Yoga didn’t come naturally to Aditi Shah.
“Once in a while, we’d have a yoga instructor come to our home, and I remember that I really couldn’t get into it because I was such an energetic kid,” said Shah, 33, who grew up in New Jersey. “I was always barefoot and outdoors and climbing trees.”
But when she was studying math at Rutgers University — thinking she would pursue a career in finance — she became much more curious about yoga and meditation. After graduation, she moved to Mumbai to dabble in modeling and acting. But she was doing yoga just for herself.
By 2018, she had moved back to the United States and was teaching a few yoga classes a week when Peloton invited her to audition as an instructor for the company’s new yoga and meditation program. Now her calming voice sets the tone for the mornings of countless Peloton enthusiasts.
She is also a managing director at the Startup Girl Foundation, a nonprofit venture capital firm that gives grants to female entrepreneurs, and the wellness director of the Shift, a self-described “impact magazine” focused on women that the acclaimed photographers Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin helped start this summer.
Ms. Shah lives in a two-bedroom Greenwich Village apartment, which she is renovating with a mix of “minimal Copenhagen chic” and “a little bit of Eastern sparkles everywhere” — think Sabyasachi wallpaper; furniture from Jaipur, India; and a door knocker shaped like a tiger.
She spent a recent Tuesday at the Peloton studio with The New York Times.
This interview has been condensed and lightly edited.
MORNING MEDITATION On Tuesdays, I usually have to be at work at 6:45, so I usually wake up at 5:30. On other days I wake up around 7. Vipassana, or what’s called insight or mindfulness meditation in English, has been an anchoring presence in my life. A lot of people think of meditation as clearing your mind, but mindfulness is very clearly looking at yourself and how you relate to yourself and the world. Hydrating first thing always feels good for me. I used to religiously do lemon water, and recently I’ve been trying out chlorophyll water.
CLASS ACT It’s 15 minutes max to get to work in Hudson Yards. I go straight to the green room, and I teach in Studio 2. On Tuesdays I have a morning stack: a 10-minute meditation and a 30-minute yoga class. Some days I’m full of energy; some days I’m maybe a little bit quieter. But no matter what, I feel very lucky to have this job because the community is so wonderful. The livestream is on before we record; for a few minutes, I’m saying hi to people I see all the time, and seeing milestones — 100th class, 1,000th class, birthday — so I can shout that out. Once we go live, it’s a one-minute intro and it’s class. Once I’m in that zone, I do feel pretty calm.
MAGAZINES AND MEETINGS I would never go to Casa Magazines and not say hi to Ali [Wasim, the manager]. Because the Shift has been a recent launch, it’s been all hands on deck, so I try to make it part of my recent ritual to get coffee there. I was there with Paul Bottino, who co-founded Harvard’s Technology and Entrepreneurship Center. Paul is a really wonderful person who has been a mentor to me. His life’s work is helping young entrepreneurs figure out their journeys. This is what he lives and breathes, so getting his advice on anything in this field is a no-brainer.
SECOND-LIFE SARIS I have so many old saris or Indian clothes that are mine or my mom’s, and I really wanted to upcycle and find out how to change these older fabrics into things I could actually wear. Patricia Voto works with recycled and reused fabrics; she’s just an incredible innovator. The name of her brand is One Of, because a lot of her items are one of a kind because they’re made from deadstock fabric. We were talking about how to do an Indo-Western blend. I do throw a Diwali party, and I’m hoping that maybe we can create a collection to donate to South Asian founders or something along those lines in the future.
ASK ADITI One of the titles I have at the Shift is wellness and beauty editor at large. Cassandra Pintro comes from Vogue and GQ, and we’re coming up with different verticals. We met at the Shift offices. One of the ideas I threw at her was an advice column. I do a lot of ask-me-anythings on my social media because I get so many questions anyway in my DMs. There are some things that are quick fixes, like “What is the right beauty product for this?,” but there’s also things that are a little deeper, like “How do I build confidence?”
LUNCH BREAK Pura Vida is really close to where I live. I ordered a salad with quinoa and a bunch of different greens and herbs. I’ve been vegetarian my whole life. My family is Jain, and I’m not very religious but the first tenet of Jainism is ahimsa, which is non-harming. I think food should bring people together, not separate people. Being vegetarian feels natural to me, but I don’t think about it as something that everyone else needs to do.
BODY MAINTENANCE I got ready and walked to physical therapy. Part of working at Peloton includes maintaining and preventively taking care of yourself and your body. I ended up going to Reload and working with my physical therapist, Dr. Ryan Chow, because I had an injury a few years ago that I felt lingering bits of. When I go to Reload, I work on strength and more explosive power like sprinting or jumping. Those are not things I do in my normal routines teaching yoga.
BREAD AND SPICE I went to Bridges with good friends of mine, Shilpa Yarlagadda and Shreya Chaganti. I probably see them every week. We ordered so many things and shared. I really like the comté tart and a plum salad that’s really good. We love the bread and butter. The butter has nori on it; I think we may have ordered it three times. I don’t often drink, but I did get one drink, a spicy margarita. It has fennel and green chartreuse in it.
NIGHT WALKER I had a cup of decaf tea and took a shower and took all of my makeup off. Normally I’d have a bit more of a wind-down, but dinner ended up being a little later than expected. I often take a walk after dinner and read or do something to take my mind off the day. Sometimes when I’m walking I call my friends who don’t live in the city, or my parents, who live in India. I try to be sensitive to circadian rhythm and sleep hygiene. When I start a day at 5:30 I usually go to bed at 9:30 because I really value my sleep.
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