Sculpting a life through strength and community | yoga instructor

Opening pull-quote
Sarah Kurtz
It's an interesting job for sure. I always walk into the locker room and I'm like, this is one of the only jobs where whoever you're serving sees you naked. Right? I'm in the locker room with them and they're like, “Oh, hey.” I'm like, “Oh, hey.”

Dave Weich
Right.

Sarah
Right?

Dave
Yeah.

Sarah
No. It's funny. It's interesting. But I mean it's…I love my job. I love it.


Introduction
Dave
Hi, I’m Dave Weich, and you’re listening to Work-Shaped Life.

Most of what I knew about Sarah Kurtz before this conversation I’d heard from my wife, Laura, who’s been running with Sarah for years. Long distances: 8, 12, 15 miles. Once a year, they even run a 50K. So they have a lot of time to talk.

Laura also goes to Sarah’s yoga classes on the weekend, working out alongside fifty other people in a packed studio. Many of her classmates have been training with Sarah for ten years or more.

Some context: Sarah teaches Vinyasa-style yoga—basically, what most Americans who don’t do yoga imagine when they think of people doing yoga. She also teaches Sculpt, which is very different: a cardio workout set to loud music that mixes in squats, lunges, burpees and dumbbell curls. Strength-training.

Sarah’s workouts are known to be challenging, and her students are devoted. Because, for one thing, Sarah makes it fun. But what would that be like: to work out for a living? To push your body day after day, year after year, so that others—your customers—can themselves achieve a heightened state of physical and mental wellbeing.


Interview [1:59]
Dave
What do you do, Sarah?

Sarah
I'm a full-time yoga teacher.

Dave
And how long have you been doing that?

Sarah
Full-time for at least twenty years. 
 
Dave
From what I know, you did not grow up thinking I'm going to be a yoga teacher.

Sarah
I was a nurse for a while. And then as I was in the nursing station one time, a girl said, “There's a class that's way harder than running a marathon,” and I was like, let me go, you know.

And so I ended up going to this class, and it was just about the time I was getting divorced. I was separated, so I ended up going to all these Bikram classes and then I saw a poster that was like, “Bikram training in LA in September for x amount of bucks,” and I thought, okay, here's a good way to turn the page.

Dave
How active were you in terms of your exercise regimen before that?

Sarah
Always just a runner. But I used to get injured a lot because I was running too much all the time, and then once I started doing yoga I didn't get injured as much.

Dave
You took that class. What was your reaction to it in terms of…obviously it must have made you feel good. It must have worked on you somehow because it sounds like there was a bit of a recognition that this is good for me.

Sarah [3:26]
I guess I didn't necessarily think I was gonna be a teacher or anything forever. I just think it felt good in my body and I feel like maybe it was kinda good therapy for what I was going through. And what a great opportunity for ending one part of your life and starting a new life.

Dave
Divorce aside, did you feel like you were kinda done with nursing?

Sarah
Oh, yeah. It wasn't working for me, but I still had to do it because I needed money. And so even when I got back from that training I still had to be a nurse until finally I was just like, I'd rather be poor.

Dave
Right.

Sarah
You know, I'd rather be poor and love what I do. I'd rather be so in love with my job and not have a lot of means versus the other way. You know?

Dave
So how did it become a job? What was that transition like? Did you just start teaching a class here and there, or was it more just all of a sudden now this is what I'm doing?

Sarah
Well, when I got back from Bikram training, I started working at a small little yoga studio in Denver owned by this sweet lady. And every class was an hour and a half. I think I taught two classes, and then I would take a class, so that's your whole day right there. And I think I made maybe thirty dollars a class or something. So I was still a nurse at that time.

Oh, but at the Bikram training—this is crazy—so there were two hundred, it was either two hundred and sixty or three hundred and sixty people, and on the pamphlet it looked like you were going to Shangri-La, with grass and a fountain or whatever. And in fact, it was a batting cage on La Cienega in Hollywood.

Dave
Okay

Sarah
But of those people, one of them was a guy who was friends with another guy who was opening a yoga studio called Core Power in Denver.

Dave
Okay.

Sarah
So when I met that one guy and he knew that I lived in Denver, I came back and I was still friends with them and entertaining teaching yoga and stuff, and they hadn't opened Core Power, it was just being built. But I was working at that other small little yoga studio.

Dave
Right.

Sarah
So that's how the transition went from me teaching just two classes to then me quitting being a nurse because then I started teaching full time at Core Power Yoga.

Dave
Yeah. And so tell me a little bit about the classes, first about Bikram and then what you teach now.

Sarah [6:23]
So Bikram is an hour and a half class in a super, super hot room, and it's the same twenty six postures every time. And they taught us to just say basically a monologue.

Dave
Okay.

Sarah
And we memorized a monologue. We were like soldiers of the man. And if you're ever interested you can look up…this guy is crazy.

Dave
Was Bikram actually like…did you meet Bikram?

Sarah
Yeah, he taught the evening class every night and on the Saturdays. And later in the evening, after our classes and all day, he would tell stories. I don't know what was real and what wasn't, but they were like metaphors for living. But he just loved hearing himself talk. And that was our education. So I wouldn't say that's why I was so passionate about yoga or anything. It was the feeling, the relationships, the turning the page. Right? So that's Bikram.

Dave
Okay.

Sarah
But then Core Power Yoga is a Vinyasa style yoga—that is what your wife loves, right? So it's much more creative. There's tons of different ways of teaching it, but mostly now the way I teach is really to just help people have a framework for living. Right? You're just offering them a space to help them heal and get through whatever they're living through. But there is physical exercise.

Dave
There is a tremendous amount of physical exercise. And it's still hot.

Sarah
And it's still hot. But it doesn't have to be.

Dave
Okay, but mostly you teach classes that are hot?

Sarah
Yeah. But it's not like…the heat's broken right now in one of the studios and no one even cares. You're still gonna get what you need.

Dave
Right. In your mind, what does that mean to you, a guide to living? First, actually, maybe just start—it's ninety minutes?

Sarah
The classes I teach now are an hour.

Dave
Okay. So it's an hour. What happens during that hour?

Sarah [8:26]
You walk in. You ground the people by physically grounding them. And then you teach them a sequence. And the way I teach, I basically teach towards a peak posture, which would be something that's extremely opening, like a big back bend or like the splits or something like that. You're working them towards something like that. And then at the end you summarize and they rest on their backs in what's called Shavasana. But the whole journey is supposed to be from child's pose to Shavasana, which is, you know, being born and then dying. So it's a chance to begin again. It's just a journey from point A to point B.

Dave
What was your experience doing this type of class?

Sarah
There've been some people who, they just say things while you're open. You know, the postures, you're working hard, you're kind of being broken down. And then whatever is being said, you feel very porous to it. So one of my favorite teachers, he—this is a long time ago—he just said, “Come as you are, not as you think you should be.” Right? But that's taken me twenty years to even show up like that as a teacher myself. The whole thing is your biggest superpower is being yourself.

Dave
And I gotta imagine that's pretty empowering for people, even just the idea that they can work to that.

Sarah
I just want people to be able to feel empowered and held and safe and strong.

Dave
And the strong part: your classes, from what I can tell, people love them. But they are challenging. Not just anybody can walk into this class and do this.

Sarah
No.

Dave
What is that? Is that part of the breaking people down? How do those two things connect? How does working that hard physically compute with the sort of emotional and personal?

Sarah [10:38]
Where's the connection? The connection is the ability to remind people that they can do hard things, that they can use this mental endurance for stuff that sucks, like family illness that endures. To be able to do adventures and travel, all of that stuff, that's why I want it to be hard. I don't wanna make anyone feel unsuccessful or beat down or anything like that. But I guess that's the connection between the two things.

Dave
How many classes do you teach in a week?

Sarah
I teach fifteen classes. So essentially… My dad always says, “Well, you could teach, you could work more because essentially that's thirty hours a week.” But energetically, I can't do any more.

Dave
How much physical exertion is there for you as the teacher as compared to someone in the class during a class?

Sarah [11:43]
Equal. Equal physical exertion. Energetic mental exertion on me? Way, way, way higher. My energy output and creativity and the lifting—lifting and pulling fifty-five people in a sculpt class, for instance, is like running with a parachute or pulling a 747 sometimes. It can either be like a river raft trip and we're all on it, or like this past Saturday, I just was like, Oh, my God, I'm carrying the entire load. If I'm not jumping and lifting then nobody is. People are super serious. So I'm the joy, I'm the entertainment, I'm the music, you know? Physically we're all doing the same thing, but when I get home, I collapse.

Dave
And how many miles in the course of a week do you typically run?

Sarah
I do my long runs with your wife, and then maybe three to five miles, five other days. Today I was so tired I ran like three. But I have to be in nature and do stuff for me. Otherwise…

Dave
Okay, and the long runs are anywhere between eight miles and thirty?

Sarah
Correct.

Dave
Correct. You are so in your body. You are so… Your relationship to your body is so fundamental to your relationship to your work.

Sarah
Right.

Dave
As you’ve aged, as you've been doing this over time, how has your relationship to this activity and this career evolved?

Sarah
Well, I would say a couple things. I would say that I'm very careful when running in the woods and stuff. I run slow and everyone laughs at me and stuff because I don't want to trip on a crack because if I can't show up..I mean, I could stand or sit in a class, but if I can't teach I can't work. And I don't get PTO and stuff.

Dave
Right.

Sarah [14:00]
And I also don't know what I would do without my friends. I had zero friends when I moved here. Because I moved from Denver to Portland to help open a Core Power and teach all the teachers to teach. I knew no one. Zero. And I had like seventy-five people at my fortieth birthday party that are my dearest, dearest friends, and it's all because of yoga. So my work is my life. And many of the people I've dated have been somehow related to yoga, right? Right.

My work is my life. And many of the people I've dated have been somehow related to yoga, right?

Dave
Are you social with many people who are not as physically active? Do you even meet them?

Sarah
I don't know. Do you know any people who aren't physically active?

Dave
Well, I mean, you are physically active on a level that I am not. You know, I mean I walk a lot, I hike, I swim laps twice a week.

Sarah
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dave
But, I mean, even that's a good example. It's so solitary. I never talk to anyone at the pool ever. I get in the pool, I swim my laps, I get out of the pool, and I leave.

Sarah
I'm friends with a lot of people, but most every single person who's in my realm here that's not blood relative or whatever is active. We're in a weird bubble. But we're all also extremists. A lot of us, we like to work hard and we like to play hard. But nobody in my family has done yoga. I mean, my mom did it once. And we were in a Bikram class and she slept for like fourteen hours that night. And then my dad came to like a power yoga class, but no, none of my brothers or anything.

Dave
Your dad was a doctor, and you even have at least one brother that's a doctor.

Sarah
Yeah. There are a lot of people in the medical field.

Dave
So that was sort of what you grew up with, which is probably—

Sarah
My mom was a nurse.

Dave
Okay. And then you became a nurse. Because that was the world you saw, I guess.

Sarah
Correct. Correct.

Dave
And what was your experience of that? Why did you feel like you needed to get out of it? How did it not work for you?

Sarah [16:10]
When I think of nursing I think of being trapped in fluorescent lights. Inside. And not wanting to go to work. Also, I chose to be an oncology nurse for pediatrics, and it was super stressful. I always thought that I was gonna make a mistake. I mean, you could… the doctor wasn't always there because if you’re working nights…and so if you fuck up, it's a life or death. And it's a kid. And so I didn't last very long with that. I lasted like four years. And now I'm on the other side, right? Preventative health care.

Dave
These people have become your friends, but even deeper than that, professionally, you've had people coming to your class for twenty years, right? It's not just that you've met people that now you hang out with. My understanding of it is that like you have a devoted following that shows up, if not weekly because of what's going on in their life, these are people that you've known for a very long time in that space.

Sarah
Yeah. A lot of them I've known for fifteen, eighteen years. Before they got married, then when they got married, now they have kids. Several people have had me teach the morning of their wedding. Stuff like that. They've seen me change and grow. You know, over the years.

Dave
Well, it feels like among other things, I mean, you're all being so vulnerable in a strange way. It's a physical thing, but you are really, really, really, really pushing each other in a way. I mean, I suppose they're not pushing you, but they are because you want to be your best for them.

Sarah [17:54]
Right. They're reflecting back, right? So, especially the people I've known for a while, like your wife Laura or people that have known me, they can give me a look and just be like, Chill.

Dave
Does that happen often?

Sarah
Yeah, just like don't be so hard or so reactive. I can just look at someone and they'll just simmer me down. One of the things about having all these people come into a class—and a lot of my coworkers would say this, too—is, being in the service industry, and maybe you felt like this at Powell's or whatever, but people dump on you when you're behind a counter. And it can be exhausting. So it's just an interesting energy exchange.

Dave
I have to imagine there is a sort of counseling aspect to it. Obviously, you're not a paid…that is not what you're promising. But right, that’s kind of what I mean. There's a vulnerability and there's an intimacy.

Sarah
Yeah.

Dave
Laura got…she wasn't upset, but it was really funny. She was talking about someone in one of your classes. I don't know the person's name. And she said something about, literally what it was was how much they were sweating. Because it's hot and you're working out really hard. So she's telling me this story, and then later she said something else and I'm like, “Is this the person that you've been sweating with every week for however long?” And she just kind of paused, and she was like, “I don't sweat with her.” I'm like, “No, you do. I mean, it's not your reason for being there, but yeah, no, you definitely sweat with her. She's like three feet away from you, dripping.”

Sarah
Dripping, yeah.

Dave
You were a nurse, so maybe that kind of breaks down some things, but you’ve got fifty-five people, you say, in this room…
 
Sarah
I would say the sweat doesn't really bother me. It does bother a lot of people. And we all talk about… there's some people who sweat a ton. But mostly we just rip on people who fart and stuff like that. We just are like or, you know, like last week I had one of my friends text and be like, “Oh, my god, did you hear that girl fart my face?” And I was like, Yeah, but like I can't…if I look at them, then I'll just bust out laughing. It's like the church. But I have been known to be like, “You guys, we do not smell good in here.”

[20:21] It's an interesting job for sure. I always walk into the locker room and I'm like, this is one of the only jobs—I mean there are other jobs, but—where whoever you're serving sees you naked. Right? I'm in the locker room with them and they're like, “Oh, hey.” I'm like, “Oh, hey.”

Dave
Right.

Sarah
Right?

Dave
Yeah. That's what I mean about the intimacy. I mean, there is a level of…this is not a normal client relationship.

Sarah
No. It's funny. It's interesting. But I mean it's…I love my job. I love it.

Dave
I'm curious about how you do make it work financially and one of the answers that I'm aware of is that you organize trips.

Sarah
Oh, yeah.

Dave
So tell me about that. What is that part of your job? What do you do?

Sarah
So at first I did it with another friend, and now I do it sort of solo, but basically you just choose a place and we take how many of our people we can to a resort. My favorite one is in Tulum. And on those trips, the people pay for basically all-inclusive minus the alcohol and there's longer classes, so an hour and a half in the morning and hour and a half at night. And then during the day everybody does whatever they want. And then at night everybody pounds the drinks and then passes out at nine and goes and does it again. I've done, I'd say, twenty of them or something. Originally I did them with Core Power, and I didn't make any money or anything, I just got the trip for free, which is basically what you want. But now it does help to pay the bills. They're fun. They're so fun.

Dave
And do you find…is it often the same people who are coming on the trips?

Sarah
Yeah.

Dave
And so those people you actually must get to know.

Sarah
Yeah, they're like my best besties. Yeah.

Dave
And even that's kinda weird though, because they're paying to go on your trip.

Sarah [22:15]
Well, I mean, they're paying to stay somewhere really awesome and they get to have what they want for exercise on the trip. So I've done other trips where, say, imagine you and Laura and your friends all go to Mexico, and what if more of you liked yoga and you just brought me along? I've done that before where you guys would just pay for me and then I just show up to teach and then go off and do my own thing and you guys do that.

It's just like, you know, when you guys go on your trips, and you love to hike, you go because you wanna do what you love. And that's what they're getting. They're getting paradise and a little yoga on the side.

Dave
And their favorite yoga instructor.

Sarah
Yeah. And a whole bunch of laughs.

Dave
Someone might hear about what you do, and they might hear about one of these trips, and they might think that it's more of what I would think of as a health getaway—and there's obviously a huge component of that—but it's not just—

Sarah
This isn't an ashram.

Dave
Right.

Sarah
When we say a yoga retreat, I'm not pretending to be a healer. It's Sarah Kurtz, your sarcastic, authentic, dirty, drinking yoga teacher who's coming on a trip with you, and we're gonna have fun. It's a yoga adventure. You know what I mean? I'm not a guru. I'm just a human being. There's trips for people who want to do that, and that's not this. And so I attract people who are just people wanting to have a nice time. I will tell you, the first question people ask when they say yay or nay is “Are we getting to have alcohol?” And I say yeah, and they're like, “Oh, thank God.”

Dave [24:10]
Why do you think it's so important to bring the fun part? That might be such an obvious question that it's impossible for you to answer, but I'm gonna guess that there are a lot of classes that aren't necessarily sort of skewing that way.

Sarah
My yoga classes are, I mean, I bust a couple of cracks and jokes and stuff in there, but they're not always fun. You know what I mean? They're hard work. But my sculpt classes are fun.

Dave
Okay.

Sarah
I put a lot of hard work into my work.

Dave
What does that look like preparing? And how often do you change things up?

Sarah
I teach at two different studios, and I teach every other day, right? So Monday-Tuesday can be the same sculpt class, Wednesday-Thursday and Friday-Saturday.

Dave
Okay.

Sarah
Does that make sense? But I have like sixteen hundred playlists, and I make new playlists all the time, and I choreograph every single song to exercises. I don't think everybody does that. And also I sing really loud and I'll dance. We have fun.

Dave
What are three off the top of your head killer tracks that have to be in a greatest hits class?

Sarah
What would I say

“DJ Turn It Up.” I love that song. But you don't know any of those songs.

Dave
It doesn't matter.

Sarah
You guys like really eclectic music.

Dave
Yeah, but I understand this is a class. You're not gonna listen to Elliott Smith in the middle of a sculpt class.

Sarah
No. “Turn Down for What?” I would say, “They Not Like Us” by Kendrick Lamar. You know he won a Pulitzer Prize?

Dave
I do. I do.

Sarah
Yeah. I love Kendrick Lamar. And then maybe like, one of my top, the—almost the—top song that I played on my Spotify is “Nice for What” by Drake. So that's an old song but I love music. I always tell them, I'm like, you guys, I should have been a DJ, but if I was, I'd be dead by now.

Dave
Well, you are a DJ. You just happen to be in a different context doing different things. But you are actually filling a room of people with music and getting them to respond.

Sarah
To have a good old time. Yeah. Yeah. It's really fun.

Dave
So this is what you're doing and what you've been doing for a while. How do you see that evolving? Are there things that you see in your future that you're kind of building toward? Obviously you're not only aging, the people who are so addicted to your class are aging, like what does that look like at this point to you?

Sarah [26:43]
Well, I'm gonna keep doing it as long as I can but I don't think I can be teaching sculpt when I'm seventy. So I don't know what I'll do. Maybe I'll start teaching chair lifting weights. I don't know. I really don't know. I would rather evolve as a human. That's more my goal than evolving as a job. Do you know what I mean?

Dave
Yeah. What do you think about when you think that, what is in your head?

Sarah
Just making sure that I continue to grow and self reflect and be a good sister and daughter and friend. Because, you know, you could die tomorrow, so I don't wanna worry about how I'm gonna teach yoga when I'm seventy.

Dave
But I have to imagine that the skills that you've built up over the years, and the relationships, through your work will serve you. My job isn't really dependent on my body so much. But that said, I mean, you know, you hear a thousand stories about like, well, people are aging and they have no new ideas, and it's the young kids these days who are seeing…and there's a lot of truth to a lot of that. But I think what's been interesting for me to realize too is that there's an entire generation that's aging with me.

Sarah
Right.

Dave
And those people don't necessarily want to be directed by a twenty-something any more than I do. I am thrilled to have people who are younger in my life because—lots of reasons—it keeps me young, new ideas, all the things. But it's not as if…I think it's easy, maybe this is it: I think it's easy to be distracted by media and culture’s fascination with young people and forget that you and your cohort are still very much there and needing support, direction…

Sarah [28:32]
My guess is we’ll all as a posse continue to age and things will shift, but as for my job I wanna be around this community as long as I can be. So if I have to switch roles and become more of…go back to being a teacher-trainer and involved in less of a physical way, then I could do that, right? I just keep dropping the pearls of wisdom because we wanna kind of keep close to the source of Core Power. There's only a few people left that helped start it that still are this involved. So I mean I suppose I could do that.

Dave
What would surprise someone about the classes who doesn't do them?

Sarah
I would say that number one, the biggest misconception is that you have to be flexible and that you have to be good at it to get out of it what everybody else does. The yoga's still gonna happen to you. It's not about what the posture looks like. It's not about the bendiest person. It's not about the person who can hold a handstand or a push up. That's, I think, the misconception. I think yoga works on everybody the same. You know, it works on you no matter where you're at. You're still gonna get something out of every class. Even if you don't think you're good.

Dave
What's most important to you about your job? Maybe at the end of a day or a week, when you feel good about it, what is it that made you feel good?

Sarah
If I feel like I feel like I showed up and I was super authentic and I was completely myself and I made other people feel good, that brings me a lot of satisfaction. If I feel like I helped people, and I was just being me. Because people can put on a persona when they teach. You could be like you and me talking, and then they go up on up front and they all of a sudden get a British accent. Do you know what I mean? Their teaching voice or whatever. So I think I really value that in myself. And I've gotten a lot better at it, I think.

Dave
Do you in your head have someone in mind when you think of the best teacher you ever had?

Sarah
Yeah.

Dave
What made them the best?

Sarah [31:16]
Their connection to themselves and the other people while they're teaching and the way that they help the students find meaning in what they're doing. The why behind something really hard. And this person is so strong and so beautiful and so acrobatic, and most of the time it's a room of just mirrors and a lot of times they'll just be eye closed. Right? And I really admire that.

Dave
I would assume that a typical person listening to this, they have a conception of yoga. Do you think that most of them are thinking about the why? That feels like something that you might start to understand more, the power of the why, once you do it. Because I think for most people yoga is more about stretching. It's like you said, flexible people who can do weird poses.

Sarah
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dave
But it's not why. I don't think that's the conception of people looking at it from a distance.

Sarah [32:29]
I would agree, but that's why this particular teacher…I feel like anything that we invest more into, it helps to understand it better. A lot of people go to yoga and sculpt and stuff just because it's exercise. For exercise's sake. Right? But if you can attach meaning to it, I think that they'll try harder and they'll invest more and be more connected to their body. I can't tell you how many times I'll be like, “You guys, what's the job of your bicep?”

Dave
And what's the answer?

Sarah
Do you know the answer?

Dave
Probably not well enough.

Sarah
To bend your elbow.

Dave
Okay.

Sarah
Right? Or what's the job of the tricep? It's to straighten the arm. So your tricep isn't gonna work if you're not…you need to bend your elbow to straighten it. Understand your body, people! I think, you know, helping people understand their bodies…

Dave
Do you or have you ever had a practice of meditating?
 
Sarah
No. I can't sit still long enough.

Dave
Okay.

Sarah
Do you?

Dave
I took a class and I did it for a long time. I still do it much more modestly. Not nearly as much as I used to. I did find it incredibly useful and I honestly think I still benefit. There are some things that I, through that routine, through that practice I think, that have never gone away. I think the way that we live our lives in this particular culture and moment in time, we're so distracted by everything, all the noise, all the people and organizations vying for our attention, a million different things. It's like you said, you can't sit still. I think most people have a lot of trouble quieting their mind. They might be sitting still, but there's a thousand things. They're on a screen and the TV's on, and someone's shouting at them from the next room, and then a phone rings or whatever. So there's a way in which I think there is a real value in being able to train your mind to focus and actually shut that out.

Sarah [34:44]
Well, I will say that there is an indelible link, without a doubt, between mental well being and yoga. Yoga practice. Learning the type of yoga that we teach is Vinyasa, which is breath, you know, moving with the breath. Every movement has a breath. And the idea is that your mind controls your breath. But conversely, if you can slow your breath, your mind will then slow down. Right? So it's a way of self regulating. Right? If you can breathe this special breath, ujayi, it calms down your central nervous system and allows blood to go where it needs to go to do hard work. But it focuses the mind. So no, it's not meditation, but it's as close as you can get, in a physical sense, if you're doing that.

Dave
They're so similar even though they're so different. You know what I mean? To look at a person meditating, an alien would be like that person meditating is not doing anything like that person in the sculpt class. And yet at the same time those two things may be more similar than just about anything else you could describe.

Sarah
Well, I mean, I think that you know, yoga means union and yoga means the uniting of the mind, body and the breath. But that can happen like hiking. It can happen gardening, it can happen meditating, it can happen swimming.  And I'm not here to judge. Maybe someday I'll be a meditator or whatever, but this helps me and I love that I can say that breath, that really is a tool that people can use to help self-regulate, you know?

Dave
What would you tell someone? What do you tell people who are just maybe a little timid about the idea of trying this?

Sarah [36:53]
Well, it's for everybody, and both of the communities where I teach, it's arms open wide, baby. It's just so fun to be a part of. And you can rest whenever you want to, right? It's not like, you know, an airplane ride or a hike when you're just like, I wanna get off this. I don't wanna be here anymore.

Dave
Four miles from the trailhead.

Sarah
Yeah. No. I mean it really isn't that scary. Yeah. I mean the sculpt classes are a little bit…

Dave
Parentheses: Sarah makes face.

Sarah
I would just say that the sculpt classes aren't for everybody. I mean, if you have PTSD or something, don't come.

Dave
Why? What about it?

Sarah
Because the music's super loud. There's a lot of bad words. And you're gonna be provoked. You're lifting weights and doing split squats and squats and jumping and burpees and push ups and stuff. But the yoga's not that way. I'm two different people. I'm like the DJ and the comedian or I'm the yoga teacher. So it's two different people.

Dave
In one body at one time?

Sarah
No. Sculpt is the weightlifting class that Laura takes.

Dave
Okay, so that is not the yoga teacher?

Sarah
No, that's the party girl. And then the yoga teacher is the nice…the other side. 

Dave
Okay.

Dave
What—

Sarah
Do you want to come now?

Dave
No.

Sarah
I'm gonna text Laura right away and I'm gonna be like, “Dave said he still doesn't wanna come.”

Dave
And Laura's gonna be like, “No shit.”

It's lovely that she has this time with herself and you.

Sarah
We have a good time.

Dave
I know you do. Believe me, I know. I cannot imagine Laura without that part of her life. I mean, it's a huge part of her life.

Sarah
It brings her so much joy.

Dave
What haven't we talked about? What do people find interesting about your work when they meet you?

Sarah [39:10]
The number one quote I hear is, “I don't know how you do it.” And I say I'm sponsored by Diet Coke.

And then the other thing I would say is that people don't really…they sort of want to know how you got to be a yoga teacher, but they really don't ever ask anything beyond a one-sentence question. So I just wanna say thanks because it's been nice to be able to just talk about my love, you know?

Dave
Well, cool. Thank you for doing it.

Dave
Yeah. Thanks so much.


Outro [39:47]
Bailey Cain
Hi. Producer Bailey here. On the next episode of Work-Shaped Life:

Manon Fisher [39:52]
My parents taught me at a young age that your work is really important, but really you work so that you can live the life that you want to live. And my parents both care a lot about their trades and their crafts and get a lot of joy out of it, but at the end of the day, they wanted to be traveling. They wanted to be on the road. Coming into consulting and having that flexibility in my life really allowed me to embrace these parts of my upbringing that I didn't really think would be possible—to have this really fulfilling, interesting career and kind of go back to being that hippie in a van.

Bailey [40:29]
Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform to hear the next episode when it drops. In the meantime, check out the Work-Shaped Life Substack, where last week I shared some personal stories and reflected on what it takes to survive an active online presence.

Work-Shaped Life is produced by Sheepscot Creative. It’s hosted by Dave Weich, edited by Michael Nipper and me, Bailey Cain, with production support from Benna Gottfried, Rosie Struve, Amelia Lukas and Kate Sokoloff.

We’ll be back in two weeks with Manon Fisher. Thanks for listening.