9 minute read
Holly Purdy: Love Party
yoga, celebration, & sobriety
By Worthy Stokes; images by Jill Jones
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When Shelby, Montana local Holly Purdy saw a space open up on Central Avenue in downtown Whitefish, she and her husband thought the same thing: that would make a great yoga studio. Together they worked out a plan and started, in October 2018, a build-out that took nearly a year and a half to complete. Three months after she’d just had a baby, Holly Purdy’s first day of teaching was in May of 2019. In her own words, she was “trusting the universe and family to help hold it all up.” Just like that, LOVE YOGA Whitefish was born, and Holly Purdy was in the business of brokering love.
Nearly anyone you ask will likely say a version of the same thing, “Holly is the kind of person who leads with her heart.” In other words, the striking synthesis of her personal presence and professional mission as a studio owner has come to embody what renowned author Dr. Edith Eger has pointed out, again and again: “We cannot choose to vanish the dark, but we can choose to kindle the light.”
With a passion for yoga and spiritual inquiry that evolved extensively during the time she spent in Thailand, Purdy’s natural affinity for teaching (she holds a Masters in Education from Montana State University, Bozeman) lends itself well to her dream of bringing people together. A mother of two in pursuit of a pointedly ambitious vision, she believed guiding yoga classes would be a way for her to cultivate a sense of community that benefits others, inspires self-awareness, and expands physical wellness. Purdy turned out to be right.
Her timing, it turns out, could not have been more prescient.
As a woman born and raised in a small Western town like Shelby, Purdy is alit with critical, firsthand knowledge of rural communities, and her drive to provide a truly safe space for everyone (the come heres, the from heres, and anyone who resides in the liminal space between) is unique. The spacious presence of her devotion— to connectivity, to staying curious, to being a lifelong learner with a sense of direction— is decidedly palpable. Eyes crackling with wakeful aliveness, Purdy moves lithely about with spirited generosity, practiced strength, and a (surprisingly) grounded lens.
She shifts easily in tandem with her inner ecosystem and its pulsating correspondence to the sometimes inhospitable terrain outside; her laugh is good and strong. No stranger to the crippling impact a Montana Winter can have on even the most resilient of souls, Purdy is now turning her third eye towards mental health, and she’s stepping up her game. Driven by a desire to face wild, local change head-on, she wrangles chaos and grief with the strongest force possible: a mighty kind of hope.
And a little bit of dancing.
A huge fan of glow sticks and Shiva Rea’s yoga dance jams, these days Purdy is bringing in sexy mocktails from Spotted Bear Spirits and throwing a new kind of LOVE party to help others push back - against whatever starts to feel too dark. Glow sticks and mocktails may not be for everyone, Purdy knows, but that might just be the point: it might be for someone. And gosh, wouldn’t that be interesting to discover?
LOVE SQUAD
In honor of World Kindness Day on November 13, wellness and self-love as a theme, Purdy is hosting NYT Bestselling Author, TEDx Speaker, and Hollywood Insider Anna David for a special conversation about how self-care can shape a person’s life and completely transform a career. While David is known as a nationally recognized advocate for sobriety, she also happens to be a widely respected voice on a much bigger conversation about the role of mental health in one’s relationship with success after (or in spite of) debilitating tragedy. David’s enduring passion for flipping the script as needed is precisely what inspired her to connect with Purdy when she heard (through the bi-coastal author grapevine) that an owner of a yoga studio in Montana had just announced the wildest dang thing ever: no more events with alcohol. The first to tell you she is not at all “anti-drinking,”
Purdy said her announcement this Fall had nothing to do with making people feel weird and everything to do with helping anyone feel safe. In September, her statement on social media went live: LOVE YOGA will no longer host events that include booze. Comments from the community poured in; there was an overwhelming cheer from those exploring abstinence, individuals with friends who battle addiction, and trauma survivors who recall losing loved ones or family members to substance use. The holiday season can be especially hard.
“It is so refreshing to see a local stance on a sensitive subject while having empathy for others. Thank you for taking a lead in our community,” one person wrote. Another expressed gratitude for Purdy’s stance by saying, “As someone struggling with my relationship with alcohol, I wanted to express how much I appreciate you and feel seen...in your decision to create a space for safety and wellness.”
People had taken notice.
The shocking part? So had that peanut butter loving, NYT Bestselling Author, and TEDx Speaker who got her dream job, ironically enough, on the day she walked out of rehab, which inspired her book, Party Girl, and most recently landed her a movie deal. Eager to support Purdy’s efforts to widen her circle of love in the name of mental health, Anna David is flying in from Los Angeles to discuss her book, lead a writing workshop, and offer up her best advice on all the ways that each of us can choose, at any moment, to kindle the light.
Total strangers, Purdy and David have met only once (on zoom).
The two women come from vastly different environments, but in times like these, none of that seems to matter. Together they’ll be talking about what it takes (in a big city or a small town) to practice self-love, lead or live with abiding clarity, and revise the narrative of one’s life as often as necessary. David, who speaks easily about what it can feel like to struggle with mental health challenges in silence, and Purdy, who fosters connection in a state that prizes self-sufficiency, are a sparkly, righteous match.
Purdy has shared she started drinking at the age of twelve and became interested in living an alcohol-free life about five years ago, when she heard about #quitlit and a social trend called Sober Curious. A pop-culture fad (or so everyone thought) started by Bestselling Author and Journalist Ruby Warrington, Sober Curious is the title of a book that started a conversation about simply getting curious about being sober. What so many eye-rolling critics expected to be a one-hit-wonder from Warrington ended up becoming a full-blown wellness revolution and a new kind of self-loving squad. As alcohol-free bars popped up and a social scene without booze gained momentum, sobriety became a new way to be cool.
These days an alcohol-free lifestyle is considered normal in urban hubs, where there are wellness bars designed exclusively with self-care (and substancefree living) in mind. At any given spot, one might find everything from vitamin IV drips and cryotherapy to infrared sauna sessions followed by complimentary bone broth or a freshly made juice; swanky mocktails in softly lit clubs are served with menus of mindfulness experiences, all of which are designed to calm your nerves. Self-care, in some places, is what people do on a Saturday night before heading home early to get good sleep. That’s not the case in Montana, where the suicide rate is high, the chance of getting a therapist is low, and Winters are long.
Flathead Valley local and Co-Founder of the 406 Yoga Conference, Sharon O’ Neill, expressed appreciation for what LOVE Yoga (and Purdy in particular) has come to offer. As she reflected on Purdy’s leadership style, O’ Neill pointed back to the importance of feeling connected and the different ways that Purdy facilitates inclusivity. “You can go 4-5 months without seeing sunlight. We’re kind of isolated here, and Holly has created a real atmosphere of belonging. She has done such an amazing job of not pressuring others to be a certain way. She has a magical way of leading by example, and she’s very authentic...you know that she’s listening, that she is welcoming everyone. People feel respected.”
LOVE MEDICINE
At first, Purdy recalled, she just stopped drinking.
She had started to seriously wonder if she was addicted to alcohol; after extensive reflection and
inquiry, she realized she was not addicted, but she did feel curious about living an alcohol free life. Once she became a mother, Purdy couldn’t help but see the Montana culture of drinking all the time, every day, and everywhere. She questioned what this meant for her as a community leader, a mom, a wife, or a friend. In essence, her genuine curiosity about the role of alcohol inspired her to invite others to be curious too, which led first to celebrating the now ubiquitous Sober October (an annual event focused on abstinence), then to planning a fireside chat with Anna David; who knows what might come next.
Purdy would say she is simply starting a conversation about love.
“I want people in recovery, or anyone exploring a sober lifestyle for health reasons, to know they are welcome in my yoga studio. All of us struggle with peer pressure, regardless of our age or professional scope of work. There aren’t many physical spaces in Montana for a sober culture, so I wanted to step up and play a bigger role in providing that kind of option. Really, I want to take a stand for the practice of self-love,” Purdy said.
Maureen Cleary, a retired critical care nurse and current student in the yoga teacher training at LOVE Yoga Whitefish, describes the studio as a welcoming place for both residents and visitors alike, and she noted more than once that inclusivity is a real priority. In Cleary’s experience, it’s not all about the yoga. “You think you’re about to do downward dog or some other pose and actually, on a subtle level, something else is going on; Holly emanates from the heart. She just does,” Cleary explained.
According to Cleary, Purdy’s approachable nature is an enormous part of the culture at LOVE Yoga. “I’ve seen people transform. I’ve seen people walk in nervous, and within a short while...they walk in knowing it’s a safe space. This is what Holly does. She brings everyone in. She will say to the entire room, we will make room— so that’s what we do. We make room.”
Fellow entrepreneur and Whitefish resident, Lauren Oscilowski, summarized what so many have expressed, “Holly offers a sense of community, and there is real warmth; everyone feels seen at LOVE.”
That kind of presence, in and of itself, is alchemical. That kind of love is medicine.
Buy tickets for LOVE Yoga events with Holly Purdy and Anna David at loveyogawhitefish.com
WORTHY STOKES is a bestselling author and meditation teacher; she is the founder of The HeartMind® Process and has taught on Insight Timer, the world’s largest mindfulness app, since 2018. A Flathead Valley local and NYC transplant, she lives with her husband in both places. Learn more at worthystokes.com.
loveyogawhitefish.com @loveyogawhitefish connection • community • love
IMAGES BY JILL JONES jilljonesphotography.com @jill.jones.photography
