How one woman went from hours of partying to hours of peace.
In our series My Body Experiment, we ask high performers to tell us about major changes they’ve made in diet, fitness, and general wellness. Here, they chronicle the results of their trials, positive and negative.
Miriam Parker is a Tier 2 trainer at Equinox Flatiron in New York City, a professional dancer, and a meditation teacher. She became interested in meditation when it offered her a refuge from an exciting but unfulfilling career in nightlife. As her life changed—she quit the entertainment industry, got sober, and started a regular yoga and meditation practice—the stillness of just sitting and breathing has remained a constant and even one of her biggest teachers. This is her story.
In the early 2000s, I was opening some of the hottest restaurants and venues as a manager and recruiter in New York City. I was working in places where it cost $800 just to sit down and celebrity clientele were the norm—it wasn’t unusual to hear from Prince’s or Madonna’s team, calling me for reservations. I was in the center of the glitz, glamour, and money, and I became very good at my job. I was always a giver and had a knack for understanding people, so catering to big personalities came naturally. My job made me feel important and needed, and definitely fed my ego.
Meanwhile, my career as a dancer—I danced for contemporary ballet companies in Europe and Israel prior to moving to NYC—was put on the backburner. I was dancing professionally about once a year. However, I somehow managed to get to yoga and ballet classes four to five times a week, despite my hectic schedule.
It wasn’t unusual to hear from Prince’s or Madonna’s team, calling me for reservations.
Settling my energy was a big challenge and I often felt like I might crawl out of my skin.
The breath symbolizes the idea of returning to something that is much more expansive than the limiting energy of other thoughts.
Paying it forward
My meditation practice and teaching makes me a better physical trainer because it gives me the capacity to have a holistic view of my clients. In order to address their goals in the gym, we not only adjust their physical habits but also help them adjust their thought patterns. The outside body mirrors the image that they have in their minds. Meditation helps us to connect to a part of the self that feels wise and strong and as a trainer I remind them of this potential. "The impossible” is only reached through a practice of imagining it is possible. The focus that meditation teaches helps us to commit to the goals and the inner beauty that we want to manifest.
If you asked me in my early 20s, I would have never thought I would love stillness—but I do now. I feel like the practice has helped me make great strides in my dance, an area of my life I felt stuck in for a long time. I have a show at the Fridman Gallery in New York City in January, am getting to go on tour to Europe in February, and have a presentation at The Met next year, too. Stillness and breath have been some of my greatest teachers and have given me answers to issues I didn’t think I would ever be able to resolve