Rising Stars: Meet Jayde Barber of Los Angeles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jayde Barber.

Hi Jayde, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
As a child, my parents introduced me to various sports, but I never quite fit in. I would often end up in tears on the field. However, when I discovered dance, everything changed. Dance became my emotional and physical outlet, a way to express myself without words. Born with a hyperactive nervous system and being highly sensitive, dance helped me channel my anxiety and emotions into movement.

As I grew older, though, the pressures of the dance world and my own mental health struggles, including anxiety and later depression, led me to step away from dance at around age fifteen. That period was marked by intense battles with an eating disorder, and I underwent several rounds of treatment. Recovery was not linear, it was about 3 years of active like inpatient and partial hospitalization and then 3 years out of treatment in what I call a sort of “pseudo-recovery,” where I pretended everything was fine, even when it wasn’t.

Eventually, at 5 or 6 years since starting my recovery journey I reached a point of honesty with myself and sought help again. This time, as an adult, the experience was different. I attended a treatment center that included a focus on rebuilding a healthy relationship with movement, including yoga. It was there that I re-realized that movement truly is medicine for me, and yoga became a profound part of my healing journey.

This newfound revamped love for movement eventually led me to become a certified yoga teacher. Between treatment and becoming a teacher I was a case manager for homeless youth in Los Angeles and I thought that was my dream job. I quickly became disheartened when I realized the heaviness of the content of the work I was doing was taking a toll on my mental and physical health. A hard decision it was, but I decided to leave, and that’s when my journey to become a teacher began. I never thought I could be a teacher because speaking in front of people and guiding people was a bit anxiety inducing for me, but After taking so many yoga and Pilates classes here in LA and loving being a student in those spaces, I thought why not give teaching a shot. I ended up Training in a studio that resonated deeply with me and my values and goals, and ultimately transformed my life. Teaching yoga fills me with joy and excitement, and it’s become a true passion. It also opened doors for my photography, allowing me to capture the essence of fellow yoga teachers and their craft, which has been incredibly rewarding. Photography, like yoga, allows me to connect with others and help them feel comfortable and seen.

Now, as I teach yoga and pursue photography, I’m living my passions and embracing the journey I’ve been on. It’s amazing how the things I loved as a child have now become my career. I’m deeply grateful for how everything has come full circle.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Ha, not at all, but at this point after all I’ve been through, I don’t expect the road to be smooth anymore. As mentioned earlier I deal with some mental health conditions—the eating disorder, anxiety & panic attacks, depression to name the main ones. And I’ve just come to learn that my nervous system is a big hyperactive. I think there have been many bumps, and each bump causes heighten anxiety symptoms which is the struggle for me.
More so than the actual event that happened, it’s the feeling I’m left with after something challenging, usually anxiety, that puts me in a place of struggle. Because I try to push the feeling away first instead of just allowing myself to feel it so it canmove through me. So yeah, there were breakups, family conflict, financial struggles, having to move, etc, etc, but what really was hard about all of that was how much anxiety and overwhelm it caused and the way it made me feel in my body. I feel everything physically, and ugh one of the worst feelings for me is the physical sensations of being anxious or panicked especially when things are actually okay. Yoga is amazing for this though, the movement yes, but more so the breath. Being able to meditate, do breathwork, and yoga basically every day for 4 weeks straight during my training what clear evidence to my body that when I consistently engage in these practices I will feel more clear headed and will be able to realistically check in with myself and how I’m doing/what my needs are, I act less from a place of anxiety, I can be more honest with myself and others about how I’m feeling, my body doesn’t feel hijacked by my nervous system as much, and I am able to more easily access these tools (especially the breathing techniques) during times of crisis.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Right now I mainly teach yoga and do photography. I also have a background in mental health ( which I infuse into a lot of not most of my work), and have a mental health podcast called Students of Mind. I’m actually very proud of that podcast, and hope to get it up and running again. Being able to open people up to the world of mental health through conversations with both professionals and survivors was such an honor and I hope to be able to start that up again soon!

I’ve been doing photography since about 10 I think, but maybe even before that. At first it was just photos of my family and myself. Then I really got into self portraits, I loved to use things like glitter and paints. Then I started doing senior photos for people when they graduated highschool and then more editorial style portraits. I love the art of framing, posing, and lighting. I love playing with lines and angles. I love the editing process and transforming what came out of the camera into an entirely different piece of art. I love telling a story through a photo, I love planning photo series, I truly love all aspects of photography. This summer when I got the opportunity to step back into this photographer role—I just had to thank the universe again. In photography im most proud of my ability to make people feel comfortable. I’ve been told by several of the folks I’ve photographed that it feels like just hanging out with a friend—which is honestly my goal. I’m not shooting for perfect—I’m shooting for real, to capture real movement, real emotions, real energy. And I do a lot of guiding, especially for folks not used to being in front of the camera. I find that being prepared with poses, giving many cues, showing them with my own body, and lots of affirmations had mad people feel incredibly comfortable with me, which makes me so so happy. I want people to feel safe with me and be able to be their authentic selves to the camera can just capture them as them.

I’m a new yoga teacher, so I’m still learning what types of yoga I even want to focus on. At the moment I teach mostly hatha/vinyasa flows, so flows with some holds and also some breath to breath movement. I’m very interested in teaching more restorative and yin classes, because those have been so healing for me lately. I also always do guided breathwork or a meditation at the beginning and end of my practices and have fallen in love with the art of creating meditations, so I would love to lean more into that (I’m looking into getting certified in sound healing to add another healing component to my meditations). Currently I do a weekly yoga class at Elysian park and lead a hike after. That has been so fun, yoga and hiking are staples in my life right now, so to be able to guide people in two practices that help me so much all in one experience feels really special. I’m hoping moving forward to craft more mental health based yoga flows, like ones that could help with certain symptoms, I’m just taking plenty of time to do research and gain more knowledge around that. I also am still very passionate about serving homeless youth, so a dream of mine would be able to create spaces or experiences where unhoused youth can access things like yoga, meditation, sounds baths, Pilates, breathwork, constraint therapy, reiki, massage, acupuncture, all for free. Because these shouldn’t be considered “luxury” practices. I’m a firm believer that yoga is for all, that’s what we’re taught, and it truly is. So I hope to share that fact and this practice with as many people I can reach. As of now in my yoga teaching journey, I’m just proud to be doing the dang thing! I’m doing all I can to continue developing this teaching muscle, teaching as much as I can, and making sure to balance it with plenty of rest and rejuvenation, because holding spaces in this way definitely takes energy, but it’s so so worth it!

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Probably dedication and drive. I haven’t really ever gave up. I always keep pushing even when on the surface I’m feeling like I’m not going to succeed, deep down I know based on the past, if I really put my effort towards what I want to achieve, I will get there. And if I’m not getting where I want to be, I have to check in and be really honest with myself why that’s the case, and use that information to move forward.

Pricing:

• 1 hour photoshoot – $200
• 30 min photoshoot – $100
• 1 hour yoga class for non profit – $60
• 1 hour yoga class corporate business – $120
• 1 hour 1:1 yoga and meditation session – $120

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.studentsofmind.com
• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/jaydembarber
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jaydembarber

Image Credits
Jannelle synclair for first two of me doing yoga

Me for last three