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Sharing Mindfulness & Health: A Q&A with Sarah Beth Yoga
I am so excited to share a new “Real Women, Real Balance” interview with you today with Sarah Beth of the popular YouTube channel, Sarah Beth Yoga.
A few years back, I ran a free online Pilates challenge called the Pilates Summer Series. I was looking for guest instructors and spent hours searching YouTube for instructors that were a good fit for The Balanced Life. I eventually found Sarah Beth’s YouTube channel and knew she was the one. I reached out to her via email and it turned out that we lived 10 minutes apart! How crazy is that? I had no idea.
We met at Starbucks, talked about yoga, Pilates, life as online fitness instructors and the rest is history.
We became dear friends and although I’m sad we’re no longer neighbors, we keep in touch often and I’m honored to share a bit more about her and how she strives for balance in her life as a mother, wife, yoga instructor and entrepreneur who has been leading over 200,000 yogis through instructional yoga videos online for over 5 years. Her focus is on family, health, and modern-day yoga & lifestyle that is attainable and non-judgmental.
I love that and hope you enjoy this Q&A…
Hi Sarah Beth! Will you start by telling us a little bit about yourself?
My name is Sarah Beth. I’m a mother, a wife of 3 years, a yogi and entrepreneur living in the beautiful state of Colorado. My business is SarahBethYoga where I provide online yoga videos and motivate others to find more health, clarity and balance through attainable modern-day yoga & lifestyle. I focus on eating clean, living mindfully, and lifestyle design so I can spend my quality hours and energy with my family.
What inspired you to start your business?
I was at a low point in my life, about 8 years ago, when I thought very little of myself. I quit modeling and panicked, thinking that I had nothing to offer other than my looks. My husband, then boyfriend, handed me a book called The 4-Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferriss and changed my life. I decided that I wanted the luxury of lifestyle design and to work within my passions. So, I signed up for Yoga Teacher Training, taught locally for a while, and soon after started making yoga videos on YouTube. The first several videos make me CRINGE, but when I look back they gave me the necessary experience and confidence to keep going and years later I’m so happy I stuck with it. 🙂
What does a typical day look like for you?
6am – My son wakes up, nurses then goes downstairs with “Dada” so I can get an extra hour of sleep.
7am – And I’m up! I’ll get dressed, drink a large glass of water, bulletproof coffee and have breakfast with my son as my husband leaves for work.
8am – My son and I head upstairs to tidy, make beds and do laundry while listening to a Chalene Johnson podcast. Really, I do those things while he empties out my nightstand. Seems mundane, but I just love this part of our day.
9:30am – We head to the gym! My son usually falls asleep on the way, so I wait in the parking lot and respond to emails. Once he wakes, we head inside and he goes to the gym child center for 2 hours while I either take a yoga class or edit voiceovers in the cafe.
12:15pm – We head home, have lunch and play.
1pm – Naptime! I’ll continue working, mostly editing voiceovers, sequencing, responding to emails, or working on my upcoming website. Sometimes I’ll take a little cat nap myself. 😉
3:30pm – This is when my son usually wakes, so I put the computer and phone away and we play, clean up and go for a walk, or to the pool.
5:30pm – My husband gets home and takes our son to play while I make dinner.
6:30pm – Dinner! We eat around the table with no technology other than soft music in the background. It’s such a wonderful way for us to truly connect and appreciate each other as a family. We’ve also added in some reading out loud during this time. Our latest book is the The Way of The Warrior Kid, by Jocko Willink.
7:30pm – My son’s bedtime routine, which is pjs, nursing, rocking, lullaby and he’s usually out within 15 minutes.
8pm – I’ll relax with my husband and chat or watch a show. Lately I’ve been using this time to squeeze in more work, but it’s a bad habit that I really need to break!
10pm – I get ready for bed, read a book and turn out the lights. I’ve been rereading The 4-Hour Work Week because of the work sprint I’m currently in. I like the habit of reading before bed instead of scrolling my phone, I find that it relaxes me more.
I’m curious, what do you do when you’re not working?
I try to spend that time being present with my son and husband. I love watching my son grow and develop so playing outside, at the park, at the pool or exploring new places is a great way for us to connect.
I also enjoy managing my household, keeping it tidy and peaceful, making sure our fridge is stocked and meals are prepped/made of whole foods.
Although I do have a regular yoga practice, a lot of the time it is hijacked by my work brain thinking “Ooh! That’s a great transition, remember that!” or “What about a Yoga for Runner’s series?” so instead of fighting it I’ve accepted that my physical yoga practice is different now, and I focus more on extending my yoga practice off the mat by being more present (putting away my phone), eating mindfully (meal prepping & taking the time to make meals), and living a life closest to my highest values which are: family, health, happiness, and my business. In that order.
As a family we enjoy hiking, playing, and movie/dinner nights with friends and family. But my husband and I are both entrepreneurs so we have a hard time turning off our work brains. We spend a lot of our time either brainstorming and discussing ideas or just expressing gratitude for where we are and the beautiful family we have.
As you know, The Balanced Life is all about empowering women to approach health & fitness with a balanced mindset. How do you handle the pressure as a woman to look or act a certain way?
I think everyone goes through seasons of life. There was a season of life, when I was in my late teens and early 20’s where I was modeling and learning quickly that sex sells. I didn’t mind showing off my sexuality for success, and at the time, enjoyed the lifestyle.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with that as long as the person doing it is completely in control and isn’t hurting themselves or anybody else, but when I started SarahBethYoga I set a boundary where I would do it without using any of my sexuality.
I wanted to find success with my knowledge and my ability to motivate and teach. Having a background in modeling helped me get in front of the camera, but I wanted to prove to myself that I didn’t have to do yoga in my bikini to get views. And yes, I have received rude or vulgar comments on my fully clothed videos but I quickly delete them because I view the comment section of my videos as my living room and although constructive criticism is okay, gross and purely negative comments will never be.
Not nearly as bad, but one comment I remember is when somebody said, “You’d get a lot more views if you dressed like [a yoga teacher who wears mostly sports bras and little hot yoga shorts in her videos]” and it was disappointing that this one person couldn’t see that I was intentional about success without sexuality. But that was just one person. My approach has attracted many, many more like-minded women and supportive friendships like the one I have with Robin!
Curating my social media feeds around these like-minded successful women is just another way that I feel supported and strong in being my authentic self online and living my healthiest life, body and mind.
What does balance mean to you during your current season of life?
This current season of life is absolutely NUTS! I struggled in the first year after my son was born because my husband was working 16-hour days, 7 days a week, and we were all miserable. He finally let go of that failing business and miraculously got a fantastic job within a week after! I went from living my nightmare to my dream life within days. So, for the sake of balance I took a break from my business so I could help the family move in and settle into our new home and life.
I received so much support on my “I’m taking a break” video, and social media posts, that I felt I could put away my computer and finally breathe.
I spent a few weeks being a stay at home mom and loving every single second of it, but I eventually wanted to start working again – though I knew it had to be different. So instead of filming and editing my videos myself (which was the most time consuming) I hired a team to do that for me. It’s been great! I record the voiceovers, show up to film, then I’m done!
BUT, I set my expectations way too high and overdid it within the first few weeks.
It took a killer migraine to knock me down and make me realize that I need more balance. See, I felt this rush to film as much as possible while my body is strong and healthy because I want to get pregnant again ASAP! If I learned anything from my last pregnancy it was to relax and have a backlog of yoga videos so I can focus more on my growing family instead of trying to make videos when I most likely felt bloated, nauseous and exhausted. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED being pregnant but it was even better when I didn’t have to be on camera. 😉
So, after this last migraine, I emailed everyone I was working with and explained that we need to reconsider our expectations and scheduling going forward (mostly me) and if I lost projects then so be it. I need to learn how to say no and put less on my plate.
It’s okay to have busy and not-so-busy seasons, but it’s not okay to have unrealistically busy seasons that completely ruin me. So, long story short, I’m still working on finding balance, it’s a day to day practice but I’m going in a good direction.
Who/what inspires you to keep living well?
-Robin Long and The Balanced Life social media & blog.
–Tim Ferriss and all of his life hacking and lifestyle design.
-My husband who is very athletic and health focused.
–Chalene Johnson podcasts, both Build Your Tribe and The Chalene Show.
-My son, who is a mirror to my own habits and how I live my life.
-The SarahBethYoga yogis who comment/tag me in posts about their practice and their successes!
What is your best tip for maintaining a healthy lifestyle in the midst of a busy life?
-It’s okay to take a break, to step back and reevaluate your current output.
-Set boundaries and policies in order to protect the life you want to live, sometimes that means saying no.
-Make your bed. Your outer world reflects your inner world and this one good decision will snowball more good decisions throughout the rest of your day.
-Turn off the noise. Your brain is constantly processing, don’t clutter it up with radio ads, unknown phone calls, or purely negative conversations. Silence can provide clarity.
What projects are you currently working on that you’d like us to know about?
I’m building www.sarahbethyoga.com a website and custom app that I will update monthly with a new 45-60 minute yoga video and daily yoga calendar to take the guess work out of daily yoga practice.
I believe your daily practice is your strongest practice and even 5 minutes a day is better for you than 1 hour once a week. Want to get more flexible? Practice daily. Want to be less stressed? Practice daily. Want to sleep better? Practice daily. So, I’ve curated daily yoga calendars using 10-60 minute videos themed around flexibility, strength, balance, detox, travel, etc., to make it easy for yogis to get on their mat and challenge when they’re strong, but stretch and rest when they’re tired and sore. All of this will be available to download or stream through the SarahBethYoga app so yogis can practice anytime, anywhere.
I’ve been working so hard to put it all together and I’m really excited to finally launch so yogis can start enjoying these classes. Just making the classes is getting me in fantastic shape!
Thank you, Sarah Beth! It’s an honor to have you here on the blog today. Thank you for the work you are doing to inspire others and encourage us all to pursue mindful and healthy lives.
Practice with Sarah Beth on YouTube for weekly uploads and follow on Facebook & Instagram for daily posts and motivation. Join her over at SarahBethYoga.com for your strongest practice yet!
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6 thoughts on “Sharing Mindfulness & Health: A Q&A with Sarah Beth Yoga”
Lovely Q&A! SarahBeth’s approach to teaching is why I fell in love with yoga in the first place! I’ve been trying to approach life with mindfulness, kindness and strength more and more but sometimes I fall right back into bad habits; at this point I’ll watch some of SarahBeth’s videos on meditation and quickly bounce back again. Thanks SarahBeth, you’re my favourite yoga teacher ever!
Thank you for your sweet note, Pamela!
Great Q&A. Makes me realize that I missed these. I hope you can bring us more soon. 🙂
Sarah Beth’s youtube channel is where I started and how I found out about Robin and the Sisterhood. Love these two ladies! They are the best and they are my favorite instructors, hands down!
I love Sarah Beth, she kick started my yoga journey 5 years ago and I still practice with her today. She’s been giving amazing advice on how to be more mindful and she trully is an inspiration. I also found this blog through her and the Pilates summer series, which I am really grateful for. You both are inspiring women, making me want to grow into the mindful, balanced and healthy person I want to be every day. Thank you for that!
Sarah Beth Yoga has changed my life to a much more positive direction. The complete package – yoga, her words, music heals the soul.
Thanks much Sarah Beth.