Shana Meyerson | Believing in Yourself, the Inevitability of Failure, & the Journey from Ivy League to Yoga Instructor

“If you want to be remarkable, you have to believe in yourself. Doesn’t matter how many people in the world believe in you, as long as you believe in yourself, you can do anything.” ~ Shana Meyerson

Guest Bio: Shana Meyerson is the globally acclaimed creator of YOGAthletica and the Handstand Breakthrough Revolution. She started teaching yoga in 2002 and is widely considered to be one of the most effective and engaging instructors on earth today. Teaching from absolute beginners through the most advanced students, Shana has a special gift for getting just about anyone into just about any pose they could possibly imagine.

SHOW NOTES: 

• Website(s): https://YOGAthletica.com
• YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@yogathletica
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shanameyerson/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yogathletica/

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CORE THEMES, KEYWORDS, & MENTIONS:

• Believe in yourself, praise, overachiever, Stamford University, feeling inadequate, feeling inferior, Jewish-American girl, yoga, yoga class, praise, confidence, perfectionist, egotistical gratification, letting go of your ego, ego, humility, sensory perception, UCLA, freelance writer, mini yogis, yoga athletica, finding the right yoga teacher for you, entrepreneurship, Ivy League education, formal education, higher education, handstands and self empowerment, faith 

For more Remarkable Episodes, Inspiration, and Motivation, please visit https://davidpasqualone.com/remarkable-people-podcast/. Enjoy!

Transcript

Shana Meyerson | Believing in Yourself, the Inevitability of Failure, & the Journey from Ivy League to Yoga Instructor | 16 Sept 2024, Episode 1018

Welcome to the Remarkable People Podcast!

David Pasqualone: Hello, friend. Welcome to this week's episode of the Remarkable People Podcast, the Shana Meyerson story. This week, you're going to hear about a lady who was an achiever her entire life, how one moment blew up and derailed her entire world, so to speak, and not just in one isolated area, but in many.

[00:00:24] David Pasqualone: You're going to see how this impacted her life, but how she also learned to believe in herself, how to fall, how to pick herself back up, and then how she learned to help others also do the same. You're also going to hear about a woman who was supported by her parents, but then while she's attending an Ivy League school that they're paying for, she had to turn around and tell them, Hey!

[00:00:51] David Pasqualone: Thanks for forking out all this money, but I'm going to be a yoga instructor. So you're going to see how that went down, how it ended, and you're going to learn during this episode about, again, believing in ourselves, about it's okay to fall, and so much more. So we're going to take a short commercial break from one of our affiliate sponsors, and then we're going to get back to our episode in time together with our remarkable friend, Shana Meyerson.

[00:01:20] David Pasqualone: Enjoy. 

[00:01:21] Welcome to the Remarkable People Podcast!: Listen.

[00:01:23] David Pasqualone: Did you ever have one of those nights where you kept waking up for different reasons? Not necessarily that you were physically uncomfortable, but your mind's racing. You get up, you get a drink, you use the bathroom, you go back to bed. I had one of those nights last night and it happened to me three times.

[00:01:44] David Pasqualone: All three times I got back in bed, I was like, ah. And the reason was seriously MyPillow. I love MyPillow, as you've heard me say on my podcast, on my website, on social media, in person. I truly love MyPillow. They're more than pillows. They have over 250 plus quality products mostly made in America, and they are best in class.

[00:02:14] David Pasqualone: Everyone I've used. Pillow sheets, blankets, slippers, mattress toppers bath towels, kitchen towels, and more. So last night when I'm exhausted but having a hard time sleeping, I take my MyPillow, I have the Giza sheets on it, and they just feel cool and comfy as I lay on my three inch MyPillow mattress topper 2.

[00:02:38] David Pasqualone: 0. I was snug and cozy and it put me right back asleep. So even though I woke up three times, it wasn't because the pillows, the sheets, and the mattress, it was because my mind was racing. And that's what the podcast is for, to help us point to God, God will show us how to wipe our minds clean and sleep like a baby.

[00:03:00] David Pasqualone: But in the physical realm, MyPillow will help you do it. So go to MyPillow. com forward slash Remarkable. Use promo code Remarkable. Enjoy 30 to 80 percent off everything you order every time. Save a ton of money for your family. Sleep better than you probably ever have and support a great American company.

[00:03:23] David Pasqualone: Run by great Americans. So I'm David Pasqualone. Let me know how you love your new MyPillow products when they come in and enjoy this episode now with our remarkable friend, Shana Meyerson.

[00:03:36] Welcome to the Remarkable People Podcast!: Listen.

[00:03:37] David Pasqualone: Hey, Shana, how are you today? 

[00:03:42] Shana Meyerson: I'm doing great. Having an awesome morning and ready for the rest of a great day.

[00:03:47] Shana Meyerson: How about you? 

[00:03:48] David Pasqualone: Man, I'm doing remarkable. It's been fantastic today. Busy, but great. And I just told our listeners a small bit about your episode and what to expect, but right out of your mouth. If our listeners stick with you through this entire episode, they're going to get tips and information they can glean from and better their life.

[00:04:08] David Pasqualone: But if there's one truth or one technique or one principle that you promise you're going to share with them today that they can apply and run with in their life to have even a better existence, what would that be? 

[00:04:21] Shana Meyerson: If you want to be remarkable, you have to believe in yourself. Doesn't matter how many people in the world believe in you, as long as you believe in yourself, you can do anything.

[00:04:32] David Pasqualone: Beautiful. And we always go through the show chronologically through life, from birth through today, because everything that happens to us, good, bad, ugly, pretty, pretty ugly, it all makes us the men and women we are today, right? So you grew up in a super nurturing household and everybody was encouraging and passed us down for generations, right?

[00:04:52] Shana Meyerson: You might be being sarcastic. I am 

[00:04:54] David Pasqualone: being very sarcastic. 

[00:04:56] Shana Meyerson: I actually am blessed that all of that [00:05:00] does apply to to my life. I, I had and have an incredibly nurturing family, parents, grandparents, and family structure. So I, I, I am blessed beyond belief in that respect. 

[00:05:14] David Pasqualone: Well, start from the beginning.

[00:05:15] David Pasqualone: Tell us, what was your child look like? Childhood like, your upbringing, brothers, sisters, mom, dad. Where did you grow up geographically? Cause we have listeners from all around the world, different cultures, different countries. So start with your life. 

[00:05:28] Shana Meyerson: Yeah so I was born in upstate New York, though I moved to California when I was eight, so I don't associate very much with New York, but my family is definitely a very New York y family.

[00:05:41] Shana Meyerson: Most people see the New York right through my parents in particular. I have three siblings and I grew up in a I would say traditional but not religious Jewish home. We are very, very close with my grandparents and cousins growing up. And honestly, family has always been extremely important to us.

[00:06:07] Shana Meyerson: Growing up, I would say that I was a very, very typical middle child. There were four of us. My older sister got the privilege of being the oldest. My little sister got the privileges of being the youngest. My brother in the middle with me got the privileges of being the only boy. And then there was me.

[00:06:30] Shana Meyerson: And I think I I played that role very, very close to the expectation, which is to say, classic overachiever. 

[00:06:43] David Pasqualone: All right. And then you're growing up, you said, and I was being sarcastic at the beginning because most people don't come from a loving, nurturing home. So even though you moved to California, did you have a family structure in place there?

[00:06:55] David Pasqualone: Was it just your immediate family? What was that like? 

[00:06:59] Shana Meyerson: Yeah, no, we so I, I'm 53 now. So just to put this in perspective. So in 1979, my family came out to just visit. My father had a cousin in Southern California. We came to visit them and in 1980, we moved out. My parents were like, yeah, no, this is where we need to be.

[00:07:20] Shana Meyerson: So With the exception of this one cousin, we were pretty much on our own as this piece of the nuclear family. 

[00:07:31] David Pasqualone: Okay. And then, you're growing up, you're the overachiever, what's that mean to you and how does that play out in everyday life? 

[00:07:41] Shana Meyerson: Now or then? 

[00:07:43] David Pasqualone: Back then, back then. 

[00:07:45] Shana Meyerson: Right. So I guess that growing up, I was, the easiest way I could term it would be just like a praise junkie, I could do no wrong.

[00:08:00] Shana Meyerson: And therefore I was always, you know, winning all the awards and getting all the praise and, and, and I expected all that. I didn't think there was anything special about. I guess the, the special things that I was accomplishing in fact, I felt as if that were my imperative rather than an option. And it's very interesting because I felt like I always had to be, you know, straight A, AP student, captain of the teams, you know, president of the clubs and, and, you know, just, just go down the list.

[00:08:41] Shana Meyerson: That, I became very, very judgmental of myself, very unaccepting of any foibles of getting, you know, a question wrong on a test, or, you know, losing a game of something, and it made for a very dangerous precedent once I got into the real world, because once you get past about high school failure is very easy.

[00:09:08] Shana Meyerson: Inevitable, okay? In a lot of different terms, in a lot of different ways, and I use the term failure very loosely because I don't believe anymore that there really is failure so much as falling, and we get to choose whether to fall up or fall down. And that's something I really had to learn in my, in my twenties.

[00:09:32] Shana Meyerson: And, and I would say ultimately when I discovered yoga just weeks before my 30th birthday was when I really started to understand the concept of being okay with myself as I was even in my. Perfect imperfection.

[00:09:51] David Pasqualone: So between the overachiever in school and now 30 and what you're talking about kind of finding this piece of [00:10:00] yourself, is there anything we skipped in your life story that's significant that's going to play in down the road? 

[00:10:06] Shana Meyerson: Yeah, I mean I would say that the most significant thing that happened relative to that piece of my story is that I did not Even at 53, it's hard for me to say sometimes.

[00:10:22] Shana Meyerson: I did not get into Stanford, which was my, my life goal. Now, now that might not seem like a big deal to a lot of people because You know, it's one school and who cares? But going back to the praise junkie thing and this feeling that, you know, failing or falling is failing, I was Not just devastated emotionally, but I think that my whole sense of self, like my whole confidence structure, like completely crumbled that day that I got that, that thin envelope.

[00:11:03] Shana Meyerson: And for the next, so I was 17. So for the next 13 years or so, I really, really felt inadequate, unimportant like a complete failure. I carried that with me to such an extraordinary extent. In fact I mean, it's a little funny in retrospect, but not really. When I Got that letter and I was I was playing the USTA junior circuit, the tennis circuit, and I had a tournament that weekend and in which I was the number one seed and which, which means among other things that your first game or your first match is going to be against probably the last seed, right?

[00:11:53] Shana Meyerson: And I lost The first game, okay, not even a set, not a match, the first game, which as you know, could be as few as four points, right? And I walked off the court and never went back to tennis. That's how Much, I believe my life had literally ended that day that Stanford rejected me. I mean, it's funny now, but it was, it was not, believe me, it was not the least bit funny back then.

[00:12:25] Shana Meyerson: I really, 

[00:12:25] David Pasqualone: not at all. And the thing is there's people listening, men and women around the world who've had similar experiences. So it's not that we go through the experiences, how do we overcome and achieve and work through it? So, looking back now, talking to yourself then, now, talking to our audience, what would you recommend, in hindsight, you know, the perfect 20 20 vision, if you were talking to your young self or someone today listening who's going through the same struggle, they just got rejected, And in reality, it's not a big deal, but they feel like they lost everything.

[00:13:00] David Pasqualone: What would your advice to them be? 

[00:13:02] Shana Meyerson: Well, to me, there's this interesting concept that, let's say I am the, everything that I am, right, on whatever, I don't, I don't know what date, let's say April 14th, whatever, 1989. And on that day, from the moment I received the letter, to the, from the moment before that moment.

[00:13:30] Shana Meyerson: Nothing changed, right? Had I gotten a thick letter, it wouldn't have made me a different person than the same exact person that was rejected. And quite frankly, when you get to the level of, say, Stanford University, at some point, the admissions process is to an extent arbitrary, meaning there's only so many kids with a poor 4.

[00:13:53] Shana Meyerson: 5. Who are the president of this and in, you know, the captain of that and the winner of this. Every single person who applies to Stanford has your same resume and there's only so many kids who are going to get in. So to say that I would have been something had I gotten in, but because in that moment I didn't get in and therefore I was relegated to Nothing was an absolutely ridiculous binary.

[00:14:23] Shana Meyerson: It just wasn't true in any way. And I think that that's something that I really carried with me in the last, say, 20 years of adulthood or so, where I can't let the decisions of the world around me affect my perception of who I am because it could have just as easily gone the other way and it would not have made me a different person.

[00:14:49] Shana Meyerson: It just would have made me a person with a different decision.

[00:14:56] Shana Meyerson: Does that make sense? 

[00:14:58] David Pasqualone: Yeah, it makes total sense [00:15:00] there. The way other people look at us doesn't define who we are. 'cause there's people who think really high of you. There's people who think really low of you. There's people who think kind of on target, but the only opinions that matter is God is in our God, in our own.

[00:15:15] David Pasqualone: Everything else is just icing on the cake. So to help. Work yourself out. What did you do to overcome this? What did you do? What were the things that happened in your life and maybe it's a process? So we'll continue from that point through today or is there like a one two three steps that you looking back figured out to help you overcome and Just be like it's not that important.

[00:15:37] Shana Meyerson: Yeah, i'm honestly it I carried that with me until my first yoga class and to say that It all sort of shifted gears in a moment is hardly an exaggeration because when I went to that class and it was strangely humbling in how difficult it was much more so than I was expecting it to be it was the first time in my entire life and, and I, This is no incrimination of my parents.

[00:16:11] Shana Meyerson: My parents, again, were amazing parents. They did everything exactly the way they thought they should. They praised me for everything, and it wasn't because they wanted to coddle me, right? It was just, they That's the kind of parents they were and what it built in this like sort of perfectionist paradigm for me was not their fault.

[00:16:33] Shana Meyerson: It was my own fault. But when I got to yoga, it was the first time I think in my life that anybody told me that it was okay to fall. And that was such a profound revelation because I'm like, wait, what? Like, what do you mean it's okay to fall? Why didn't anybody tell me this when I was three? You know, and the reason was they didn't really have to because I wasn't falling, right?

[00:17:03] Shana Meyerson: But I did at 30 and way too late finally find that reinforcement that I really was lacking for the 13 years in between that rejection letter and the, and my first yoga class. 

[00:17:23] David Pasqualone: And what was that like? So every human's different. Every experience is different. I remember people were telling me how hard cycling classes were and when I was in shape, I'd go and it was a breeze.

[00:17:33] David Pasqualone: I went to yoga and I was like, I'm dying. I couldn't stand up. I was shaking. I was humiliated. It was awful. But I was like, I got to keep practicing this because I really bad. So what was your yoga experience like? 

[00:17:51] Shana Meyerson: Well, I, I can't say it wasn't that traumatic. I, I was, I think that. I hate to say this. I was sort of a natural, like I took to it very well.

[00:18:05] Shana Meyerson: I wasn't falling all over the place. It was hard, it was sweaty, it was physically challenging, but I could do all the poses and you know, I would say overall it was egotistically gratifying. Which is interesting because it only took me about I don't know, maybe a year to understand that the point of yoga is not egotistical gratification.

[00:18:30] Shana Meyerson: In fact, it's exactly the opposite. It's letting go of your ego. And so it was only when I started switching to the classes that were doing all the crazy arm balances and inversions and contortions that I couldn't just do right out of the gate. That I was really able to step into my power, which was encapsulated in combination of being able to do things and not being able to do things and knowing that it was okay to fall as long as I got back up.

[00:19:05] Shana Meyerson: It's never okay to fall if you just lie there and say, I'm done. But if you fall, as Bruce Lee said, I think it was Bruce Lee, seven times and get back eight, you're, you're on the right course. 

[00:19:19] David Pasqualone: Yeah, that's actually all over the Bible. A just man falls seven times and rises up again. Oh, and here I am 

[00:19:26] Shana Meyerson: giving the credit to Bruce Lee.

[00:19:28] David Pasqualone: If it, if it's real, it's from the Bible, Old Testament, New Testament, whatever, you know, people, you know, Like you said, you're from a Jewish background. It's in the Old Testament more than it's in the New Testament. I remember in college when I taught, this kid quoted Spider Man, to whom much is given, you know, your response or whatever it is.

[00:19:49] David Pasqualone: That cheesy Stan Lee line. That's from the book. To whom much is given, much is required. If anything great short term and longs out there, it's God. But, but 

[00:19:58] Shana Meyerson: It is pretty [00:20:00] amazing how prophetic the Bible, and again I'm talking about, well what I would call the Torah, what you would call the Old Testament, and the wisdom of the New Testament.

[00:20:10] Shana Meyerson: It's so prophetic that it's, it's almost, I hate to say it, it's almost like aliens came from the future and said, hey guys, here's the roadmap. Everything you need is here. Read it carefully. Yeah. 

[00:20:28] David Pasqualone: You know, 

[00:20:29] Shana Meyerson: it's like every time we hit a new life crisis, you could find a passage that addresses it to such an, like, eerie extent that it's like they wrote it today.

[00:20:45] David Pasqualone: Yeah, that's, I mean, we, everybody from our, I think we talked about this on our pre show, we have listeners from all around the world, different belief systems, and people come here because they know we have honest and real conversations, and they know what we teach works, right? So what you're teaching them today, they can apply their lives and grow and better themselves.

[00:21:03] David Pasqualone: But I come at everything from a Christian worldview, and there is nothing, there's not one thing I can find in the Bible that isn't true, and like you said, everything going on today, it's not like, You're trying to make it fit. It's the living word of God and it, it's alive and it changes and you could read the same chapter and verse 18 times in a row for 18 days and then one day it just speaks to you differently and it's right what you need, right?

[00:21:30] David Pasqualone: So I agree with you completely. Except the alien part. I think God wrote it, not aliens. 

[00:21:35] Shana Meyerson: I'm joking about the aliens. I'm just talking about that. It's like a message from the future, even though it's a message from the past. It's so, it's so profoundly prophetic. But I actually feel exactly the same way you do that, that it literally morphs in, in, in such a surreal way.

[00:21:54] Shana Meyerson: That sometimes I question Did it actually change? Like some weird cartoon where all of a sudden the letters change on the page and you're looking at something totally different because it doesn't matter how many times you read it. It doesn't matter how many times you go over like the same exact passage.

[00:22:13] Shana Meyerson: I actually have the same experience, not to belittle the Bible, but with the Yoga Sutras, which is sort of like, it's not a Bible because it's not religious, but we call it like sort of like colloquially the Bible of yoga, but I can read the same insight. five times a year and get five different and I'm like, wait, I don't understand.

[00:22:35] Shana Meyerson: I know I've read this page, but it looks as if I have never read this page. And so when it comes to the Bible, sometimes I feel like, like God almost rearranges what's in front of us to speak to what we need. 

[00:22:56] David Pasqualone: Yeah, I, I mean, there's, I, I'm never going to say, like, you can't put God in a box, right? Like, it's, when you think God only works one way, you're totally wrong.

[00:23:05] David Pasqualone: It works, who knows how he works except him. But, like, Sometimes we change and grow. Sometimes our, we're being blocked. Our paradigm is being blocked because of problems. And then they're removed and we can open up. Sometimes it's just, I believe that every answer to every question is truly in the Bible.

[00:23:22] David Pasqualone: It's just, is it the time for us? Is it to be revealed to us? You know? Because when it's like a little kid, if you tell a little kid everything about life, you're going to explode their head. But you tell them a little bit each more as they get older, as they grow. And that's how I always read the Bible.

[00:23:36] David Pasqualone: God gives us what we need as we need it. Right? So you're, now you're doing yoga and you're like, whoa, I'm naturally good at this. You get a little ego going, but then as you learn about the yoga, you learn about letting go of the ego and it's the exact opposite. So talk about that. How did you learn to let go of your ego?

[00:23:59] Shana Meyerson: Yeah. And there's a bit of a conundrum that I have to be honest. I think most people, especially in the social media age, Don't really come to because they coat, they get so wrapped up in like how they look on Instagram or, or even just in front of a class that, that they subvert that to the actual practice, which is just seeing if you could keep your mind calm in the midst of potential chaos.

[00:24:24] Shana Meyerson: So even as perhaps I, let's say, succeed at some very hard or difficult yoga postures. I personally put very little credence to the asana practice, meaning that it's just a practice. It's, it's the small physical piece of a broader spiritual and mental practice. And so, it would be Like

[00:24:58] Shana Meyerson: like cooking [00:25:00] a tremendous meal for friends, right? And just focusing so much on your trip to the grocery store, right? Like, like, yeah, that's what, that's what got the meal on the table because it had you not gone to the store, you wouldn't have the food, but it's not really what it's all about. And so the process of letting go of the ego, it took me, it took me I'll be honest, it did take me a little while.

[00:25:28] Shana Meyerson: I can't remember how long, because it was so long ago but at first I was sort of proud that I could do some things that the other people in the room, you know, were really, really struggling with. But you have to dissociate yourself from, from anything else that's going on in the room, from anybody else's process, because their process is not your process.

[00:25:53] Shana Meyerson: And when you can narrow down your practice to your own mat, instead of worrying about what's going on, on the mats around you I mean that figuratively and literally, then your ego will start to dissipate. 

[00:26:07] David Pasqualone: And how do you start identifying? Because some people, like, I'm humble. I don't have an ego. And they got the fattest ego of them all, right?

[00:26:17] David Pasqualone: How do you self acknowledge? And because, you know, the first step of anything is recognition to get better, right? So how did, how did you, did you have friends tell you? Did you listen to the instructor? Did you, did God just lay it on your heart? 

[00:26:32] Shana Meyerson: Well, I mean, first of all, I have to say that I always say, if you think you've arrived, that's the first sign you haven't.

[00:26:41] Shana Meyerson: So it's just, I mean, honestly, I think it's just basic humility. I think that maybe one of the beauties of the practice is that no matter how good you got, there are things that you're going to do better than others. And there are things that others are going to do better than you. And so if you can acknowledge that, you know, that person over there who is struggling with this pose that you do so easily also happens to have a certain flexibility that you lack, then there's no room for judgment of what's better or harder or easier or any of the things, right?

[00:27:15] Shana Meyerson: And so, The yoga, honestly, the yoga practice itself, one of the philosophies is this concept of maya. Maya means illusion, which means that nothing in the world of duality, which is the world that we live in, of sensory perception, is real. Sensory perception, by default creates our own reality, right? Two people, you see this all the time in crime scenes, right?

[00:27:42] Shana Meyerson: Like, five people witness the same crime and they all see something completely different, right? The way that they describe the criminal is different, the setting is different, what happened is different, who is the victim is different, you know, how did it occur? And so When we understand that our vision of reality is purely subjective and there's nothing objective about being good at something or being bad at something it's a lot easier to, to let it go.

[00:28:09] Shana Meyerson: And so the teachings of the yoga really did help me immensely in, in releasing my ego. Now, do I have any ego left? Of course I do. We all do. You can't survive in the world and have no sense of ego, but I can say that it is my, my constant work to try to let go of these attachments as much as possible.

[00:28:39] David Pasqualone: Yeah, and it's a constant, like you said, it's a constant growth. Iron sharpens iron, so the man, accountants of his friend, we're working on ourselves, like we talked about, you know, adjustment falls seven times and rises up again, you don't quit. So, as you're going to these yoga classes, where does your life go from there?

[00:28:59] David Pasqualone: How do you decide this is something I want to stick with, and where does it take you through today? Sure. 

[00:29:05] Shana Meyerson: I would have to say that I did not find yoga. Yoga found me. And I think that when we reach the most, like, pivotal points in our lives, that as long as we're receptive to them, life will unfold naturally from there.

[00:29:25] Shana Meyerson: I knew pretty much immediately from first experiencing yoga that it was something that I just couldn't handle. Didn't want to practice, but that I wanted to share with the world. More specifically, my original vision really was to bring yoga to children. Now, these days, every child, at least in la but but many, many, many, many, many children across the world practice yoga.

[00:29:52] Shana Meyerson: It's a very, very normal thing. In 2002, it was not a normal thing. I mean, it was, in fact, outside of [00:30:00] India, it was considered to be completely ridiculous. So I started my mini yogis program actually in March of 2002 because to me it seemed like an imperative. It seemed like I had been given information that the next generation really needed to hear in order to thrive in the world that was unfolding in front of them.

[00:30:27] Shana Meyerson: So I guess. I mean, I don't guess. It was a calling. It was a calling, and I answered it. And I think that we spend a lot of time in life trying to shove, you know, round pegs into square holes or square pegs into round holes. But when something is meant to be, you just know. 

[00:30:50] David Pasqualone: So then you know, where does your life go from there?

[00:30:54] Shana Meyerson: Well, as I mentioned, I was already almost 30 years old at that point when I went to my first class. I had a great career. I was also in the process of getting my MBA here at UCLA. I mean, I was like in the thick of, of life. And had you told me the day before yoga that I would ever become a yoga instructor, I would have laughed in your face.

[00:31:20] Shana Meyerson: It was only a matter of months before I left my job, and I also left UCLA for a number of reasons in order to pursue a career as a yoga instructor. And it was somewhere between a really tremendous leap of faith and No leap at all, because I just had the faith. 

[00:31:47] David Pasqualone: And what were your parents, were your parents still alive at this point?

[00:31:51] David Pasqualone: What were they thinking? 

[00:31:52] Shana Meyerson: Yeah, yeah, they're still alive at this point, in fact. It's funny, I was, I was a little, Reluctant to tell them. So I, you know, they had paid for a very expensive Ivy League education. Now I was going getting my MBA and I, you know, they had sort of higher expectations of me for sure.

[00:32:14] Shana Meyerson: And so telling them that I am leaving business school in order to become a yoga instructor, I did not exactly expect a positive reception, but believe it or not, my parents were extraordinarily supportive because it's in their nature, first of all. My mom in particular will support anything I do, ever.

[00:32:41] Shana Meyerson: She thinks her four kids are just the greatest four people who ever walked the face of the planet, and, and end of story, so whatever you want, you know, I support. My father it was interesting because my father is somebody who I would say overall I never really found his ultimate calling in life. He did what the world expected him to do instead of what maybe would have made him happy, right?

[00:33:06] Shana Meyerson: He grew up in the age where you get to be a doctor or lawyer. Those are your choices, right? And that was very typical of, you know, Jewish families in that generation, which is why if you look at everybody in my parents generation, they're all lawyers and doctors. Like it was almost a joke at that period.

[00:33:22] Shana Meyerson: And so I know that my father never found his truest happiness because when you commit to work that, that you don't love is a nice way of putting it. I mean, he didn't even like it. That you, you destined yourself to a certain fate that you're talking about five sevenths of your life, right? And so my father's response to me was, I'm glad that you found the thing that makes you happy and I think that you should do it.

[00:34:03] Shana Meyerson: And, you know, my father, so my father has his engineering degree, his MBA, and his JD. My mother also has, has, multiple degrees all the way through. She's not a JD, but a psychologist. And you know, education is a big thing in my family. So the fact that they didn't even say, how about just finish your MBA first, you know, or something to that, but they're like, you know what, you got to follow your dream because that's where you're going to find your success.

[00:34:36] Shana Meyerson: And I did. 

[00:34:38] David Pasqualone: And what did that look like? So you leave college, you leave corporate America, you go to pursue this dream of yoga. You felt it was your calling and bring us through to today. 

[00:34:52] Shana Meyerson: Right. So it was sort of. Interesting, because, so, [00:35:00] when I left my job, right I didn't have a real safety net, other than I'm a good saver.

[00:35:07] Shana Meyerson: I had money saved. And about a week after I left that job Out of nowhere and very unexpectedly, a very large company contacted me and said, are you available to write this fitness app for us? Again, a very famous fitness app, but I'm not allowed to talk to it about it because of NDA reasons. And it was interesting because So I had been a writer in previous iterations of my life.

[00:35:42] Shana Meyerson: It didn't come out of nowhere, but it came out of nowhere because it's not a job I had applied for. And what was interesting about it is that freelance writing is something you could do any time of any day, right? You could do in the middle of the night, you could do in the middle of the morning, you could do in the middle of the day, the afternoon, you know, which meant that I could spend as much time as I wanted building this new yoga career while still earning money.

[00:36:08] Shana Meyerson: Right, as a writer. And so what I did was I taught for free for three months, just anyone who wanted yoga, just so I could basically get my sea legs and find some clients, you know, because if they like me, they'll continue with me. But what's, what's most interesting is by the time I finished this freelance writing gig, I was earning as much at yoga.

[00:36:38] Shana Meyerson: As I had been at my previous job, it was literally like God was like, here, I'm just going to take you right to where you need to be and you could take it from there. So it was very, very interesting. Like just the timing was, was pretty interesting. And the fact that I was I was teaching adults as well, right out of the gate, however, the fact that I was one of maybe a handful of people in the entire Western world who was teaching yoga to children made my program just explode in a positive way very, very, very quickly.

[00:37:21] Shana Meyerson: So, yeah, my success was unexpected. When I gave up my career and my, my master's program, I did so with the knowledge that I might not ever earn another dollar. And I think that it's because I was willing to take that risk that the risk paid off for me because I knew so deep down inside that it would.

[00:37:55] David Pasqualone: Yeah, and so many people we know, you know, all of us, they just love what they do, they're passionate about it, and the money comes. I think, did you ever see the Alan Watts video? And he talks about, you know, what if money didn't matter? I'll put a link in your show notes for any listeners who want to watch it.

[00:38:13] David Pasqualone: It's exactly what Shana's talking about. And it's just a great clip, a couple minutes long, and it's like, what would you do if money didn't matter? You would want to do yoga, right? And that's what you're doing. So it's great. And then the money flows because you're an expert at what you do. So when you're building this, this practice.

[00:38:34] David Pasqualone: Are you focused on the children's side, the adult side, or where does it go between where you intended it and where you are today? 

[00:38:42] Shana Meyerson: Yeah. And that's, I mean, that, that's a big business discussion that is there's a lot of lessons to be learned in this. So In the beginning, most of my focus was on my mini yogis program because it got so big so fast and it literally took me around the world.

[00:39:00] Shana Meyerson: I, to date, I've taught at about 200 different studios across the globe for mini yogis and for Yoga Athletica together. Now, what's interesting is, one weekend, and it was probably about a dozen years ago, I was on my way to a studio that I teach, had been teaching at every single year, I still do my mini yogi's teacher training.

[00:39:26] Shana Meyerson: And I, I, At that point, I was very good friends with the owners, right, because I had been there, you know, quite a few years in a row. And I said to them, well, would you be open to my doing some Yoga Athletica workshops? Because at that point, I wasn't doing the Yoga Athletica workshops, even though I was teaching.

[00:39:47] Shana Meyerson: Right? Yoga Athletica students. And they said to me, and they said this in all kindness, they said, Shana, everybody thinks of you as a kid's yoga teacher. Nobody's going to take you seriously as an [00:40:00] adult instructor. And so, I, like, that really shocked me to the core because again, I don't want to say this in an egotistical manner, but I have one of the more advanced practices out there.

[00:40:15] Shana Meyerson: You know, if you've seen it in a book, I can do it, right? And so, that really woke me up, and what, what I decided that weekend after hearing that was

[00:40:30] Shana Meyerson: If I were a parent, okay, and my kid has a yoga instructor, right, no matter how good they are with my kid, I'm not going to look at them and go, oh yeah, no, that's probably the instructor for me. I look at them as something less than, right, not less than, but like less than a full adult instructor. They play with kids, right?

[00:40:53] Shana Meyerson: But the flip side of that was, if I'm an adult and I have an instructor, and it turns out they also work with children, then I'm gonna be like, heck yeah! You know, she's such a great instructor, I can only imagine what she could do with a child. Right? It didn't go both ways. So, I made the decision, which in retrospect, at least financially, was not a great one to pivot to focusing on my yoga athletica, and because I already literally owned the children's yoga space that I would just let that sort of take, take a life of its own, right?

[00:41:35] Shana Meyerson: What I didn't anticipate was that the kids yoga space became tremendous in the late or mid to late teens, like 2000, probably 18, 19. And then when the pandemic came, that's when Yoga for Kids just took over the whole entire world. Because all these people, you know, were locked in their houses. And there were so many videos out there that were being put out, right?

[00:42:08] Shana Meyerson: And so what happened was in Athens, I had cut off my nose to spite my face. Because I really, and I still do focus primarily on my yoga athletica because it speaks to the hard work that I put in on my mat every day though I love Love, love working with children. At this point, most, most searches, I don't even think mini yogis even comes up.

[00:42:38] Shana Meyerson: If you type in yoga for kids, Los Angeles, where in I, you, I used to literally be the only one that came up and I've trained over a, over a thousand teachers in this city alone who are all my competition now. 

[00:42:54] David Pasqualone: Yeah. So. Now that you have this new focus, I mean, there's from a marketing side, it's like, well, we can SEO and fix that.

[00:43:04] David Pasqualone: Yeah. But where is your heart? Is it with the children? Is it with the adults? Where, where, where is your heart today? 

[00:43:10] Shana Meyerson: It's with humanity. I love them both for different reasons. When I work with children, I know that I'm changing their future and there's nobody on earth who loves kids more than I do. There might be some people who love them as much as I do, but I.

[00:43:27] Shana Meyerson: Love children with every tiny ounce of my being. And, but I also know that, you know, adults these days need a lot more grounding and they need to I don't know, sometimes refocus their priorities or even just a lot of them step back from the overwhelm. So I know that the yoga is a gift for them as well.

[00:43:51] Shana Meyerson: I also, I mean, my. My big expertise is handstands. I love teaching like that really, really you know, challenging aspect of yoga to help people to overcome their self limiting beliefs. So, so I can't really weigh one against the other. I really love them all. 

[00:44:11] David Pasqualone: Well, good. And then If someone's listening to you and they're like, I think I want to try yoga.

[00:44:20] David Pasqualone: What is something, because if you don't know, you don't know, like, how do you know what's a qualified practitioner? How do you know someone who's not just wasting time? How do you know somebody who didn't pick up a book or make stuff up? You know what I mean? What should people be looking for in a qualified yoga program?

[00:44:38] Shana Meyerson: Boy that's a hard question these days because it really depends on, on what you call qualified. A lot of the commercial yoga practice out there have, have no real connection to like sort of the more traditional practice. So I guess you have to figure out like what is [00:45:00] your Ultimate goal and work backwards.

[00:45:03] Shana Meyerson: Because if, if the ultimate goal is say, to get a workout, which I think is sadly, but is why about 95 percent of people practice yoga in America today, then I think it doesn't matter. That much, you know, which teacher just whoever resonates with you. The reason I say it's hard to qualify is there is like this what's called a yoga alliance standard but there's no oversight to yoga alliance.

[00:45:31] Shana Meyerson: And so it doesn't really prove anything other than you paid to do a teacher training. So what I would say is find the teacher A, who you resonate with on a personal level because you do want to connect with them. But B, I think that most people, most people have a, I guess like a generic instinct for whether somebody knows what they're talking about or if they're just phoning it in.

[00:46:00] Shana Meyerson: And ask questions, you know, don't be afraid to ask questions. If a teacher says something that either you're, you want more information on because you're interested in, or maybe it doesn't make sense, ask the question. And if they have a reasonable explanation, then, then, Hopefully, it's because they are qualified to be your teacher.

[00:46:20] David Pasqualone: And is there like a national, international board or some kind of website or maybe your website that people can go to? Because I remember going to a couple yoga classes and being like, what the hell are they talking about? They're like using terms and phrases and even the ways. To move your body, like, you know, pull your spine to your belly button.

[00:46:40] David Pasqualone: Like, it's like all these things that make total sense to somebody who does it all the time, but for a first timer, I wish I was more prepped before I went in these classes, what would you recommend for the listeners who are going to try it to get, get set? 

[00:46:53] Shana Meyerson: Well, first of all, Yoga Alliance is the regulating board, the regulating body for yoga both in America and outside of America.

[00:47:01] Shana Meyerson: Again, there's no oversight to Yoga Alliance, so I don't know how very, very credible it is. Second of all the big shortcoming, quite honestly, of the yoga industry is that we really don't have any level one classes. I know in L. A. it doesn't exist, or I've never seen it, and everywhere I go in the world, people complain about the same, that you're just sort of like thrown into this level one, two pool, where a lot of the people in there, most of the people in there, have, you know, maybe even years of experience.

[00:47:35] Shana Meyerson: And it's a little bit like taking a kid, throwing them in the pool, and saying, now swim. Right, so, so that is a challenge. What I do recommend, if anybody is serious about getting, you know, an honest to goodness indoctrination to the practice, I would say it's a good idea to start with one or two private lessons, maybe more than that, to at least get some one on one help and feedback from a teacher so that they can at least put you on the right track so that when you do get into the class, you're not completely lost and you have built at least a foundation for understanding what's going on in front of you.

[00:48:18] Shana Meyerson: All 

[00:48:19] David Pasqualone: right. So between your birth and today, is there anything we missed before we go on to where you are today and where you're headed next? 

[00:48:32] Shana Meyerson: In 53 years? Is there anything that we've missed? I'm sure that there are a lot of things that we've missed, but I can tell you that that one pivotal point, I, When I left business school was very interesting because I was, I was in an entrepreneurship class and the professor out of nowhere said to the class, you know, Ms.

[00:48:58] Shana Meyerson: Meyerson is not an entrepreneur. Simply teaching yoga to children does not make one an entrepreneur. Now I was one of two people in the whole entire class that had a business and I, Was really appalled that he would say that and I, I stood up and I'm like, I don't understand, like I created a business. I found the market and I'm making a living at it.

[00:49:27] Shana Meyerson: I'm like, what is your definition of an entrepreneur? And I left and I never went back. That was actually the day I quit my, my MBA. But what was funny was one year later, almost exactly, I was the lead story at Entrepreneur Magazine. 

[00:49:48] David Pasqualone: That's awesome. That's in the sense of, you know, It makes you feel good when stuff like that happens.

[00:49:54] David Pasqualone: It's like, you're not wishing harm on anybody, but the truth is, I don't care if it's Ivy [00:50:00] league school or a state college, if anybody's being honest, most of the Information and teaching coming out of the university isn't real practical in life. It doesn't work in real life. It's theoretical and it's flawed.

[00:50:18] David Pasqualone: So you went and you actually did it and that teacher was probably jealous of you because they couldn't do it and they knew it. That's, I mean, from my experience, I worked at a college. You attended college, you know, it's just, there's that saying I hate, but there's a lot of truth to it. Those who can do, do, and those who can't do, teach.

[00:50:37] David Pasqualone: And there's some great teachers out there that can do, and they can teach. Right. But there's a lot of losers out there with tenure that should be fired. And they're yeah. Yeah, they're not helping society. Let's just say that. You're, you're paying them to be a waste of time. So it sounds like you had one of those winners.

[00:50:55] David Pasqualone: So, I 

[00:50:58] Shana Meyerson: mean, the conclusion of the story was actually not all that. So I struggled again with my ego, whether to send him this article or not. And I opted for, yes, send it to him. And he actually was very humble. He invited me in to speak to his class about entrepreneurship. He took me out to dinner and he basically, what it turned out is that, you know, he's an older gentleman back then.

[00:51:33] Shana Meyerson: He was probably already in his eighties. And he was German. He was very, just sort of like this. And he was explaining to me basically his concept of an entrepreneur literally is like, Ray Kroc, Bill Gates, you know, like he, he, he didn't see Jeff Bezos. He, he didn't see that there was like, like a microcosmic version of these people.

[00:51:59] Shana Meyerson: And so he's like, you know, had you created like a whole chain of studios and it was across the country, I would have called that entrepreneurship. It wasn't the kids yoga specifically that was a problem. And so I just realized that I just had. a more personal vision where an entrepreneur is somebody who creates their own real a business from their own reality.

[00:52:21] Shana Meyerson: And he didn't, he, he actually, I, I came to understand had no, you know, no malevolence towards me. He just saw the world in a different way than I did. 

[00:52:34] David Pasqualone: Yeah. And I, I get it, but the fact is His paradigm was flawed and people are paying a hundred thousand dollars a semester to listen to his flawed logic.

[00:52:46] David Pasqualone: And it's not him specifically, but so many, so many people. They're so liberal, their minds fell out. You know, they opened their minds so wide, their brain fell out. So it's, I'm glad you called him on it and sent him that article. And I'm glad that one ended well. But how many lives did he destroy and how many people did he discourage before you stepped in his face?

[00:53:05] David Pasqualone: I mean, that's, that's what I'm thinking. I don't want to be all touchy feely, I'm trying to be real. And if you don't agree, say you're wrong. I don't mind. 

[00:53:13] Shana Meyerson: No, I, I honestly don't know that. My only experience with him was that one class. 

[00:53:18] David Pasqualone: Yeah, yeah. So, okay, so now you're, you're, On the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine, and between then and today, where does your life take us?

[00:53:28] David Pasqualone: And I want to touch back to where we started too. You said, if they listen to this episode, you're talking about believing in yourself. And while your life is an example of this, there had to be moments of self reflection and there had to be moments of like, you said, well, I just knew, I just knew yoga.

[00:53:44] David Pasqualone: What were some of the things you thought was some of the things you felt? How can someone else confirm this knowledge that you felt? 

[00:53:52] Shana Meyerson: I think that, that, We have to maintain a confidence that we can do anything, but that we don't create our own timeline, right? God does, or the universe does, however you want to define it.

[00:54:09] Shana Meyerson: And so, like, if you can think of anything in this world that you go into with complete confidence, and we all have things that we go into with complete confidence, we don't even think about them anymore. They just unfold. And so what we need to do is figure out what it is we bring to those things and how can you replicate that same mindset for other aspects of your life.

[00:54:39] Shana Meyerson: So for example, A lot of people are scared of doing handstands in the middle of the room. I have complete confidence doing a handstand in the middle of the room. That being said, I do a lot of variations of a handstand in the middle of the room, and they might seem super scary to some people, but to me, I'm like, okay, well, I know [00:55:00] that even if I fall, I know how to fall safely, right?

[00:55:03] Shana Meyerson: And so I just do it and do it and do it until I get it. And that's the whole thing, is that if you could understand that, That progress is non linear and it is okay to fall as long as you know how to quote unquote fall safely that you can continue to progress. Even if there are steps back, we always continue to step forward.

[00:55:27] David Pasqualone: Beautiful. So where are you today? Where are you headed next? And how can we as a community help you get there?

[00:55:36] Shana Meyerson: Well, I mean, today I am teaching yoga full time, still in Los Angeles, and also on Zoom. And I also have my signature handstand course that I teach and that is remote. It's called My Handstand Breakthrough Revolution. And it's actually a combination of handstands and self empowerment. So My website has all the links to all my social and all my programs that I offer but mainly if anybody is serious about not just trying yoga but Really making it an important part of their lives.

[00:56:23] Shana Meyerson: I would love to be a part of that. And one thing I can tell you about a more advanced versus a less advanced instructor is that with a more advanced instructor, You don't have to be in the same room with them, meaning I could teach somebody to do a handstand almost as effectively over the internet as I can in the room with me.

[00:56:46] Shana Meyerson: That in general, I do not have to touch people to teach them yoga because I know how to articulate the information that I need to get across. So yeah, if, and if people are in LA, of course, I do, I do lessons here in LA. in person. 

[00:57:04] David Pasqualone: Beautiful. And what's what is your website again? 

[00:57:08] Shana Meyerson: It's Yoga Athletica.

[00:57:10] Shana Meyerson: It's Y O G A T H L E T I C A. com. And all of my links are there. And also, I also have two channels on Vimeo that have hundreds of full length classes if people prefer, A much less expensive and accessible way to practice every day on demand. 

[00:57:34] David Pasqualone: Beautiful. And we'll put links to that in the show notes as always, ladies and gentlemen.

[00:57:38] David Pasqualone: But Shana, thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for spending time with us. Thank you for sharing your story. Any closing words to our community before we wrap this episode up? 

[00:57:49] Shana Meyerson: I just want to say keep the faith, you know, faith is what carries us and you could define your own faith, but You know, it's funny my favorite biblical passage actually even though i'm jewish is actually from from the christian bible from the new testament which is that if you have the faith the size of a mustard seed nothing will be impossible for you You'll be able to move mountains And so what's interesting about that is faith is indivisible.

[00:58:14] Shana Meyerson: So if you can stop questioning yourself and stop questioning the universe and just accept that everything is happening for the best hopefully life takes you to the most incredible places. 

[00:58:27] David Pasqualone: I think that's well said and a great way to end the show. So ladies and gentlemen, like our slogan says, don't just listen to great content, but do it.

[00:58:36] David Pasqualone: Repeat it, so you can have a great life in this world, but more importantly, an eternity to come. So, Shana, thank you again for being here today. 

[00:58:45] Shana Meyerson: Thank you. It's been my pleasure. 

[00:58:47] David Pasqualone: Yeah, it's been fantastic. Ladies and gentlemen, check out Shana's website. You can click in the show notes, go right there, continue the conversation with her at your convenience.

[00:58:57] David Pasqualone: And if you have any questions, reach out to her, myself, and share this episode with your friends and family. People, you know, it's going to help that way. We just continue to help people in the world and grow together. So I'm David Pasqualone. This was our remarkable friend, Shana, and we will see you in the next episode.

[00:59:17] David Pasqualone: Ciao. 

[00:59:18] Shana Meyerson: Thanks, David. 

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