Meet Ling Beisecker, one of our fabulous Boston based instructors! Ling teaches Bootcamp, Spin Fusion, yoga & pilates to name a few!
What inspires you to teach fitness or yoga and how did you get started?
In part one of The Alchemist, the protagonist in Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece, Santiago expresses, “when each day is the same as the next, it’s because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day that the sun rises.” Growing up in the mountains in Southwestern Virginia, there was not a lot of busyness and hustle, so I had to make up my own adventures. My friends and I would go hiking on the weekends and run cross country during the week. I also had a unique opportunity to participate in a sport called Equestrian Vaulting where I practiced cartwheels and handstands on moving horses. Everyday was unique, fun, and it was incredibly easy to see the good in my life. I started taking group fitness classes like spin, yoga, and pilates at my local gym to complement my lifestyle. It was especially helpful when it was cold outside and the ground was too snowy or slippery to safely venture out on a run through the mountains. I always found moving with my body a beautiful vacation from sitting with my mind as my brain likes to overthink.
For many years, I had helped coach equestrian vaulting, but I did not officially start teaching group fitness and yoga classes until college. In undergrad, I found for the first time that I was sitting and studying far more than moving and adventuring. Luckily I found campus recreation and it was a welcomed reprieve from academia. Being embodied and moving was something that I had taken for granted and it was challenging at first to realize it was something I needed to intentionally make space for in my daily life. Without movement, I spent far too much time just in my headspace.
My inspiration is from my roots: movement makes me feel better and I am extra happy when I get to share that practice with others as both a participant and teacher. As an extrovert, I find it overwhelming to have to workout everyday on my own. The self-motivation is not always there. Instead, I get to be with other people, create community, and let my body talk. Everyday I get to move and most days I get share my love of movement with other people, and that is my daily reminder that good things are happening in my life with each sunrise.
Favorite Healthy Snack?
It is about to be my favorite season. I love fall coats, boots, and my favorite healthy snack - locally grown heirloom tomatoes. The more variety of colors, sizes, and tastes, the better.
Favorite “treat yo-self” Snack?
I grew up with a lot of fun traditions and one of them definitely shaped my favorite treat yo-self snack. On most Saturday mornings, my family gathered for around and had nutella filled crepes with strawberries or bananas. That is still one of my favorite traditions. Recently, I have also discovered the beauty of mascarpone cheese so yesterday I made a scramble with shiitake and baby portabella mushrooms with mascarpone cheese.
What are your interests and passion when not teaching fitness/yoga?
I am a very small business owner with my own private practice for Mental Health Counseling in Newton. It is the perfect compliment to my work as a group fitness and yoga teacher. As I mentioned earlier, I can get too in my head and so in college I had the perfect opportunity to learn all about how the mind works and the body as well so I double majored in Kinesiology & Health Sciences and Psychology. It is a really harmonious lifestyle for me. I found passions that I feel I can do for the rest of my life without burnout.
I also love reading. Generally, I am reading something fiction and something nonfiction. My current reading is Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth and TKV Desikachar’s The Heart of Yoga.
I would be remiss to not mention my love for lavender lattes, so far my favorite is at George Howell but I am open to recommendations!
Lastly, I am really lucky to share my life with my partner, Alexander, and our fur baby, Ernie.
What are your hopes for your class participants?
If everyone embodied Antoine de Saint-Exupery words in his work of art The Little Prince: “And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”
I am a big believer in feedback both from my students to me and my students to themselves. I hope my students leave class feeling like they had a chance to know themselves more. I am a relational therapist and teacher so I value the relationship with self just as much as with others. In essence, I hope they leave feeling better about themselves physically, mentally, and relationally.
What is unique or special about teaching in a workplace environment?
Sir Isaac Newton understood when he said an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion. For many folks, work is a place of physical rest and mental motion. By having time to pause the mental motion and move physically at work, people have the chance to switch gears with less effort. The Active Workplace creates opportunity for workplaces to take away obstacles for movement and give their employees space to switch gears. This is priceless and in the long run makes people much happier and productive. As a teacher being invited into different workplaces, I value most the ability to create community. Coworkers become classmates and bond on different levels.