ShoutoutLA.com
November 2, 2020

“Meet Shana Meyerson | Children’s Yoga Instructor & Business Owner”

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shana Meyerson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shana, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I discovered yoga pretty late in life, just before my 30th birthday. And it was the first time in my life that anyone ever told me it was okay to fall. Let me put this in context. As a kid, I was the Golden Child. I excelled at everything. Top of my class academically, a highly accomplished athlete, won every award and accolade in the book. And then I didn’t get into Stanford. And my world came tumbling down. For the next ten years, I went through life believing I was a totally failure. That I was worth nothing. Or less. When I finally heard someone tell me that falling is not failing, my entire outlook completely shifted. And all I could think was: why didn’t anyone tell me this when I was three??? So, within months of that first class, I left my career and I withdrew from my MBA program at UCLA to start mini yogis yoga for kids. I wanted to teach kids self-esteem and self-acceptance, kindness and integrity. I wanted to change lives. This was March 2002 and the very notion of yoga kids was considered radical at best and completely ridiculous at worst. But for me, it was a calling. Fast forward to 2020. Children’s yoga is now ubiquitous. You’d be hard-pressed to find a yoga instructor who doesn’t teach yoga to kids on some level. And kids’ yoga is just about as mainstream as adult yoga. To date, I have trained and certified thousands of teachers worldwide to spread the gifts of yoga to the next generation. And it has been the most life-affirming process to see how we are all working together to change the future for the best.

What should our readers know about your business?
The core mission of mini yogis yoga for kids (www.miniyogis.com) is to foster creativity, cooperation, and confidence in a safe environment where all children are perfect just the way they are. Many things set us apart from our competition, but the biggest one is that mini yogis is based 100% on real, classical yoga…put into a fun, bite-sized, child-appropriate package. This may seem like a no-brainer, but just about every other children’s yoga program (if not every one) has a large component of simple creative movement with no basis in actual yoga. All mini yogis teachers hold at least a 200-hour adult certification in addition to their mini yogis yoga for kids certification. So, we ensure that kids grow up with a strong yoga foundation that fosters the same positive habits that they will need as their practice matures over time…and into adulthood.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
My favorite thing to do in all of LA is to visit WiSpa. So unfortunate that the pandemic has pretty much shut down the Korean Day Spas for the foreseeable future. I would definitely take them to Sage Bistro for the best vegan food in town.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to dedicate the shoutout to Bryan Kest, my first teacher and mentor and the man who taught me about the value of falling.

Website: https://miniyogis.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yogathletica/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shana-meyerson-369a945/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/miniyogis
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/miniyogis/videos

Originally found on ShoutoutLA.com