On this episode of Yoga | Birth | Babies, I speak with renowned yoga teacher and mother Paula Lynch Liberis. Paula and I have a very open and candid talk about shifting from high profile yoga teacher to mother of (almost) 3 children. Paula’s honesty and humbleness will surely speak to those who have ever faced a major shift in job or body.
In this episode:
- What brought Paula to the path of yoga and what lead her to teach yoga.
- Discussing her online post where she describes the shift she went through and the acceptance of leaving the field she loved and embracing her dharma of motherhood.
- Difficulties of stepping aside from her flourishing career.
- Advice for mothers at a cross road of career and child.
- Moving from a very strong and time consuming meditation, pranayama and asana based practice to a more “family friendly” practice. What practice and meditation look like with 3 kids in the picture and the change with each child.
- How yoga helped during pregnancy and birth.
- Letting go of the practice and career identity once held prior to children.
- The importance and influence yoga can have on parenting.
- Staying active or in touch with the yoga community while raising her girls.
- What her future career path looks like.
About Paula Lynch:
Paula is an ERYT-500 Yoga Works Certified Instructor affiliated with the Yogaworks Teacher Training programs. Her teaching style is influenced by her years of study in the Ashtanga vinyasa method and the precision and clarity of Iyengar yoga which she mainly practices now.
Paula’s teaching style expresses yoga as an incredible technique that can give us access to the layers of our physical and energetic bodies through patient and intentional practice.
Her primary teacher is Genny Kapuler, and she has spent years studying with Alison West and Glenn Black who have helped her experience the world through her practice. She has studied Bodytuning, an in depth method of manual therapy with Glenn Black and Shmuel Tatz, PT and maintained a private practice working with clients in this method as well as assisting Dr. Tatz in his clinic. Her continuing studies of anatomy and kinesiology are applied to her understanding and teaching of yogasana in her classes through breath awareness, playful movement and alignment of the physical body.
Paula practices yoga as a form of devotion, prayer and self-study and understands the practice as so much more than just physical – it is cellular, intellectual and spiritual involving our entire being. She incorporates pranayama and yoga nidra in her classes and workshops as essential elements to a balanced and nourishing practice.
She has taught classes in New York City at Yogaworks since 2005 as well as 200HR and 300HR teacher training for Yogaworks. She also serves as a guest anatomy teacher for other 200HR yoga teacher training programs in the city. She is currently taking a sabbatical from teaching so she can be home raising her two little girls (with baby number three on the way), and works primarily mentoring other teachers and teacher trainers.
Follow Paula on instragram @paulaliberis
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