00:45                                     This is the 121st episode of changing the face of Yoga and my guest today is Ayanna Parrent. She is a the owner and founder of Befree coaching and wellness, a wellness center whose mission is to change people's lives through Movement, mindfulness and fun. She is a licensed independent clinical social worker, registered Yoga teacher and certified fitness instructor in multiple areas. Her goal is to help people heal from issues such as trauma, addiction, depression, and other issues that get in the way of people living their best lives. Welcome. And is there anything you'd like to add to that introduction?

01:35                                     No. Hi, that was wonderful.

01:41                                     Now you say that BeFreeWellness is a wellness community and offers yoga classes there. Is that correct?

01:53                                     Yes. That's great.

01:54                                     I want to start the podcast with this great idea that you gave me, which is that you're committed to making movement, fitness classes and yoga classes accessible to all. You've designed your studio to include people of color, men and larger bodies. So can we just go into that a little bit. First of all, why do you think that's important?

02:24                                     Oh my gosh. Well I think that's actually most important just coming from a personal standpoint that Yoga really helped me to heal personally and change my life. I'm a person of color and I just think that what I was seeing in studios, particularly my own personal journey and just talking with friends. It became particularly hard when you would go to studios and there was prominently, mainly white women, thin, white women, and not a ton of larger bodies, not a ton of diversity. There was men, but there was, without trying to stereotype, there was like really hardcore men.

                                                I just started just on a personal journey of yoga myself. I'm a person in recovery and it's really helped me with addiction and just to really help me with my thoughts and sort of controlling negative images of myself or anything negative. It really was the catalyst of releasing some of that. The movement piece is really important. However, I feel like the mindfulness is the key to yoga. And I feel like a lot of it's become certainly commercialized and all these clothes and stuff. Who really cares? And mats are just so expensive. Yoga teacher trainings are a gazillion dollars which would certainly block out any person of color or a person that doesn't have a lot of money. It's just finding that in order to really heal some groups of people that really need it, we have to look at it in a different way and sort of offer it in a different way and talk about it in a different way. To speak to certain communities that otherwise might not access this. I just sort of found that as my mission as I opened my studio.

04:29                                     What are the specific things that you're doing that is making it more accessible?

04:36                                     I do a lot of marketing to communities of color. I live on Cape Cod right now. It's not a huge, diverse community, but there are places where people are. I just make myself available. I really work hard to market to those areas, offer different discounts , or keeping prices low that you can access that or giving discounts to certain communities that would allow them to access it. And again, I also put in my marketing and everything that you'll see publicly that I write in there that it's for all bodies, it's for diversity. It's for people of color so that when you actually go to the website or look at any market materials, you can see that this is going to be like an inclusive place. I've had people call: I saw this, is this true? Yeah. I've had people that are larger bodies. It's hard to walk into a place. Not only am I saying that, but is that true? Like how are you doing that? So we've had people call, which I totally love and appreciate and their experience has been great. I've just asked for feedback as well.

                                                You can still offer yoga, you can still offer Vinyasa, but you can offer it in such in a way where all bodies can access different poses so you don't have to be so rigorous. It doesn't have to be, you can show modifications. You can adapt it so that anyone one can do them. You can certainly design sequences if you have enough knowledge and background that pretty much anybody can do, but you have to have that in mind. You can't teach a Vinyasa class and expect all bodies to do it. So if I say that, I really have to hold myself accountable and the community accountable for that. That's in my teachers too, when I hire people, I'm very clear. I talk about the mission of the studio first. This is who we are. This is who we're accessible to. We treat everybody with respect and we're looking for people that might not necessarily come to yoga. We're looking to heal those communities particularly.

06:49                                     These teachers that you're interviewing, do they feel comfortable that they have the knowledge to teach people who don't look like other yoga teachers?

07:05                                     I've sought out ones that I've either taken their class or I have familiarity with.

07:13                                     You really have a commitment there. I see that you don't sell high end yoga clothes, but that you do offer larger sizes. Is that another way to make people feel comfortable and welcome?

07:31                                     I think that's really important. I think a lot of yoga studios, they'll say, yeah, I work for everybody. And then you go into their boutique and you can't get larger than a size large. Some people can't fit into that and that's okay. But to not carry it is sending a message that that's not who we want here. And I know that's not for everybody. And that's not maybe people's intentions. Because I certainly have wonderful friends that have amazing boutiques that are yoga teachers and yoga studio owners. But I do think we really have to be careful of that and calling it.

                                                So here's my other thing that I wonder what people think about this is like in terms of accessibility. Yoga studios have like a class that's called the community class. That what's where they have would maybe offer it for $10 saying that's the community class for everybody. I struggle with that because why would you want that sort of communication that you're separating people out in some way. Is that the class for people that can afford it, the $10 or is it dumb? Dumb down sounds bad. But is it a different type of yoga? Like what is the community class that we're offering and how is that different? Is it just the price? And if it's just the price, why are we calling it a community class. Isn't every class with the community. I just wrestle with some of this stuff. I don't offer a quote community class.

                                                 I make  it accessible to everyone. Then I do get push back from people a lot about like when you're running a business, you can't offer every class for people that can't afford it and Dah, Dah, Dah, which I totally get. However, if that's your mission, then you need to stand by it. I do lots of other things on the side to support the business so that I can offer affordable packages to people and I also say nobody's turned away. So there are scholarships available. I do partner with a non-profit in Boston - Namaste Sober - and so they help with some of the things as well. So I feel like you can run a business and still be accessible, but you have to really work with the money in terms of holding your own self accountable as a studio owner to make sure that you really keep your doors open to everybody. It's hard. I totally understand. I get it. It's hard. Yeah.

09:53                                     I talked to someone else about that and he said that the big studios and the big franchisees and the worldwide ones all across the US, they really aren't very interested in being accessible because it's not financially rewarding.

10:14                                     Right, right. Yeah.

10:16                                     So are we saying that it's really the small business owner that's going to be the one that may most likely be offering these kinds of classes?

10:28                                     I don't know. I'd love to not think that because I mean, it's hard. People say different things to me all the time, but you can make a lot of money and still be accessible and be community based at the same time. There is a way, but you have to be really strategic about what that looks like. You have to have it on paper and you have to market it and you have to hold yourself accountable as the leader. So I'd like to think not. But right now I think that's probably what's happening. Money is a tricky thing. They start small and they're like, yes, this is who we are. We're grass roots, right? And then they get bigger with money and values start to change. So there's a lot of attachment with money in terms of what that means and who you are. I do a lot of work around that, about staying grounded. It's all the yoga stuff, staying grounded and then who I am while building something that's still accessible to people. But you have to keep that in the forefront. If you don't, then you lose the whole purpose of what you're doing. So, yeah.

11:38                                     You said you have to work hard and you have to be creative. If someone came to you and said, I want to start a studio and I want it to be really accessible, what kind of advice would you give them?

11:52                                     One is just cultivating relationships with communities of color. I have a bunch of friends who ask me this all the time. What am I going to do? All the only people around me are white people and I don't know how to bridge that gap. There are ways to really cultivate that. This sounds crazy, but I just opened my studio and I went across the street to Stop and Shop and talked to the manager. There's a lot of employees there who are young people and people of color. There's a large economic development there that has a huge amount of people of color who work there. I offered a discount to their employees and that was a huge benefit for all of us. I'm across the street and come on over. I mean that's a creative way to really do it. You wouldn't necessarily think of like, Oh, let me partner with Stop and Shop as a studio of yoga. But I was like, wait a second. My friend actually came, she was visiting from Boston and she had that idea and was like, how about that? And I was like, oh, totally and so just starting to think of ways.

                                                People bring up churches and churches are great. I go to the NAACP meetings on Cape Cod. I didn't know there was one, but as I was researching people in Cape Cod and where the demographics were. That's a lot of work there and just getting creative and then going to those meetings and then joining groups. There's lots of networking groups out there that are more predominant than others for people of color or diversity.

                                                It's also really about hiring staff. People of color are going to go where there's leadership; hiring staff that are people of color and also diversity. I did workshops co-led by gay, lesbian; all the people that are representing diversity, making sure that they're a part of the community in a leadership way. Sort of how you look at racism and the anti-racism work. But it's a similar model in terms of looking at the paradigm and really working with it so that you shift who's allowed to come in your doors by what you represent.

                                                The other thing in terms of clothing, so if you're a guy and you walk into these yoga studios and you're looking at these like pants and stuff clearly catered towards women. There's a tiny section for men and I get it. It's just about thinking about who your studio is tailored to. So my studio, if you look at it, it's pretty general literal. You wouldn't pick out necessarily one gender or the other. It's very simple stuff.

                                                And a lot of people that I work with  - a lot of veterans, a lot of people have PTSD and trauma. I work with people who just come out of jails and that community. So if we want those people to really access yoga, what would be welcoming to you when you come out of those environments? You're not something super flashy, something super warm, but not gender specific. Those are the things I've been thinking about in terms of getting creative with being accessible. And then just wiping out the community class, and saying we're community based, and figuring out other ways to offer services at a lower rate to people that couldn't afford it. Having larger sizes are XXXXL.

16:12                                     You said you partner with a non-profit to provide scholarship money for people to take classes who may not be able to afford very much. How's that working? Is that sufficient for what you need or do you think it's a good start?

16:41                                     It's a good start. I had two women the other day, single moms that were struggling and wanted to do (yoga). So I offer a life coaching program too, which is the mindfulness program and people can take the fitness classes and movement classes while they're in the coaching program. They really wanted to do the coaching but couldn't afford it. I reached out to them (non-profit) and just said, hey, listen, I have two women who want to do the specialized program. And so we just communicate about what the needs are. How can we help each other out? What can I do, what can they do? We're able to offer stuff. I can still offer it and as a business owner, not have to lose all the general money going to somewhere else. it's a good start. But I still have to get creative about bringing in money in other ways to not have to jack up prices so high to still make it accessible. But yeah, it's a good start. It's a wonderful idea. I think it's hard being a business versus a non-profit. You're still offering services and good things to people, but the business model works for me right now. Partnering is great.

17:52                                     Have you considered partnering with like the Big Companies? I mean I understand that perhaps you don't want to do Lululemon. Someone said they were thinking about that and I just wondered if that's a viable thing.

18:12                                     I don't know. It is tricky for me. Their mission really has to be on point. The people that I partner with now, their, their admission is 100%. So it's hard with larger companies but it's something to think about for sure.

18:39                                     You said that you're recovering and I know that you are offering Y12SR and I had Nikki on earlier. I thought it would be interesting because she told me what she does and why she started and everything. And I thought it would be just interesting to see how, how you do it at your studio from the grassroots. Getting both ends of the spectrum of that because she was great. But I just wondered how it was working for you and your studio.

19:28                                     Yeah. So she first of all is like my favorite person of all time. When I took her training, it was just a weekend, but I literally could have taken way more from her. In some ways I learned more from that training than I did from my 200 hour yoga teacher training. And that's saying a lot. She actually helped a lot in terms of offering and making yoga accessible to everybody. The way she teaches and describes things in a simple way, but it's still, you still get so much out of it, even though it's so simple. I just learned a lot from that. I just implemented one day a week where I did like a Sunday afternoon class and just make it for anybody that's either in recovery or has a loved one in recovery. I almost do it restorative style. So we do like an open meeting and I pick a topic or someone picks a topic and we share and then I do a really gentle flow and end with a few restorative poses and try to verbalize some of the issues that had come up in the meeting and integrate the healing into it. And I've had probably more people that have loved ones in recovery than are actually in recovery. A few of my friends have come. But it's a wonderful, wonderful class and I love it. .

20:57                                     And it does add to your accessible mission, I would think.

21:01                                     Oh totally. She's an incredible individual.

21:06                                     Yes, she is.

21:07                                     Everyone should take her course, everybody. Everyone needs to really take it.

21:16                                     Gee, she got a free ad there.

21:17                                     That's right.

21:24                                     To make sure I'm understanding - you've got a really strong mission, you're really committed to keeping that mission front and center. That's affecting prices, affecting who you hire, it's affecting who you try to attract. Is there anything else that you think is contributing?

21:58                                     What we haven't hit on is that it's just really important to, when you say that you're having a community it's really that you're drawing in members of any community. You'll see in the studio versus other studios, you'll see diversity in there. So in order to create a community, I really sort of had to cultivate it. So I have a lot of potlucks and book clubs and social gatherings and we're implementing a whole first Friday night that's going to be without alcohol. It's cultivating, reaching out to people. Lots of like dancing hip hop, like different types of music that you're not necessarily going to get into an actual class And I know some people push back on me, they're like, well, it's not real yoga if you're playing like different music, and do hip hop, which is very silly.

                                                No, I get that. Why people are saying that because it's not traditional. However I think part of it, of what people oh, this is what I wanted to say too about being accessible. White cultures are very in yoga studios. It's like if you walk in there and you feel like you can't be loud, you can't talk, you can't laugh. It's very structured in the way where there's not a lot of vocal boisterous talking and lots of cultures and people of color are just naturally that way. I've heard that people have gone into spaces like that and feel like they've gotten like shunned, like shhh, like stop it and they're like, I'm just talking. so to allow that to be okay. So I allow some banter in the actual class. I allow laughter, I create moments where there's laughter, but then I'm really conscious about the times where we need to be quiet and really settle in. But to not have it so serious in a way where you feel like you don't belong if you don't fit that mold. If you're not a meditator that is can you sit there for long periods of time without, moving around or things like that. I'm just so really being aware of what community looks like. We all don't look the same. We all don't act the same. So being conscious of that, like what community really actually looks like and then just making sure that you're cultivating everybody's place.

24:41                                     No, that's a good point. I hadn't thought of that, It is very structured and often very serious in yoga studios and I kind of will always want to do something that'll liven it up, but I refrain. They're all just serious and you're thinking, oh, come on,

25:10                                     We can breathe and smile, Instruction too, which is great, but it's like sometimes it's taught in a way where you feel like you're doing it wrong. If the person comes over and aligns you a certain way. There are just so many descriptions and how you're supposed to hold your body. there's not room for fluidity there. There's room for conformity and there's room for doing things the same way. And there's room for looking like somebody else. And that's not what we're talking about when I talk about yoga. It's really about cultivating the person, their own spirit, their own movement, and everybody's looks different. so it's hard when I hear yoga teachers over and over again, like they'll see somebody not look necessarily the pose is supposed to look and then keep describing it over and over again. And I'm like, it's okay. It's all right.

26:08                                     Yeah, I've worked with seniors and after you've lived in a body for decades, it's very different from the body that's next to you. And so you get into your own body, right?

26:21                                     And larger bodies look different and poses and that's hard if you're not trained on that. So sometimes yoga teachers will go over and try to fix and shift and I'm like, nope. Because they're fine. Just the way they are.. And most 99.9 % of the time, larger bodies are strong and they don't necessarily need manipulating or props or chairs or any of that. It's really more a comfort level on their part to just do what works for them and then just getting them used to that. That's all.

26:53                                     So we didn't really talk too much about that. I think you did allude to it, but are you teaching differently  and addressing people who have not the typical yoga teacher body. I've talked to people who are teaching and who have a larger body. And they said so often, teachers didn't know what to do.

27:30                                     Right. Yeah. And then looked at people funny. Like it's very clear when the yoga teacher doesn't know what to do with the larger body, unfortunately. Like I get it. But then it gets this awkward moment in class for both of them. That's it. I mean, I'm lucky in the way that I'm trained in like 15 different fitness modalities. Yoga is just one of them. I've taught a variety of different dance, all kinds of stuff, aqua aerobics, with a variety of different bodies. Aqua aerobics lends to a larger body, Zumba lends to a larger body. Some people think that but so it's easier for me to kind of assess and work with that. But I also have done a lot of research and taken a lot of courses on that as well, just to make sure that I'm supporting that. And honestly, most of it is just not doing such intense Vinyasas not going up and down all the time. And if you are, modifying in a way where then you're up, you're on your knees. There's different ways where it's not this intense. You can still offer a power yoga class: a larger body, should be able to take it.

28:56                                     Well, that's good to know. Yeah. I don't offer power classes to seniors. I don't think I want to take it either. I would like to do is to either talk in more depth about something we discussed or to actually introduce a new topic that you think is important for the listeners to know around this general podcast topic that we've been talking about.

29:34                                     I think just what I love to share with people is that like the reason I started my studio and the coaching that I do is just the powerfulness of mindfulness alone and movement. But that breath and connecting the mind, the body and spirit just for people that are not familiar with yoga it's just such a powerful healing tool that I feel like gets missed if we don't.

                                                I love your whole thing of like changing the face of the yoga. Like if, if we're not getting that out to the people that aren't used to that and don't know that is out there as a healing tool. I just think it's so important for people, for yoga studios, and whoever, just to make that available to those people. And I think it's really hard for men or the veterans that I have met. I get the Veterans through my coaching program which gets them into the studio. But otherwise I'm not sure that they would be walking in just off the street but is so healing for trauma for women with domestic violence, all that. I feel like it's just the key to shifting your life in a positive direction that might not come in another way. So I'm also a licensed independent clinical social worker. So I did that for years and years. I did traditional therapy. I worked in schools in a variety of different ways. and I wasn't finding that talk therapy was helpful anymore. so that's why I integrated the movement into the actual healing process, so that people could discover a different way of healing the mind, the body and spirit as one. So I just wanted to share that.

31:23                                     Thank you..

32:20                                     I have a podcast. Sometimes I forget to mention it's called Fit Phat Chat and I do with my friend Christie. She's also a Zumba instructor. But we just started that to talk about just making movement in general, accessible for everybody. So that'd be a great for your listeners .

32:41                                     What's it called again?

32:43                Its Fit Phat Chat: it's on Spotify, it's on apple. All of the places.

                                                Well thank you so much. It was great fun talking to you.

33:14                                     Thanks for asking a really important topic and.

33:19                                     I think this is a good addition to the general accessible conversation.

 

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Email: [email protected]

Website: www.Bfreewell.com.

Facebook: befreecoachingandwellness

Podcast: Fit Phat Chat