The Inspiration
Summer
Exactly a year ago, I taught a yoga workshop for kids on how to put postures together to create a flow. But we also discussed the purpose of yoga and why breathing and present-minded awareness (aka meditation) were essential to the practice.
These kids were smart. When we discussed breathing techniques and when to apply, they not only brought up times in yoga where they could let out a nice big lion’s breath, but also times in their day-to-day life when they maybe felt frustrated or impatient.
We would end each practice with a savasana (Sanskrit for corpse pose. Probably the reason why 90% of people even go to a yoga class is so they can lay flat on their mat with their eyes closed and walk away feeling good that they just worked out - this is me.) and they would always comment on how good they felt at the end.
This workshop experience was hands down the best part of my 2019 summer. And it planted a little seedling of an idea.
Fall
Because I am all about “flowing” through life now, I spent a couple months in California in the fall. A Midwest girl my entire life, I somehow exhibit a California girl persona in my aesthetic, eating habits, and obsession with all things woo-woo.
I started out in Venice Beach, living five minutes away from Abbott Kinney (thank you Susan for your beautiful home!). It was my mecca. Yoga studios, vegan pizza, the beach, acai bowls, and Cha Cha Matcha for my daily matcha ritual. I went to a sound bath, surfed, and got a tarot reading. I even got highlights to give the effect of California sun-kissed hair.
As hedonistic as it all seems, I was working too! I run the Lively Community Foundation and we had just put out our first grant. I was interviewing potential grantees - women from all over the world - which honestly didn’t really feel like work. It felt like meeting 35 amazing, creative, soulful new friends. Each “interview” felt like a gift to me. I always took away a personal lesson.
One call was with someone incredibly intuitive and essentially turned into a let's-inspire-Nishi-with-new-ideas call. Our conversation somehow led us to discuss ideas I had and what I think I could bring to the world.
I told her about my experience teaching yoga to kids in the summer and how it showed me something incredibly powerful. Kids are smart. They are intuitive. And, they don’t want to live in the hustle + grind way adults tend to fall into. They want to play and have fun but also learn and create and be respectful.
I talked about how yoga for me has never really been about the poses and how well I can “do.” Maybe because I never have considered myself an athletic or strong person, I didn’t fall into the trap of needing to be “perfect” at the poses. It has always been about being on my mat to let go of thoughts, beliefs, and emotions that were clinging to me like leeches so that I could “get back to being myself.”
I also talked about how I wanted to instill different lessons into society than the ones I picked up growing up: success, feeling good, being creative, and even happiness were outside of me. They were all to be attained by doing and were only accessible to those who work hard.
Experiencing how playful and creative kids naturally are made me strongly want to do something that would ensure them keeping their true nature. So they could live productive lives not by sacrificing their joy, but integrating their joy into work. Knowing that doing isn’t the precursor to fun - the fun is in the doing. They are not mutually exclusive.
The little seedling that was planted in the summer started to germinate into a book idea for kids on the lesson of presence and how to incorporate it into everyday life.
Winter
I wrote the story! On a random December cold day, I opened up PowerPoint and wrote out an outline. I created characters, Mind and Heart, that would teach kids the function and role of their mind and their heart (intuition/gut feeling).
My own experience learning about who I really was (we can call this me expanding my awareness or “consciousness”) became extremely helpful in explaining the role of the Mind and Heart characters.
And it ended with the perfect lesson: create a partnership between your unique intuitive sparks that guide you in life and your mind which enables you to take positive action for a joyful and fun life.
Serendipitously, Susan (whose Airbnb I stayed in during my fall in Venice) owned a publishing business and she (and her team) were excited to help me publish this story.
Spring
My intent with this story, that now was becoming a children’s book, was to simply share it with the world. It seemed like a fun new thing to learn to do - publish a children’s book - and I didn’t tie an outcome to its “success.”
But, Covid-19 entered.
I’m embarrassed to admit that this public health girl did not forecast its impact on the world. With my international spring travel postponed and new work projects on hold, I definitely threw a bit of a mental fit. Dramatically feeling how unfair it was that “this was happening to me.”
But thankfully with a low appetite for pessimism, I started to see a few opportunities.
First off, the Foundation I manage is made for times like these since its mission is helping people release traumatic experiences. This season was “busier” than usual but very glad that this organization exists, especially during these times.
The second opportunity was a sort of pivot for me.
I started my LLC (Sage) back in 2018 after I became a health coach and certified in yoga teaching. Because of my amazing public health jobs, I had experienced success in improving the wellness of external environments, however I wanted to help individuals internally as well (probably something related to my past desire of becoming a physician). But something about the business didn’t really stick with me. My own experience with health and wellness slowly started to evolve out of only focusing on my eating and moving habits but also my mental habits. I became less interested in what people were chewing, and more interested in what they were chewing on mentally.
The last few years I personally became obsessed with consciousness, neuroscience, and the Law of Attraction. I loved learning about the brain wave states and why meditation feels so good and anxiety so bad, why positive thinking leads to a positive life, and what living in the present truly feels like and why it is the best way to live.
All of this learning through books, podcasts, online courses, and in-person events helped me find a steady foundation even in times of extreme unknown.
The second opportunity became the creation of Joy Parade. I knew that if I hadn’t immersed myself for the last few years in essentially learning how to live a more joyful and productive life, I would have probably started during quarantine. Since there was and still is so much unknown we are venturing through, my mind would have overwhelmed itself in anxious thoughts and would have needed to find a different approach.
Joy Parade was created to offer you that different approach. How to use the power of the presence to actually live our day-to-day lives in feelings of joy and peace so that we don’t need to cope in the first place.
My team for the past few months has been amazing women who are completely aligned with their soul’s calling - Kelly, Jena, Susan, Lorraine, Darcy, and Lera. Thank you for being great at what you do and teaching me how to publish, launch, and pivot with grace and ease.
Summer
It is summer 2020, we are amidst a changing world where old, outdated beliefs are crumbling and (hopefully) new progressive energy can continue to pour through.
I am committed to a new way of the world and bringing in a fresh perspective:
When you feel good, you do good.
The most productive thing you can do as a member of society is connect inwards first.
The peace cultivated on a yoga mat doesn’t stop at feeling good - it leads to new ideas and the ability to act on them with much more ease.
For the past ten years, my public health career mission has been the accessibility of healthcare services and the improvement of social conditions for communities to thrive. My mission continues to be one of accessibility: Joy Parade is all about making consciousness accessible and applying it to everyday life. Making it practical and actionable so that life can be lived in a joyful manner.
I invite you to check out the story that was inspired by an amazing group of kids, A Friendship Story: Heart & Mind. And Joy Parade’s online home to check out its offerings today (it will be offering online courses soon!).
Want to access a bit more joy right now? Check out my Joy Journal, by signing up here: joyparade.co/freebie. There is even a version for kids!
Thank you for your support and I’m excited to hear what you think! :)
Much love,
Nishi
