Jill Weiss-Ippolito
UpRising Yoga
Los Angeles, CA USA
"There was no authenticity, there was nothing I was connected to...until yoga helped me heal."
Career Roadmap
Jill's work combines: Entrepreneurship, Sports, and Helping People
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Day In The Life
Skills &
Education
Advice for getting started
Due the struggles I had with addictions, neglect, and violence growing up, I often felt like I was dead inside and was just barely making it through. Yoga helped me heal those things and forgive. I began to love that feeling of mind-calm and how I was learning resilience.
Here's the path I took:
High School
Associate's Degree
English Language and Literature, General
Santa Monica College
Certification
Yoga Teacher Training/Yoga Therapy
Here's the path I recommend for someone who wants to be an Exercise Trainers & Group Fitness Instructors:
High School
Certification: Yoga Teacher Training/Yoga Therapy
Learn more about different paths to this career
Life & Career Milestones
I've taken a lot of twists and turns
1.
Her parents divorced when she was young, and her mother remarried a man who was extremely abusive.
2.
Her mother had some yet-undiagnosed mental issues, and wasn't always equipped to take care of her daughter.
3.
She started smoking marijuana in the sixth grade; by seventh grade, she was regularly going to parties and drinking until she blacked out.
4.
Says her life was spiraling downwards-she called herself a "dead girl walking"-until she finally found yoga.
5.
She had "deadened" her feelings with alcohol and drugs, but yoga helped her heal, and helped her clear her mind.
6.
Her husband worked at a juvenile detention center in L.A. and saw a lot of trauma; one day, she asked if she could start teaching a yoga class there.
7.
Coincidentally, her mother later pointed out that she'd picked up Jill from that same detention center as a child; she knew she'd found a calling.
8.
Working with those children sparked a fire in Jill; she decided to start UpRising Yoga so that she could take on new yoga teachers and help more kids.
Defining Moments
How I responded to discouragement
THE NOISE
Messages from Myself:
I'm just a dead girl walking.
How I responded:
Due the struggles I had with addictions, neglect, and violence growing up, I often felt like I was dead inside and was just barely making it through. Yoga helped me heal those things and forgive. I began to love that feeling of mind-calm and how I was learning resilience.
Experiences and challenges that shaped me
I started smoking marijuana in the sixth grade; by seventh grade, I was regularly going to parties and drinking until I blacked out. I didn't know names for emotions because I deadened them all with drugs.
My mom and dad divorced when I was 3, and my mom remarried pretty quick to a stepdad who was very violent, very abusive.
My mom had undiagnosed mental health issues and really wasn't equipped to take care of me.