Meet AMANDA RESTIVO | Singer/Vocal Coach/Yoga Instructor

We had the good fortune of connecting with AMANDA RESTIVO and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi AMANDA, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
Like many people throughout the course of the pandemic, my ideas about a work/life balance have changed. Prior to the pandemic, I was commuting to work places over 50 miles away and spending over 8 hours a week driving.
While I value my alone time while driving, I did not value the stress of traffic, the dangers of driving late at night or in the rain. Not to mention the toll it took on my car and wallet as gas prices have continually gotten higher.
I am lucky enough to have a profession in which I can work from home and continue to teach all of my wonderful students from the safety and comfort of my room.
Because I was able to make the shift to online teaching it has made me wonder why so many jobs required physical in person interaction in the first place. I suppose because it was just always the norm and no one ever thought to change what had always been.
Now that the world has vastly changed, so too have my feelings towards where I want to work, for how long, and how much I’m willing to sacrifice my new found balance for a paycheck.
Many lives were lost over the past two years, and I feel extremely grateful that those I love most are still with me. These difficult times have only re-enforced my conviction to put my family and loved ones before anything else, including my career and potential self advancement. I traveled for work for almost 12 years of my life. Seeing very little of my family and friends back home. I could very easily return to a life on the road, but at this stage of my life and in this precarious moment in time, my focus and priorities have shifted towards spending as much time with my family as possible. 
I hope that anyone reading this will have the same opportunities to create an environment for themselves in which their life and work can enhance each other, and not detract from the main reason we all want to make money in the first place; the luxury of freedom to choose where we get to spend our far to precious time.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My line of work involves anything to do with the voice and body and specifically connecting those two things. I am a professional singer, and I have been a vocal instructor for almost 10 years. During that time, I have become a certified Yoga Instructor and Vocal Yoga Teacher. The human vocal instrument is my passion and giving my clients and students the opportunity to have the voice they desire is my main focus now. Whether that means they want a great singing or speaking voice, or they just want to be free from vocal tension or injury. Combining vocal technique with Yoga poses has transformed the way I teach and has made my clients and students understand the importance of their voice to their daily life and livelihood. I want everyone with a voice to have the tools to keep their voices healthy and strong, all life long.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Not too far from LA or the Inland Empire is Palm Springs. This is one of my favorite places to visit anytime I get a chance. The drastic change in climate and the environment feels exotic and it’s only a few hours drive away. One of my favorite places to visit is the Sunnylands Center and Garden. Full of museum pieces from the 1950’s and 1960’s it’s surrounded by beautiful desert flowers and cactus and it’s a beautiful place to spend a few hours.
Palm Springs is also known for growing dates, and having a Date Shake while you are there is a must. There are many local date farms that sell the shakes, and they even have vegan options to swap out if you don’t want to have regular ice cream.
Last time I was there I went to Shields Date Garden, which is one of the more well known and popular place to get dates, shakes, and other local one of a kind items.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
This particular Shoutout isn’t going to a specific person, but to a category of person. If I look back over the course of my career, there seems to be one theme that comes up over and over. Those who have given me my biggest breaks in my career have all been women. At almost every major career shift in my life there has been a female mentor or teacher who had enough belief in me to give me a chance and offer me an opportunity for something extraordinary.
I have always valued my relationship with women, my friends, my female bosses and mentors. The old cliche that women are always competing against each other has never proved true in my life. I have always felt the most support from the women who were in positions of power that wanted to help another woman rise up to the same level they were on.

Website: https://www.amandarestivo.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanda_restivo

Image Credits
Photo Credit: Anna Ty Bergman (NYC Photographer) www.annatybergman.com