Hi, I’m Eli.
Speaker, Storyteller, Author & Founder of The Uplift Center & Drunk Yoga®
I created The Uplift Center to make it easy for you to build belonging for both yourself and your people in our modern world through, playful, human-centered live experiences.
I've always loved helping people from different backgrounds get on the same page. Bonus points if I can achieve this while inspiring them to live joyfully, empower them with new perspectives and make them laugh at the same time.
After earning a BFA in Acting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a decade of experience teaching yoga across the globe, I developed a knack for making people feel like they belong. Specifically, fostering community engagement by making wellness events more interactive and playful. So, it was no surprise that in 2017 I married my lifelong passions of live storytelling and mindful movement to launch my first claim to fame: Drunk Yoga® - breaking the rules of yogic convention by turning it into a drinking game.
As Drunk Yoga® grew to international acclaim, I discovered how to translate the very same theatrical devices I use to make yoga feel like a party into a methodology to create authentic communities through building sustainable belonging.
In addition to gamifying yoga and discovering how play spark belonging and engagement, I applied these same hacks to my personal life - (though this realization came through necessity rather than intention).
After backpacking across India when I was 25 years old, I ended up falling through a roof in Thailand (long story—see it told live here) and severely injuring my back. When I finally returned to NYC, I was pretty low - broke, sick, and feeling completely lost. So, I did what I do best: I strategized my way back to wellness; specifically, my social wellness, creating what would later become my P.L.A.Y. Method (though this was 10 years before I'd officially name it).
It looked like this: I scheduled one coffee date per week with someone I admired. I started working at the front desk of a yoga studio I most wanted to immerse myself in because the people were exactly the kind of smart, kind humans I wanted to surround myself with, and I committed to practicing yoga at that same studio three times a week to heal my body. I also committed to trying one new fun thing each week—silent disco parties, roller skating, you name it.
It wasn't long before my life was rich in belonging. I felt healthy and happy in all areas because I prioritized my social wellness just as much as my physical health.
I repeated this same strategy when I moved upstate to New York in March of 2020, coincidentally one day before lockdown started. After quarantine lifted, I needed new friends…fast. So, I started hosting a monthly storytelling open mic night and brought my people to me (see my LinkedIn post for all the juicy details). Once again, I strategized for my own social wellness and watched as the health of every other area of my life—mental, physical, emotional, and financial—naturally fell into place.
Now, I teach this same P.L.A.Y. Method through The Uplift Center (Drunk Yoga 2.0, if you will) to help leaders, organizations, event planners, and individuals optimize for engagement through building social wellness strategies that improve the health of their cultures, communities, gatherings and personal lives.
When I’m not delivering talks, workshops or curating interactive wellness experiences for corporate events, you can find me working on my one-woman shows, hiking in Upstate New York, surfing in Costa Rica and geeking out on astrology.
