Personal Evolution with Shae Sterrett
“Shae offers peaceful presence and spaciousness for her clients to let go, be vulnerable, move through the challenges that they may be facing and discover the wisdom within. With this wisdom, one can support self discovery and awareness, and feel empowered, inspired, and motivated to make real change in their life.”
It was only about ten years ago that Shae Sterrett found herself in a yoga class holding trikonasana, or “triangle pose,” when the thought crossed her mind that she wanted to become a yoga teacher.
Her ego immediately curbed the thought. “You are too old, too fat and it will never work out,” her mind told her.
Shae struggled with body image, weight loss and feelings of not being good enough. She worked out to combat this, taking spin classes, competing in nationwide triathlons and doing yoga as a way to stretch. That helped her create a healthier lifestyle, but looking back now, Shae realizes that she was seeking external influences when it was really the inner work that needed to happen if she was truly going to evolve.
Years later, an ad for a local yoga school began to repeatedly pop up on her computer. Shae contacted the school only to find out the enormity of the investment in both time and money: it would be 9 months of her life and $4000.
Shae knew this was what she wanted to do, but she still set conditions for its realization.
“If they will let me do a payment plan, I will sign up,” she promised herself.
They did and Shae enrolled in her first 200-hour yoga teacher training, embarking upon an awakening of epic proportions.
“I began to see the world from a whole new lens,” Shae says. “My eyes opened to a new way of being and living in the world. Very quickly, in less than 4 months, I quit my job, started my own business and began traveling around the world with a sense of freedom and purpose I had never known before.”
Really, it was the first time in Shae’s life that she truly understood that things could be different. As a child, Shae loved being outdoors, running wild and free in the nature of rural Vermont. But she also grew up in poverty and some months they did not have running water.
Shae Sterrett and her two sons, Khodee and Kaleb.
By age 21, Shae and her high school sweetheart had two sons, but it was a toxic “young love” relationship and did not last. The boys’ father abandoned them and Shae found herself on welfare, raising her sons alone while going to school and working several part time jobs to make ends meet.
“Being a single mom is one of the hardest jobs anyone will ever have,” Shae asserts. “You screw up every day and you still have to show up with a brave face and try to make sense of the world for your children.”
In 2001, Shae found a job in Stoddard, New Hampshire working for a small family business. After nearly a year of daily three-hour commutes, Shae left Vermont and moved to New Hampshire to start over, give her boys a better opportunity and escape the suffocating poverty of her hometown.
Shae’s humble beginnings are now a gift to her clients, as she embodies compassion, understanding and the knowing that past experiences can influence the trajectory of our lives, but they don’t have to define us.
“I come to yoga with a big backpack of baggage,” Shae asserts. “From alcoholism and drug addiction, to trauma—Big T and little t—single motherhood, being on welfare, poverty … I check all the boxes for the ACE (Adverse Childhood Experiences) test.”
She continues, “I spent much of my life settling for what was given to me, trying to be a good mom, and taking care of everyone and everything else around me.”
Shae Sterrett meditating in nature in Nepal.
Yoga teacher training was the first time that Shae prioritized herself, which began a learning journey that took her around the globe.
Shae experienced her first sound bath in Costa Rica during a retreat. That inspired her to travel to Nepal for her own sound healing certification and later to Thailand for her Reiki training. She has since achieved a number of other certifications in Thai Yoga Bodywork, Achology Coaching, Prison Yoga Project, Warriors at Ease, the School of Womanly Arts and Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy.
Now offering yoga therapy, energy medicine and customized lifestyle coaching, Shae has created a holistic wellness practice that works virtually or in person and incorporates all of her modalities into private, group and retreat experiences. Clients work with her for a minimum of four weeks and up to 12 weeks.
Shae’s practice is non-invasive and can be an alternative or complement to traditional health care. It offers the opportunity to get quiet, tune in, connect authentically and be inspired to create meaningful change in life.
“Our society is over medicated,” Shae says. “We do not live in an emotion-positive culture. Addictions, disordered eating and lack of connection are rampant. This can only be healed through deeper connection with self.”
Yoga Therapy is often the most effective modality for her clients. Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy, where Shae was certified, is the pioneer of yoga therapy in the United States. The practice combines yoga, Buddhism, psychology and neuroscience for a truly life empowering experience. During a session, Shae guides her clients through movement, meditation, mindfulness, Thai Yoga Body Work and life mentoring.
Shae Sterrett in session with a client.
But most of all, Shae offers peaceful presence and spaciousness for her clients to let go, be vulnerable, move through the challenges that they may be facing and discover the wisdom within. With this wisdom, one can support self discovery and awareness, and feel empowered, inspired, and motivated to make real change in their lives. Which is why yoga therapy helps with a spectrum of conditions including trauma resolution, addiction, eating disorders and body image conditions, as well as overcoming grief, divorce, miscarriage and more.
Shae points out that all choices and actions in life correspond back to a feeling we had in our body. At the most basic level, those two feelings are fear or love. Sensations inform emotions, which inform thoughts, which inform choices, which inform actions, and our actions create our reality. It was only through a renewed connection to her body and herself that Shae’s reality began to shift and evolve.
“Although the traditional theory of evolution refers to the biological change in characteristics over many generations relying on the process of natural selection,” Shae says, “personal evolution in this lifetime can occur by investing in wellness practices that: refine the way we think, feel, act, perceive and experience the world; teach us to let go of habits, limiting beliefs, and fears that have developed over time, but no longer serve us; and incorporate resources that help to making positive change in life.”
However, because positive change can come with uncomfortable feelings and emotions, it requires moving beyond the edge of comfort.
“Evolution is something that happens for me every day with my thoughts, actions, and core values,” Shae says. Her personal wellness practice includes yoga and meditation, especially if she is feeling overwhelmed.
“So often the mind can become our master when it should really be a tool,” Shae says. “When my body is moving in yoga, I let go of my physical shape, stop thinking about my body image and just flow.”
Shae walks and journals often to download stress, worry, thoughts, ideas and inspiration, and to free up space in her mind for what really needs her attention. She also loves to read educational books that help her stay connected to her field and give her ideas for how to improve, grow her practice or just be the best version of herself.
Shae’s goal as a practitioner is to offer a unique wellness practice to others that shifts their concept of wellness from solely physical wellness—such as massage and facials—into the five realms of wellness to begin to see the connection between spiritual, mental, physical, emotional and energetic wellness. And she is doing just that.