Lisa Peterson inspires women to simplify their own lives through attaining balance.

Lisa Pederson is the Executive Director at The Art of Yoga Project, based in Palo Alto. Lisa comes to The Art of Yoga Project as the former Vice President, Services at Nokia in Mountain View, California. She has an impressive track record in the corporate sector, has lived and worked internationally for many years and has experience in fund raising and non-profits through volunteer work for the Junior League of Palo Alto Mid Peninsula. She is also a certified yoga instructor and has been mentoring women for many years. Lisa believes that empowering women and children builds healthy families and vibrant communities. She joined The Art of Yoga Project in January 2009.

ZENPLIFICATION:
Can you describe your idea of peace of mind?

LISA:
Peace of mind to me really is about balance. We live in a world that has a lot of dichotomy; everything is right or wrong, black or white, or male or female. There’s a lot of opposition. So I think peace of mind to me really is about balance. Balanec in general. Balance in your house, in your spirituality, in your work and in your relationships.

ZENPLIFICATION:
What role do you think the Art of Yoga Project can play in making this world a better place for women and girls?

LISA:
In a way it’s breaking the cycle of victimization. The girls are victimized; their mothers are drug addicts. Their mothers don’t care about them a lot of times so they don’t protect them. For all these reasons, these kids go out and they get abused by the world and become victimized. So we like to change the cycle of victimization.

ZENPLIFICATION:
Can you please describe a moment of metamorphosis for you?

LISA:
I went through a pretty big transformation about a year and a half ago. I have been working 24 years at a corporate place. I was the vice president of Nokia. And there my life was really out of balance because my life was so heavy on work and so light on spirituality even though I was married; everything was just work work work work work. Which is kind of the trade-off. It was all about work, money, and success. And defining success with kind of what was the norm. I kind of always knew that really isn’t me but it’s so driven into you by society that this is what you should do and you should be successful and make lots of money and manage lots of people and make a difference in the world through technology. So I just decided to, I had always in the back of my mind, I have always said I am going to work until I’m forty and when I’m forty I am going to quit and do something to give back to the society. I always said that my whole life. And then I turned forty and I was still too young. And, then a few years later I decided that this was it and I need to step back and think about what is supporting my life and make some changes. That was when I quit my job. And people told me, you are crazy! I just quit and decided to change who I was and how I define success in my life.

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