OUR STORY
Peace in Piermont all began with a walk in the park…
My family and I were walking through from Flywheel Park on a beautiful September night when our daughter, Scarlett, ran toward the center of the park and embraced two little boys who ran to meet her. Sebastian, Dion, and I looked at one another, smiled, and walked over to meet her new friends. The kids had recently transferred to a new school and it was quite heart-warming to see they’d already made new friends, as would we…
As we approached the group of kids and their parents, the adults introduced themselves and we made fast friends. They added us to a local community group in which people share information on meet-ups, local events, and extra-curricular activities. A few weeks later, I shared with the group that I was thinking about offering kids yoga and mindfulness classes and asked if anyone was interested in registering their child(ren). Within forty-eight hours, both sessions of the classes I proposed offering were fully booked.
Peace in Piermont is a passion project birthed from the strong desire to teach children and their families the importance of living in the present moment.
As a former special-education teacher, I witnessed the dire need for children to learn social-emotional skills, and to understand themselves deeper.
Between bullying, high-stakes testing, and countless other stressors, children today are faced with more pressure than ever before.
Adults don’t have it much easier. It’s no wonder the rates of addiction and alcoholism have sky-rocketed in recent years, considering the extreme expectations we are giving children at remarkably young ages. Suicide rates have also increased over 25% in the last twenty years - a statistic that should prove to all of us that mental health needs to become our main priority in society.
We are neglecting to teach our children how to love and care for themselves along the way, and as adults, we are either ill equipped to do the same for ourselves, or ignoring our own needs.
Peace in Piermont offers classes that teach children and adults mindfulness, yoga, fitness, meditation, and various strategies for coping with stress, while building community amongst participants. There are classes and workshops available for parents that provide support for any obstacles they are enduring with their children—socially, emotionally, or behaviorally. We work with local school districts, corporations, and nonprofits to help teach students, patients, and/or employees ways de-stressing via mindfulness practices.
As a means to share my message about the power of the present moment in daily life outside of the studio, in a way that families could apply to their daily lives, I began writing children’s books. So far I’ve published Let’s Sit Down and Meditate , How Yoga Saved Christmas , and Let’s Have an Attitude of Gratitude in the Give Your Brain a Bath (GYBAB) series. This series teaches humans of all sizes how to practice self-care. One of my biggest life goals is to turn GYBAB into a television series!
I completed my advanced 300-hour yoga teacher training through Stonewave Yoga. I am currently deepening my personal and professional practices as student at the Mindfulness Center at Brown University. I am a level 2 teacher, on the path to become a fully certified teacher of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). MBSR is an 8-week evidence-based program that offers secular, intensive mindfulness training to assist people with stress, anxiety, depression, and pain (visit this page for more information on the program).
It is my dream to steadily grow and cultivate sacred space for humans of all ages to learn, support and connect with ourselves, and one another, as we practice the art of “being here now”.
Sending you so much love + light,
