Today we’d like to introduce you to Parvati Shallow.
Parvati, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
From as early as I can remember, I’ve lived for adventure and experience– discovering what I’m capable of and pushing past my limits. When Survivor showed up in my life, I went for it three times. At 25, I won the game and the million-dollar check that went with it.
Returning home, without a plan or support system to help me re-integrate into non-reality TV life, I was lost. I had an excess of money and no sense of self. I fell into a fast-paced, Hollywood party crowd and numbed out with alcohol and luxury. From the outside, my life looked delightful. But, I felt like an empty shell.
In response to this sense of inner lack, I founded ESP Wellness Center an upscale pilates, yoga and holistic health center on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. I believed that if I focused on helping other people find their strength and inner peace, it would help me recover my own.
I quickly realized that while I loved teaching and working with clients, the additional never-ending administrative and daily responsibilities of running a studio sucked the life out of me. I was slogging through 19 hour days and a slave to the cash needs of the business.
Even though I was absolutely miserable, my pride was so caught up in the studio, I couldn’t see a way out. And, then the universe gave me a doorway. I was called by CBS to host a travel show called Around the World For Free — a challenge where I had to travel around the world with no money, surviving entirely off the goodwill of others.
It was a wild adventure and in the middle of it… I broke my wrist four-wheeling in the sand dunes of Namibia. When I returned to LA, I could no longer keep up with my daily tasks at the wellness center, so I sold the studio and had another identity crisis. This time, there was nowhere else to look. I had to turn the mirror on myself.
My wrist was broken. I no longer had the strength in my body to muscle through the barriers. I had to find another way. In this challenge, everything opened up for me. I found Kundalini yoga, started meditating, took self-development courses at Landmark, Insight, and attended advanced yoga trainings in India.
The teachers that I met during this time and the wisdom they shared with me gave me a new understanding of my own power to transform my life through my thoughts and the way I see the world. Externally, my world didn’t change much, but I was so different as a result of these practices. I was able to create my life from my own inner guidance, and I felt at peace, happy and light.
I began to share this with others in my life. And they started to create their lives from their own inner wisdom and experience more joy as a result. Now, that I am a new mom, my deepest driving desire is to model faith and self-trust, to show up with courage and a knowing that everything in life — even the hard stuff– is happening to help us grow into who we’re meant to be.
This is why I started PS Coaching, I know that when people take the time to get to know themselves, build self-trust and move toward their dreams with courage — the world will become more fun and loving place to be.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I wouldn’t say the road has ever been smooth — how boring would that be? Some of the greatest obstacles I’ve had to overcome have given me the biggest gifts of my life.
The only reason I am able to sustain a healthy marriage now is because I learned from my past heartbreaks and my previous lack of ability to set boundaries or ask for what I needed.
In the past, I always put on a happy face and pretended everything was fine, even when everything around me was breaking down. I thought I had to always be strong and in power. Getting my heart broken and breaking my wrist, taught me that there is so much value in being vulnerable and asking for help.
It allowed me to start to develop depth in my relationships. To learn the art of giving and receiving. Becoming a mother has blown my world wide open now. Every day is a challenge. I’m used to taking on many things, and now I’m seeing that I just can’t operate the way I used to. I have to say no to things now.
I have to relearn what I’m capable of and slow way down. I’m finding who I am in relation to this little depended being. I’m learning a new way of being in my body and accepting the ups and downs. It’s a full-on surrender. I’m having to expand my comfort zone.
PS Coaching – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I help people to re-establish their most important relationship — their relationship to self — so that they can create their most joyful lives and know that they can handle anything that shows up along the way.
We work on three levels: body, mind, and soul. Each aspect of ourselves requires a different type of support and understanding. I combine my own personal life experience with my formal training in yoga, meditation, energy healing, and self-development to personalize programs that support individuals and groups on every level of being.
In the process of our work together, people solidify themselves as courageous, confident and self-assured. They build a steady foundation of self-reliance and the ability to take risks.
As they progress, they get more clear about their heart’s desires and take courageous leaps of faith that create incredible successes for them in the material world.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success is wanting something, being terrified and going for it anyway. Success is showing up when we say we’re going to show up– keeping our promises to ourselves and to others.
Success is rebounding from an anxiety-trip within a matter of moments. It’s the ability to bring ourselves back to peace and faith in any given instant.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.parvatishallow.com
- Email: parvatiworld@gmail.com
- Instagram: @pshallow
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