Today we’d like to introduce you to Arielle J. Schmidt.
Hi Arielle J., thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My journey started back in college at South Dakota State University when I was attempting to graduate early with the maximum class load each semester and summer classes. I was pursuing a degree in Health, Physical Education and Recreation so when I had the opportunity to take a fitness class for college credit, I jumped on the opportunity to reduce the seriousness of my class load. At the time I had no clue that a yoga class would be the spark to start aligning all the pieces of my future career together.
During my time in college, I stumbled upon a few interesting jobs that from a distance seem like they’d never mix with yoga, but little did I know it would take just 7 years for those paths to really cross. One of those jobs was working transport for the Emergency Room. I would get a call in the middle of the night requesting transport for someone having a mental health crisis who ended up in the ER, and I’d transport them to the psychiatric hospital. This lasted for about a year before shifting to a more predictable schedule as a corrections officer at the Brookings County Jail. When I shifted jobs, it was then that I ended up in the yoga class for college credit and started to find myself shifting into a more calm, relaxed person whenever I would roll my mat out. At the end of the semester-long class I told myself that I was going to go to India and train. I had no clue how to do that. I had never traveled outside the US without someone, but I set that intention into the universe and forgot about it…until 5 years later.
At this point I moved from South Dakota to Cincinnati, OH after graduating in 2012. I was in search of a career in fitness but ended up falling back into corrections with the Warren County Jail. Life was good. I was paying off my student loans, endless overtime, endless time off (if you could get approval) and I was content—content in being a zombie to be completely honest. I was overworked, just another body that could be replaced, and a workaholic, which is a great personality to have when the overtime never ran out. Physically my body was falling apart from being on my feet 24/7, the lack of sleep, and the nagging headache that never went away due to stress. I combated this with also working as a fitness instructor for LA Fitness where I taught cycle, yoga and pilates as a way to at least maintain some health. Little did I realize, none of it was helping, until I was invited to the Cincinnati Yoga School to not teach but participate in a yin yoga class. The thought of slowing down seemed daunting. I was used to a fast-paced workout but WOW when I stopped moving I had this overwhelming sensation of euphoria. A reconnection to myself that I had not had since back in college.
By the end of that class my body had melted into the ground and I never wanted to leave. Before leaving that day, the teacher mentioned a yoga training in India happening in 6 months and my ears perked up. Did I hear that right? A month-long yoga training in India! Well, you can probably guess what happened. I emptied my bank account, signed up for the training, and crossed my fingers that somehow I was going to be able to take off 30 days in a row. I had the time saved to take off but staffing issues constantly resulted in time off being denied. Well, when the time came to find out if my time was approved, I managed to get 26/30 days, so with a little creativity in switching shifts with others, BOOM the training was locked in and I was ready for a much needed extended break away from the jail life.
I arrived in India in January 2017. I woke up on the third day just happy—happier than I can ever remember being. I headed to our morning yoga and meditation session and ended up having a little breakdown—or better yet an overwhelming realization of the toxic lifestyle I had been in and how it was affecting my health. I went to breakfast and everyone there said I just looked different. There was less of a protective edge, and this is also when I realized for the first time in 3 years that I didn’t have that nagging headache. I was inspired. I wanted to soak in as much as I could from the rest of the trip, learn everything, understand yoga, Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, meditation, the list goes on—and how it all fits together like a perfect road map of health.
I remember coming back from India and the first day back to work. I walked through the security vestibule, one large heavy metal door slamming behind me before the next would open in front. One step into work and I was welcomed back with “Welcome back, Schmidt. You’ve been forced for overtime today. You’re here for 16 hours.”—talk about a slap in the face. I knew right then and there that if I didn’t make plans to leave, I would stay and it would be my career. I went to work searching for my next training and stumbled upon a 2-week Thai Yoga training in Costa Rica starting in August 2017. I still had a ton of time off so I signed up and again crossed my fingers that I would be approved for time off. The universe had my back… the two weeks was approved and when August came I was gone.
In Costa Rica I chose to do a 1:1 coaching session with the teacher to help me find a clear path of what I wanted. I had a 5-year plan to get out of the jail, open a studio and do Thai Yoga full time. She looked at me and said, “5 years! Why not put your notice in when you get back from this trip?” Talk about panic mode… “No, I could never! I need the stability, the health benefits, entrepreneurship is not easy if you want to start a family at some point.” I literally gave every excuse in the book of why I couldn’t do that. But that statement “why can’t you just quit” had landed deep. It crawled itself into my brain and like a little caterpillar munching away my doubts. What it really did was open my eyes to the crazy number of hours I worked. My last full year I worked close to 350 hours of overtime. Now, when I talk to old co-workers, they mention how someone had 800 with still two months left in the year. I can’t even fathom how that even works.
After Costa Rica, like I said that little thought just ate away my doubts. I didn’t know how I was going to open a studio but I just stopped making excuses. I just started seeing clients in my home, which lasted only a month before I realized I needed an office. I found an office for $300 a month and officially opened Tranquility Rising in September 2017, knowing that I could afford to lose $300 with all the overtime so what’s the worst that could happen? I networked, set up at vendor events, and did so many “giveaway” sessions that it started to pay off. I was seeing a few clients a month, enough to cover the rent. I realized that if I was able to achieve all this and work at the jail, I could do anything. I put my two weeks’ notice in February 2018, quitting on the same day I was hired 5 years prior.
Nowadays, Tranquility Rising is thriving. We just had our 4-year anniversary, expanded our studio space during the pandemic, and we have four additional practitioners who offer other holistic services.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
You could say there were a few challenges along the way. I mentioned my crazy work schedule… there was rarely, if any, a week where I didn’t work over 40 hours, which left little time to see clients and limited my availability to working only on my days off. There was also fear of being forced for overtime and having to cancel on clients last minute. (Not exactly the impression I want to give clients that I am unreliable having to reschedule last minute.)
Another challenge I ran into was educating people on what Thai Yoga Meridian Therapy is. Many people know what Thai Yoga Massage is, but I didn’t want to be a massage therapist. I was not sparked in India to just, what my instructor calls it, “rub on people for money.” I wanted to connect with people on a deeper level, and teach them about the meridians and how our emotional state can ultimately affect our physical body. I wanted them to see the benefits of fully knowing their body so they could remove themselves from the cycle of Western massage of it being simply a treat and to get the idea of making it a priority of health to work on themselves.
I also didn’t receive a lot of support or encouragement, and if I did, it always came with a side of “maybe you should have a backup plan.” Even today I still struggle with really showing my true self when it comes to old co-workers and family because they just don’t get it. They see me as just jetting all over the world living it up. In reality I am jetting off all over the world but I am doing it with purpose. I have trained with practitioners all over the world, connecting with other healing services and traditional healing medicine, and expanding how I can take care of my clients so they’re not lost in their own labyrinth of healing. From the outside it may appear that I breeze through the struggles, but I also heavily rely on my own teachings to keep me moving. Some days it’s hard to just get out of bed and be motivated to go network or head to a session that I know is going to be a bit more challenging. But at the same time, it’s what I love about what I do… The endless opportunity to grow myself and see the enormous strides my clients make in their lives. It really makes the ups and downs completely worth it and I wouldn’t change anything.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a Thai Yoga Practitioner and Elemental Life Coach. I specialize in working with clients who usually have experienced some sort of trauma. Big or small, the body doesn’t differentiate the size of trauma; it just knows it needs to protect itself. Thai Yoga is a form of therapy that incorporates elements of mindfulness, gentle rocking, deep stretching, and rhythmic compression to create a singular healing experience. When you come in for a session, you lay down on a large, padded floor mat in workout clothes and then from there you do nothing. Everything is done for you and at the end of the session you leave feeling like a rag doll. Between the acupressure, yoga stretching and mindful rocking that comes from the constant acupressure you are lulled into a state of deep relaxation.
The physical side of Thai Yoga helps the body relax and release those emotional holds that the body has kept as a way to protect it. The reason that my version of Thai Yoga is unique compared to just a Thai Yoga Massage Practitioner is because I take it one step deeper by specializing in the emotional connection. Each meridian line we work is connected to one of the five elements, each of the five elements then correlates to one of the five lower chakras, and each of those meridians have awareness questions that take us deeper into a person’s life. Sometimes these questions lead us to places that they completely forgot about or repressed. Even though I work with all sizes of trauma a lot of my clients are survivors of sexual assault or domestic violence who experience anxiety, PTSD, depression or a numbness in life. The process of treating those traumas can take a variety of different paths. My experience of starting my career in corrections prepared me to hear the worst of the worst experiences, allowing me to be nonjudgmental, unshocked, and capable to hold a grounding and safe space for clients to open themselves to the process. When people have grounded space to be held and fully listened to without someone trying to “fix” them the moment they hear about their trauma is key. We start with the physical and eventually it leads us to the emotional. When the body feels safe everything falls into place just like a beautiful puzzle one piece at a time until they see themselves fully.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
I must give a shout-out to Elizabeth Newitt. She is the one who invited me to that yin yoga class at the Cincinnati Yoga School. Without the invite I might’ve never been put back on my intention of going to India to learn yoga. Liz invited me to class after knowing me for only a couple hours at a dinner party—talk about divine timing.
I have had many teachers along the way but Will Brasher, Owner of Cincinnati Yoga School, is how I refound my spark. I am blessed to have been part of his style of yoga training as it was not all about the physical practice of yoga but more the spiritual/philosophical and understanding the connection to the body. Without this style of teaching I would not have found the passion to keep moving forward.
I owe Alex Ryberg for being the voice inside my head during the last six months I was working as a corrections officer. That voice that never let up “why can’t you just quit,” so thank you for pushing me to believe in myself and for all the coaching you gave me that first year on my own. I am forever grateful that you kept it real and called me out on my BS excuses some days.
Lastly, I am endlessly grateful for my clients who found me from the start, those who have worked with me over the years, and those who continue to realize the benefits of Thai Yoga Meridian Therapy.
Pricing:
- New Client Thai Yoga Therapy Assessment -$185
- 7 Session Protocol – $1,000
- 12 Week Honor Yourself Program – $2,800
- 90 Minute Thai Yoga Session – $130
- 2 Hour Thai Yoga Session $160. 3 Hour Thai Yoga Session $280
Contact Info:
- Email: tranquility.rising.info@gmail.com
- Website: www.TranquilityRising.com
- Instagram: Tranquility_Rising
- Facebook: Tranquility Rising
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHWxF2VejTep5pCdKmEctng
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/tranquility-rising-cincinnati?uid=xVUFzPPwVZ5QDFnypLVu7g&utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)
- Other: 513-818-3011
Image Credits
Photo Credit for last image with the colorful background: Juan Pablo Barba – Photographer in Oaxaca, Mexico
