Schuyler Grant, Co-Founder of Wanderlust Inspires Us with Thoughts on Life and Motherhood

 Wanderlust one of the early Well-Fests that launched the trend, describes itself as an all-out celebration of mindful living so we at Spafinder Wellness 365 thought it would be cool to hear from Schuyler Grant (co-founder with her husband Jeff Krasno, and their mutual friend Sean Hoess over nine years ago) how she celebrates mindful living everyday, and in particular when it comes to being a parent in honor Mother’s Day, coming up soon on May 8th. In fact, Schuyler says “starting the festival was a similar process and challenge to birthing my daughters and creating my family.” She laughs and calls the business and her eldest daughter “twins.” Going into the ninth year of the festival and now the mother of three girls Phoebe 11, Lolli 8, and Micah 6, Schuyler says “the whole journey of developing the festival is very much merged in my mind with becoming a parent, both requiring creativity, energy and presence.” She thinks of her life as separate chapters before and after Wanderlust and the kids. She describes her world now as “not black and white, it’s more it’s complicated, a thorny bed of roses, everything more difficult, but everything richer at the same time.”

When I asked her about staying well with her kids she laughed. The scrumptious six year old Lolli will still do yoga with her but her 11 year old thinks she is the dorkiest dresser and would rather go to the studio (Wanderlust Hollywood) to pull latte’s than take a class. Schuyler doesn’t stress about any of it. When I asked what her mantra for motherhood is she said she didn’t have one but eventually came to the conclusion that “it’s everything in moderation including moderation.” Love that. Schuyler aims to practice yoga as much as she can and when she can’t reminds herself “motherhood is all about cobbling it together, it’s not about being systematic – who has the time- we are all hustling out the door, fitting it all in, the point is to make life flow.” She advises being cognizant about making it happen, whatever it is that feels good for you: “don’t let yourself be distracted away from yourself, push for yourself but don’t get dogmatic about it.” She admits some days she just does twenty minutes of yoga on the floor in her living room and that’s ok.

Her biggest challenge as a parent? “I try to use the skills I’ve cultivated through over 25 years of yoga practice. I’m not a patient person. Tapping into self-awareness is a heroic feat, it’s the hardest thing when you’re frustrated by simple things like getting out the door on time.” She adds “I’m as much a student as a teacher, and at the same time, a real teacher of teachers, plus a business person, a mom, and a yogi who isn’t fronting about any of it.”