Dearest Friends,
Alexis Persico and Shannon Stephens of Routed Connection will be leading their second retreat, Cultivating Balance: A Yin and Yang Retreat, at Feathered Pipe Ranch from June 23 to 30. Feathered Pipe Board member Clint Willis recently interviewed the two friends and colleagues about how they collaborate to create retreats at
Feathered Pipe and elsewhere--and why those retreats are so worthwhile to them and their students.
CW: How did you guys come to yoga?
Alexis P: I grew up in the 80’s in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I didn’t know anyone who did yoga. I thought of it as a mystic, California thing. I always wanted to do something to get me out of my head, calm me down and chill me out--but it needed to be something that would allow me to move around. I just didn’t know what it would be. I took yoga as a PE elective at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Oklahoma. I had recently given up running after some
minor injuries, and I was just looking for an easy PE credit that wouldn’t require me to shower to get on with my day. The very first class, I was like: ‘Oh! This makes sense to me!’ That was in 2002, when I was 20 years old.
 Shannon S: I’m from Fort Worth, Texas. I found yoga in 2001. I was studying for an MA in arts education. I struggled with depression and anxiety. A friend of mine brought me to a yoga class. I thought yoga was only for very spiritual people,
though I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant. I took the class anyway, because I was willing to try anything. I was lost the whole time. I could hardly keep up, or even breathe. But after class I felt so much better. I was looking for anything that would help, and this felt good. It was a way not to be so heady--to enjoy the simplicity of being in the moment, rather than worrying about the future or thinking about the past. So I kept going.
CW: How did you become yoga teachers?
Alexis P: I went into corporate sales, and traveled a lot, but I kept coming back to yoga classes. It felt like a way to clear my head, and get back into my body. As a lifelong athlete, I wanted something low-impact but challenging. I also loved how yoga was quiet and non-competitive, which was so different from the work I was doing at the time. I finally decided to get deeper into my practice, and in 2009 I went to a teacher training program in Tulsa. Yoga teacher
training programs were still pretty rare in that part of the world. I began to see yoga as something that could help me find my way out of the corporate world, where I wasn’t all that comfortable. I got laid off in 2011, and started teaching yoga classes right away. I’ve been doing it ever since--and more recently, Shannon and I have been doing Routed Connection together, leading people on retreats to great places.
 Shannon S: I didn’t do my teacher training until 2010, after I’d been practicing yoga for almost a decade. I’ve always been really shy, so teaching was the very last thing I could imagine myself doing. Even teaching art to kids was a challenge. I
didn’t enjoy being in the spotlight, in front of people. I signed up for teacher training only because I wanted to know more about yoga. I definitely didn’t intend to teach. The summer of 2010 I went to Southlake Tahoe to study with Doug Swenson, an Ashtanga yogi. I was driving home from that 200-hour training when the studio where I took classes called and asked if I could take over a class from someone who was leaving. I didn’t hesitate: I just said yes. And then I got off
phone and was like ‘Oh no! What did I just say I’d do?’ I taught two-to-three days a week at that studio for the next few years. My husband and I moved to Oklahoma in 2013, and after teaching art there for a couple more years I left that career to pursue teaching yoga full time.
CW: How do your teaching styles complement each other?
Shannon S: Our teaching styles are similar in a lot of ways. But we each bring our unique experiences to it. The interplay between yin and yang is big in our retreats. Alexis generally teaches in the morning, and it’s an energizing flow. That way people can get out and have energy for other activities during the day. Then I help bring people to a restful space in the evening. There’s more stillness, and meditation, which lays the groundwork for a restful
night. I’m finishing up my 500-hour training with Yoga Medicine, including a lot of yin yoga, restorative yoga, and meditation. My teacher, Tiffany Cruikshank, also has a background in acupuncture, blending eastern and western concepts.
 Alexis P: I teach a lot of flow classes, which are always in demand where I’ve taught. We move quicker; we get a bit sweaty. It’s strong yoga. I have always included elements of Hatha or flow-and-hold, countering that movement with quieter practices
such as pranayama and meditation. I often work with beginner yogis, and I encourage my students to do what feels good in their body. But when I met Shannon, I was struck by her knowledge of restorative and yin yoga. I thought that could be a great complement to the flow yoga I tend to teach.
Shannon also has a background in art. I don’t have that structured artistic background, but have always been drawn to creative work. This can show up as a playful and creative flow or a meaningful playlist. Once people warm up in my flow classes, they tend to start to do their own thing...what feels really good to them. They’ll add something extra to the poses, hold for a breath or two longer. Or maybe they just need to be still, so they catch a child’s pose or lie
down for an extra-long shavasana. My hope is that I am able to create a smart flow that can allow the student at any level to be able to manifest their practice based on how they feel in the moment.
Shannon S: Alexis’s flows are mindful flows. Her classes are often really playful and light. There’s always an element of being really aware of what you’re feeling, with the freedom to explore. Every single class we teach, she’ll say: ‘You’d never judge your friend, so don’t judge yourself.’ Her approach is very welcoming, and it’s accepting of all ages and all levels. We had an 85-year-old student and a college
student on the same retreat--such an amazing blend of people, and the practice was accessible to everybody.
CW: How did you come to Feathered Pipe?
 Shannon S: We returned from a retreat in Mexico in 2016, and we were looking for a new place to go. I came across the Feathered Pipe website, and read about the history. I quickly realized that some of my favorite teachers had been there. We got in touch
with Eric Myers in the office, and you know how they are there: it’s like a big family. We felt instantly connected to the place. And when we arrived, I felt like I’d been there before. Something about it felt familiar. I was instantly at home.
Alexis P: Shannon does a lot of the research looking for places. It was the second time she said ‘What about this one?’ I had heard of Feathered Pipe. I’d known the story of India as part of the group that founded Yoga Journal, and Judith Lasater, who has taught at the ranch so many times, is one of my absolute heroes. I also knew I’d seen them listed as a top retreat center.
I’d never been that far north or west, but when we got there, it was so easy to drop right into the place. I don’t know whether it was just feeling comfortable enough with the staff or the other people or the land. There is an element of magic that you can’t explain. It makes me think of one day last year, when we saw the most magnificent rainbow. Eric had gone outside, and the sun was shining, but he said something about ‘Oh, it’s raining. I bet there will
be a rainbow.’ He came back in, and he didn’t look wet at all. We were laughing, and he said ‘Yep! There it is! A rainbow!’ It was a triple, I think. And it just felt like Eric was some kind of magic rainbow maker. The whole group went out there, and everyone was laughing and laughing.
CW: What else do you want to say about this year’s retreat?
 Alexis P: We tell people who sign up that we really want this to be your time. This is your vacation, time to get away from your day-to-day, your hustles, your stresses. We want to hold space for you. We offer guidelines and a schedule if you want those
things. But you can create your own retreat. You can come to Feathered Pipe to be outside, to hike, to eat some great food and sit in Adirondack chairs and look at the water. You can be.as active or as slow as you want to be.
Shannon S: I hope people can reconnect with themselves, and with the natural world. That was so important in my own healing from depression and anxiety. When I go outside, I feel a kind of inner peace I can’t find anywhere else. The landscape of Feathered Pipe is so... healing. I can’t think of another word. I feel lighter when I am there.
CW: Me too. I just feel happier when I’m there.
Shannon S: The history of the place and of the community; the practice; the opportunity to be still together, and to soak up the place itself, is incredible. Last year, we had the chance to leave the grounds one day and explore, but I didn’t want to go anywhere. I didn’t need anything else. I just wanted to be there.
Alexis P: Same here.
We invite you to join us at the Feathered Pipe Ranch this summer, June 23 - 30, for Cultivating Balance: A Yin and Yang Retreat.
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How Your Breath Affects Your Nervous System – Baxter Bell, MD
It turns out the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) that connects brain to body is a two-way street. If I am anxious and nervous or stressed out by events in my life or simply the thoughts about those events, my brain, via the nerves of the ANS, will likely turn on the Sympathetic part of that system...
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Mercy and Mindfulness: Sneak Peek into the Mindful Unplug – Anne Jablonski
Jon Kabat-Zinn, a pioneer in bringing the principles of mindfulness to a broad audience by integrating what he learned from his Buddhist studies with science, said, “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”
In the broadest terms, that’s what The Mindful Unplug Experience week we’ve put together is about.
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Contact Us |
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Feathered Pipe Foundation
P.O. Box 1682
Helena, MT 59624
(406) 442-8196
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