Payal shah

In 2012, I came across a yoga studio near my home in India and decided to try a class out as I wanted to lose weight. Initially I was attracted to the physical benefits of the practice as it made me more flexible and also helped me lose weight but slowly I noticed other benefits like I felt more energized after the practice, more calm at the end of the day and also began to sleep better. I also benefited more when I started practicing Shoulder stand (Inversions are great for our bodies as they can help balance our hormones). It was a big eye opener for me as to the kind of impact Yoga had on my body. Yoga has taught me how to be more present in my body, to observe the sensations arising in my body while doing my practice without any judgement or criticism.

I have been practicing Yoga since then and was eager to share these amazing benefits to as many people as I can and hence I did my yoga teacher trainings from Yoga Garden SF in 2017.

I became more interested to explore how Yoga would benefit women specially in their life changing phase like pregnancy so I mentored with Marisa Toriggino, the lead teacher of my Prenatal training. I gained valuable insights from assisting her and it got me so eager that I decided to dive a little deeper into this subject and hence I am currently doing my second prenatal mentorship with Marti Foster at Yoga Is Youthfulness, Mountain View.

I am forever grateful to my Mentors and all my wonderful teachers who have immensely helped to learn and grow both as a person and as a Yogi.

I believe in creating a safe space for everyone in the class and also to design sequences which are breath focused and accessible to all. I also think that a good alignment in Yoga not only helps to derive  maximum benefits of the poses but also keeps the body safe while coming in and out of the poses so I teach alignment based Yoga. I love teaching Vinyasa align, Hath align and Prenatal Yoga.