We were lucky to catch up with Aubrey Bates recently and have shared our conversation below.
Aubrey, thank you so much for joining us today. Let’s jump right into something we’re really interested in hearing about from you – being the only one in the room. So many of us find ourselves as the only woman in the room, the only immigrant or the only artist in the room, etc. Can you talk to us about how you have learned to be effective and successful in situations where you are the only one in the room like you?
Rise Wellness Collective was established as the first and only yoga studio in a small college town. It began with two instructors and a 700 sq ft. room. The original vision was simply to be the hub for yoga in Ashland. However, in less than a year the original space was outgrown and several instructors were added. Yoga became something people wanted beyond 60 minute classes–– building momentum and a like-minded lifestyle. When clients began seeking more ways to live yogically off the mat, a new vision was born to bring a comprehensive wellness center, centered on the ancient practices of yoga under one roof.
In 2019, Studio Rise bought a 150 year old building and rebranded to Rise Studios. Within the walls of Rise Studios, a wellness collective built upon the belief that the whole person – mind, body, and soul – is the only way for one to pursue their limitless human potential. Adding services such as Ayurveda Health Counseling, health and wellness coaching, massage therapy and strength training, clients are able to explore caring for themselves on a physical as well as conscious level. Rise Studios is truly a place of healing, a lifestyle, a community, a reminder of our interconnected bodies as well as the interconnectedness we have one to another. Clients enter Rise for a variety of reasons and then discover that they may benefit from another service that is symbiotic to what they came in for. For example, an athlete who is injured comes to us for a massage, then they work with a personal trainer for functional mobility targeting the injured area, and then attend a yoga class to create equilibrium in the body and eliminate compensation.
As we investigate deeply the mind-body connection, truths are revealed about mental health and physical health that set us apart from how wellness is approached from the traditional western model.
These truths are:
– you aren’t broken. There is an inherent perfection, an unharmable self that resides within each person. Everyone is resourced to live from that part of themselves once they remove that which the world and conditioning has layered upon them. This brings perfect health.
– Thoughts create. The unseen world of the mind is what creates the material world. Your reality is constructed by your subconscious which influences your thoughts. The universe then conspires to bring about exactly what you’re asking for in your thoughts.
– Everything is connected. Your mind, body and soul are inseparable one from the other. Just as we are also inseparable from each other, and from the rest of the universe.
As the only one in the room working with health and healing in this way, (in a small, conservative town no less) our success has been through organic growth–one small success at a time. One client who’s life is transformed, one practice or style or service that people are open to that they may have rejected before. Incremental shifts and changes–that is the way we encourage our clients in their bodies and minds to experience sustainable change. The only way for lasting change.
When faced with resistance of either religious perceptions or the perception that something outside of yourself will be what will help you reach your goals of health wellness, we are reminded that we move forward in the same way we encourage our clients to move forward–with integrity, intuition and aligned action. We strive to live in the same way we do business and that attracts more of the same. If everything is connected, work and life and home are not different than one another. I believe that is also what has attracted success. Being examples, not just to be examples, but because it is just who we are. A group of people striving to become freely who we have been all along and to live the lives we most desire and having the health and well being in order to be afforded to do-so.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Currently, we have launched initiatives in the realm of emotional wellness and an emphasis on the nervous system within one on one coaching and group course-work. One course is for teenagers focusing on learning how to regulate their nervous system, understanding what feelings are and what they mean, healthy communication and boundary setting and self-acceptance.
Yoga is all about the nervous system. The very act of doing it, the messaging from brain to body as well as the experience of doing it, the more subtle impulses and shifts of energy, yoga deals with improving the nervous system. That is what makes it such an effective method for both physical and mental health.
We are expanding this understanding into an intentional integration of mind and body through somatic practices, yoga, emotional regulation, breathwork, meditation in another workshop/course for adults. We hope to collaborate with social service agencies and counseling practices to offer a wrap around and complimentary modality to traditional methods of mental and physical health. Traditional ways to feel better often approach with either/or focus. Either the body OR the mind. We know the two can’t be separated and hope to integrate the two with a both/and approach. This equips nervous system into faster regulation which keeps the body also repaired/repairing and healthy.
One on one coaching is a where I get to use all of these tools in a customized way and private, personal container for three months.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Consistency, trust and courage. Start. The most important thing I did was start and do it scared. Showing up to my first yoga class, taking the trainings, opening the business. Each step of the way has asked that I show up consistently, trust the journey and that my body can’t lie, and then have the courage to simply take the next step.
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
There have been many! But the most impactful ones are the ones who simply remind me to stay consistent, trust my inner knowing and assure me that nothing has gone wrong when fear creeps in when taking the next step. Coaches need coaches, mentors need mentorship, guides need someone to walk alongside. Whether its taking health into your own hands and making the sometimes scary changes or in business growth and development, having someone maybe just one chapter ahead is vital in keeping you (me) from getting in your (my) own way. We have mirror neurons which fire when we see something in others that we want for ourselves. These help to assist in our becoming, bringing those qualities to the forefront. In every area of life, I have at least one person I look to. Not to copy them but to realize what I see that I like or desire in them I already have within me.
Contact Info:
- Website: risewellnesscollective.org
- Instagram: rise_wellnesscollective
- Facebook: facebook.com/studiorise
Image Credits
Jimmi Delay
