"Stefani Pappas' search for self-awareness led her to far-off places, far out ideas."

IN FOCUS: 
STEFANI  PAPPAS

BIRTHPLACE: New York City, Oct. 13.
1960: resides in Lambertville.

FAMILY: One brother, age 38.

HIGH SCHOOL: South Brunswick. 1978

COLLEGE: Douglass College, 1982.

OCCUPATION: Certified Massage Therapist and Yoga Instructor.

FANTASY DINNER-PARTY GUESTS: Martin Luther King, Sting, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the Dalai Lama, Stevie Wonder and her friend Manuel.

FAVORITE MEAL: Pasta, with broccoli, asparagus and cheese. Bread, and a big green salad.

FAVORITE BOOK: "Dark Side of the Light Chasers" by Debbie Ford.

FAVORITE MOVIE: "DancesWith Wolves."

FAVORITE TV SHOW: "Seinfeld."

WHAT SHE WOULD TELL GRADUATING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: 
"Don't act so tough. Don't hide your life, Don't be afraid to show people you care."

Massage Articles

Article appeared in "Strictly Somerset" March 23, 1995

Stephanie Pappas is a certified massage therapist who combines a number of different styles of "bodywork" to provide her clients with natural therapy for the stress and tension caused by the rigors of modem life.

Massage therapy, Pappas says, is one of many alternative therapeutic practices that offer a natural approach to healing and wellness.

"Our bodies are constantly sending us messages," Pappas says. "Physical pain and emotional distress are the ways our bodies get our attention."

"Instead of masking these messages with aspirin and other pain relievers," she goes on, "bodywork results in a slower heart rate, better circulation and greater muscle relaxation, all of which tend to leave the recipient feeling calmer, more focused and healthier."

Pappas has been practicing massage therapy for three years, having left the corporate world to pursue a career more in line with her own
interests.

She trained at the Health Choices Center for the Healing Arts in Princeton, New Jersey, and is skilled in a number of different kinds of therapy.

These include Swedish massage as well as Shiatsu, a Japanese form of acupressure, and Huna Kane, derived from a traditional Hawaiian type of
massage.

Pappas also incorporates a form of therapy called Somato-Respiratory Integration, which focuses on changing patterns of breathing to bring about relaxation and greater body awareness.

"People generally are not as aware of their breathing as they could be," she explains. "When you're tense, for instance, you tend to hold your breath, and this makes you tighten the muscles of your neck."  -End

Yoga Articles

Some people collect stamps or coins, others collect trading cards. Stefani Pappas collects walks. Such intangibles have defined her life.

Pappas, 39, is a certified yoga instructor and massage therapist. A resident of Lambertville, she teaches classes at Health Choices in Belle Mead and the Soma Center in Highland Park. She also conducts a 90-minute yoga course at Colonial Park in Franklin Township on Saturday mornings.

She offers teacher-training programs, yoga workshops and retreats and classes in Middle Eastern dance. Eighteen of her students graduate today as certified yoga instructors.

Walks are optional.

"I like being out in nature, being with the earth and I feel like I'm appreciating it more and more," she says. "I'll be driving somewhere, park and just walk. I like the silence, which is especially important in the yoga path.

"Silence reconnects me with the divine," she adds.
"To me, the divine is beyond definition. We don't know why we're here, We just live the mystery."

She sits cross-legged on an orange blanket outside her office in, Belle Meade, the lawn especially soft, in spring's proudest green. She wears the pants and light shirt of an exercise instructor. Dark sandals closely match the color of her long, brown, curly hair. Steel-blue eyes reflect the light like a pool, under a clear sky.

Strength and flexibility belie her 5-foot-6-inch, 125 pound frame.

A one-time telecommunications consultant, Pappas has been a yoga instructor the past nine years. Engaging, deeply insightful one moment and totally whimsical the next, she goes from passive to playful like a rabbit to the weeds.

Transcendental mysteries have intrigued Pappas since childhood. Growing up in Kendall Park, she was exposed to her parents' collection of literature. With a mother who is a therapist and a father who teaches classical music, Pappas was exposed to more than merely what she saw on the tube.

"My parents were open-minded. They gave me a container to explore what's inside. When I was 10," she says, "I was reading books on China."

Growing up wasn't all academic. In a family in which father, son and daughter all had the same birthday, her mother nonetheless baked three cakes.

"She wanted all of us to feel special," the daughter says.

A graduate of Douglass College, Pappas met the Dalai Lama in her early 20s. Her travels have taken her as far away as Thailand, Turkey, Italy, Greece and Indonesia. For six months she lived on the island of Bali, where she studied dance.

Eight years ago she met a Tibetan Buddhist who become her spiritual teacher. They meet twice a year.

"The truth is there." Pappas says of her spirituality, "and you keep gravitating toward those people with the same truth."

Yoga's truth is about awareness, removing obstacles in the body and the mind. Yoga, or uniting one's self, arrives through movements of body and breath.

"So many people are getting so unhappy that they forget their souls," Pappas says. "After so many years, I know how to get myself back to center. There's nothing bad to being ott-center, but who wants to feel that? Some people think yoga is all about light and going to the light. But dark places exist as well.

"It's like the sun and the moon, lifting and grounding, using energy and nature. It's an inward experience," she says. "There's awareness, acceptance and adjustment."

Weeklong silent retreats, which include activities like yoga, hiking and meditation, continue to enforce those elements for Pappas, an experience she describes as being "like a face of words, where things get very magical when you slow down and just be."

Constant movement is more her style. Service projects such as working with half-way houses and volunteering to to teach yoga in prisons, senior citizen centers, combine with conducting nontraditional ceremonies as an ordained minister (with a degree from a correspondence school in New Mexico).

Of all her professions, teaching seems to be most rewarding.

"I feel a uniqueness with each student, and I make it a point as much as possible to touch everyone once. You feel a connection, teacher and student. It's really a joy. When I reach them I reach myself." Pappas says. "You need the enthusiasm to inspire them and to be out there on the edge. You have to be there to encourage them to let go - letting go and surrendering to their self.

"It's a deep experience, but you have to be a little playful. You have to feel like a child inside," she adds.

Child, teacher, minister, volunteer, spiritualist, dancer - just how would a dictionary define this woman? How does Pappas describe herself?

"Well, on a level of personality, I would say enthusiastic, detailed, dedicated and supportive. And I like rooting for the underdog." She laughs, adding: "On a soul level, I would say she's a blank space. Or better yet, I'd say infinite."

Which, no matter how you put it, is a very long walk. -End