Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Liz Delaney. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Liz, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I feel like every big life change has been the result of taking a risk… especially a risk when others told me not to take it. The first, and most pivotal for me, was at the age of 19. I was a sophomore in college and was set to graduate before I was 21. I kept thinking I had more life to experience and “there had to be more than this.” At the time I was a volunteer for the AIDS hotline (this was 1994/1995) and took calls at night to answer questions for people. This one evening a young woman called, a little older than me and she had just gotten her diagnosis. She had AIDS. At this time in our world, this meant she didn’t have long to live.. Her call got me thinking about the preciousness of time and life. I lost my grandfather to AIDS related pneumonia in 1992- so this was already on my mind. So spring of 1995, I went to Los Angeles to visit my best friend. Well… then I met a drummer in a band. And June 1995, at 19 years of age, I packed up my car and left Lexington, KY to move to West Hollywood. When I got there, the drummer and I broke things off, I had all my clothes stolen from my car and there was an earthquake. I felt like it was a test- stay and see what you are made of or run back home to safety. I stayed until 2001. I got to manage a coffee shop in Santa Monica. And in Studio City, I worked in advertising and met some of my favorite people. I had so many adventures. And in my last years there, I met a yoga teacher that would change my life and my path forever. That one small risk led me to who I am today. So glad I didn’t listen to the ones who told me to stay comfortably at home.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
My name is Liz Delaney and in my former lives, I’ve worked in advertising, been an elementary school teacher, I’ve raised two kids and in the last 20 years I have run a small yoga school and been a dedicated yoga teacher. Ten years before I discovered Yoga, I struggled with asthma and anxiety. Shortly after discovering breath-centered yoga with Max Strom, I no longer needed my inhaler and could spot a panic attack coming a mile away. For two decades, I have continued to share this knowledge of breath-inspired movement in Greenville, SC.
In addition to the vinyasa flow practices I learned from Max, I discovered Yin Yoga and Sarah Powers. Yin Yoga is a practice of stillness that includes doing less for the physical body so you can do more with the heart and mind. (Think a more restful practice that takes us away from the chaos of the age of information.) I added this practice and teachings into my world and things began to change even more. Somehow the stillness allowed me to love who I was and not feel the need of having to transform and change into something new.
In the last year, I have fallen deeply in love with Martha Beck’s teachings and am part of her Wayfinder Training. This has given me the tools to work one on one with clients to help them let go of their social conditioning and step more truly into their own sense of space, warmth and freedom. I often teach these tools in our stillness potions of classes, in special workshops throughout the year and in one-on-one coaching sessions.
The thing I am most proud of is our school, Greenville Yoga. We are a small school of diverse teachers, dedicated to teaching yoga- not the fancy Instagram kind, but the kind that changes you from the inside out. Our school has trained yoga teachers from all over the Southeast for the last fifteen years. And each week, I have the honor of leading weekly yoga classes in person and online that include breathwork, meditation, movement and stillness. These practices are a way to find inner safety and a sense of being at home wherever you are. I think what sets me / us apart is that we know yoga is so much more than the movements or shapes we take. Yoga, when inclusive of all its many facets, is about self-transformation in order to find inner freedom which allows us to flow through life in a peace-filled, easy manner. Literally, your light shines out and becomes a beacon of light for all those around you. It’s pretty amazing to experience and even more powerful to witness in others.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Our yoga school went fully virtual in 2020. Luckily, at this time I bought a 1950s filling station and we were rehabbing it into a yoga studio. When it was time to re-emerge in 2021, we couldn’t get our community back. It was like starting all over again. Our staff had gone through a shift, our minds and hearts were different than they had been one year before. I had to reconfigure my expectations and my leadership style. One day I was listening to the On Being Podcast. There was an episode with Priya Parker, the author of “the Art of Gathering.” In this podcast, she shared that we no longer were required to gather, we realized we can say no to things that aren’t worthy of our time. She had me rethinking the WHY of why we gather. In this episode, and in her book, she shared four questions which I first presented to our teachers in a staff gathering. These questions began to guide us into the new unknown. But the path was so imbued with meaning for our teachers, the students joined the fun. We had 100 students join us for a yoga class to answer the same four questions for themselves. We themed our year around it and called it, “Let’s Grow Together.” Parker’s book was a game changer for me and for our studio. It allowed me to see what we do well and how to invite others to be a true force to co-create our gathering times. Our little community has since flourished and continues to grow thanks to Parker’s research and guidance to ensure all of our gatherings are worthy of our time, and our hearts and minds.
Any advice for managing a team?
This is something I wasn’t very good at for a long time. Our meetings were boring and mostly things that could have been covered in an email. I used to beg people to attend. After reading “the Art of Gathering” by Priya Parker, I realized meetings were a time to inspire and be inspired, to co-create what we wanted to happen in our own lives and in our school. I realized if our tagline “You Belong Here” were to be true, belonging and community had to begin with us. I shifted our teacher gatherings to quarterly luncheons to get to know each other and to continue our personal growth. Each luncheon an assignment is given beforehand to set the tone in an invitation. As teachers show up for the gathering, we first socialize and visit, then there is a task card on the table giving directions of something to do or share by the end of the luncheon. (One month- bring a photo of you when you feel most free. Some time during lunch, stand and share. Another month- funny and thought provoking questions were on the table and each person had to choose one question to answer. The caveat was you couldn’t repeat a question so the first person to go had plenty to choose from. The last person had to figure it out.) Now everyone attends our gatherings without any reminders or begging. Our teachers take each other’s classes, support one another, make meal trains when needed and support me in a way I no longer fee alone running the business. It has been a win-win in keeping myself inspired and our teachers. We have become the community we were hoping to create. And thanks to this work, there is little, to no, managing to be done.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.greenvilleyoga.com
- Instagram: greenvilleyoga
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/GreenvilleYoga
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/GreenvilleYoga
Image Credits
Photo of Liz: Amanda Ramirez, Nice Life Photography First four photos in group: Levi Monday