Today we’d like to introduce you to Shelly Reid.
Hi Shelly, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I suffered from regular moments of dizziness as a result of a bad car wreck in 2011. I had to hold on to the walls as I walked, I had to get out of chairs slowly and couldn’t lay flat on my back at all. Through weekly yoga practices (that I didn’t want to attend but had to due to my job) I soon saw a difference in the dizziness and noticed it was happening less and less. I also had awful pain in one of my feet from a childhood injury that sports doctors, podiatrists and pain management doctors couldn’t identify. They said “this is your new normal, embrace pain management…” My yoga practice also solved the excruciating foot pain when all modern medicine could offer was pills or exploratory surgery. That was my “AH-HA” moment! That was the moment I knew I HAD to become a teacher and share this amazing healing modality with others that weren’t finding relief through our traditional western medicine.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My initial hurdle was not believing in myself. I thought I was too big to do yoga and that it wouldn’t help anyway. (Boy was I wrong!)
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
I operate a business model where I specifically sequence deep stretch yoga classes for larger bodies to enjoy and it fills me with happiness. I help my students navigate clothing options for their bodies at reasonable prices, I offer them my mats and props to play with before they purchase anything of their own so they know what works best for them. I also offer yoga therapy where I combine various modes of healing to awaken emotion from the body. Our bodies hold our traumas, (not our heart or our brain) so our bodies need to be moved in ways that allow that emotion a safe place to release. THAT’s what Yoga Therapy is all about and it allows people to address deeply held emotion in moments that they can plan around, on a day when they have time to address it so they leave feeling lighter and less burdened. It’s amazing what yoga and ayurvedic methods can do for our bodies. Western medicine still has a long way to go in recognizing the importance of the mind-body-soul connection.
What does success mean to you?
Not by dollars! I define success through how I feel at the end of a day. Have I helped people? Have I tried to lean in and do “good work”? Have I made a memory for someone that will help them moving forward? Those are, to me, how success is measured.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.BreezyBalanceYoga.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breezybalanceyoga/
