this to kind of see where you're at with things sometimes you don't notice it until it's so overwhelming and you don't have to let it get so overwhelming um I think it's important to it's a tool it's a tool and the a regular yoga practice helps keep us open so that our emotions don't get stored in the body and since we've been a little bit I think we've get we're getting better at the mobility piece since we were stuck at home you know in the pandemic and we're we're all like ah get me out of the house I need to move um but because of that and a lot of us are working from home that we're we're rounded we're holding stress in our shoulders our necks our hips and um and other parts of the body too like your pinky toe like you might even know not know it but it could be there it's got a crick I know it grief stress but our emotions get stored in the body and so when we're stagnant it gets worse and worse so when you are dealing with something some kind of a loss it's so overwhelming but if you have that consistent even getting up there's little things you can do in your day just do some you know little move that hurts actually move your head from side to side it'll get better in a second it's like how I slept you know rotate your wrists rotate your ankles roll your shoulders do figure eights with your hips you know there's so many things you can do you work through all of your joints within the day that's yoga just saying it doesn't have to be like Warrior one I didn't do my bridge pose today like I didn't get my practice in no it's like this is your yoga like if that's what you do in a day and it could be 5 10 20 in in arua the science of yoga aric practitioners say that if you go see them you only see them once because they identify what's going on they treat Wellness yeah and treat the give you a a you know a path to live um and a prescription basically of how to live according to your body type or your DOA and um doctors will say take this pill right so when you're taking that pill you're not handling everything you're not managing all right but if you're taking the prescription of Wellness you're moving your body you're eating you don't have to be vegan I want to be really clear about that it's not for everybody yeah but eat mindfully and choose foods that aren't processed if you eat meat maybe even raise your own chickens I don't know if I could do that and kill the chicken and eat it we we didn't kill the chickens I don't think I could do that there wasn't enough meat on them yeah well there's that too yeah that was a funny thing when we were raising chickens as my husband's like I don't think that would even feed us that's off their their eggs are worth more oh my God like we couldn't do it couldn't do it yeah or like any kind of like I don't know I'm just not a mediator so it's hard for me to even say that but but for people who eat meat you don't have to raise it yourself but buy you know free range buy organic buy there's so much stuff especially on the cape we have a lot of stuff in our land and water and um we use wal and meat services and I appreciate it's all farm from New England so it's a farm and I yeah I really like it and I feel better about not feeding my kids a bunch of hormones it's I feel better about it whether it's real or not it's in my brain allow it yeah exactly it's one good thing I'm doing for them okay and my son is a giant so I don't know whether that's hormones or what yeah he's pretty tall I'm working on it he's eating me at a house at home that's a whole another conversation so if you're interested in the not the food I do um private consultations with that too so if it it's the whole thing right your whole package we're trying to do better right we're being here yeah we're trying to live more Mindful and careful lives and and it becomes habit after a while you know I went to think I went to the market last night and I was looking and like even just the buying crackers like sometimes I'll make crackers but sometimes I don't have time to make crackers right it's a thing you can make crackers it's really easy actually um but I was was looking at like Wheat Thins who doesn't love a Wheat Thin right right and then I bought the like Nature's promise version because it I just feel better exactly yeah um but if you want to learn how to make crackers we can make them in my cook I like that Workshop I'm a fan of that yeah honestly it's just a snacky staple I think it's great yeah I'm releasing that cooking schedule for classes I teach I was teaching through Mash p r it might be through the Falmouth um Falmouth Community School we're looking at some dates for classes and um in the old home at kitchens if you will I love it good work consumer science it's called now perfect and we'll be doing um eating for the season in March um nourish your innerglow is um the cooking side of innerglow and so nourish your innerglow will be a workshop that I'll talk about the season and the foods of the Season well you're just going to have to keep coming back because I do like chatting with you and then yoga of course Kiren vanderbel who's incredible teacher she teaches yoga I do the food and that's coming in March so stay tuned for that too I love it yeah love yoga Fest grab your tickets now Michelle let everyone know how to get a hold of you and then come take a class with me we're going we're going to innerglow go with her yeah I'll meet you there yeah right what's your website okay so start with the studio innerglow yoga capecod.com then our school so if you're interested in taking continuing education or learning more about yoga through a student and teacher training next one starts in March that's capecod yoga school.com and capecod yoga school you can there's a link on there's a tab on the inglow page so okay just go to inlow you can find everything love yoga Fest we're adding a tab it's not there yet but love yoga fest.com for all the festival information January 20th at the seest grab your tickets because they're on sale right now yeah they're after this going pretty fast especially having a sale the sale's not on there yet so reach out to me and I'll we're work we'll have the discount code worked on this week perfect takes me a little time to get things done but well you're not doing anything with your time or anything God Michelle yeah I'm excited for all of the things that we're going to be doing with Inner Glow yoga make sure you find Michelle and you can give them a call 4779-6 42 it's yoga if you forget the number it's 477 yoga like literally everybody have a great day I will see you in in class Michelle you are coming back you better at any rate and everyone else have a great wonderful day um don't forget a couple of programming notes we are out tonight you want to flex your brain muscle we've got some trivia for you over at dos 6 until 8 we are in 151 in Mash P um our Christmas markets I hope the weather is going to be with us this weekend we have been having a great time including the goat yoga goats that we played The Nutcracker over gave them some tutos um it was absolutely a sight to see that's great so we had a good time with that we've got another performance coming up on the 17th so make a note and uh hang out with us here on Lemon Ado we appreciate you Michelle we'll talk to you soon yeah thanks for having me bye guys