This week we welcome Payal Parekh, a New York-based art advisor and yoga teacher with a passion for promoting wellness and diverse art perspectives. She holds a bachelor’s in art history from Mount Holyoke College and a master’s in contemporary art from Sotheby’s Institute in London.
Her company, Payal Arts International, founded in 2008, advises both collectors and artists. As a certified yoga teacher, Parekh believes in the power of movement and meditation to improve physical and mental health. She has taught private and corporate clients, including at prestigious institutions such as Christie’s, David Zwirner Gallery, The Armory Show and the Baltimore Museum of Art.
Parekh recently presented her own artistic work as part of “Ways of Showing Up,” the two-day arts event at The Performing Garage organized by Epicenter NYC and the Department of Transformation.
“Blessed Rest by Payal” is an exploratory 53-card deck including 40 aphorisms, five action cards and five breathwork cards to promote self care. Written during the height of the pandemic, Parekh dedicated her inspirational quotes to her yoga students. Every week she sent affirmations to motivate, encourage, nurture and nudge her students to join her on Zoom for yoga class. The drawings on the back of each card were created in Covid quarantine, when Parekh isolated for three weeks and drawing became a therapeutic activity.
Inspired by her deck, Parekh offers “Blessed Rest” sessions twice a week on Zoom. These yoga classes offer a mindful restorative experience and allow the body to shift into the parasympathetic nervous system.
“Our collective and individual birthright is blessed rest. When we rest, we heal.,” writes Parekh.
relax restore recover
heart mind body spirit
you are free to love yourself
over and over again
Parekh hopes that everyone who encounters this deck and her classes is able to pause, rest, recover and feel a sense of love, care and support from the universe.
Decks are available for purchase on her site.
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