How are you?
As I write this, I am in my office at YG looking at its beauty, and it inspires me with HOPE.
Today is EARTH DAY (April 23rd) and we want to dedicate a major part of May to helping support the earth, our original mama, the one we share collectively. We have a lot in store for you this month, from walking, to protecting the bees, to movie nights, we have NEW challenges and a NEW SCHEDULE!
NEW NORMAL
I suppose the greatest challenge of all this up coming month, is knowing how to make a move. The cards that we as fitness centres have been dealt, in the post lock down phase, are pretty much devastating.
We are NOT going to open our studio if we are to wear face masks. Yes we are able to keep two meters apart and have small groups, that is a major privilege.
I would like to take a few paragraphs in this newsletter and depict how Yoga Garden came to be. I read recently an article about how when the NEW NORMAL is going to kick in, settle, what is going to actually occur, is that major corporations, and BRANDS are going to pump so much money into their advertising campaigns, that the entire lockdown phase, wearing masks, not seeing anyone, all the positive environmental changes, homeschooling, handwashing..all of that will be gaslighted* out of our psyche....so that things can go back to normal... so that we can start purchasing, and living the life of comfortably numb consumers. I want to be clear here, and portray Yoga Garden also as a Brand. Our main pillars are Compassion, Strength, and Breath. When Ondrej and I agreed to opening a yoga studio together I immediately told him I want us to be a BRAND and I want us to work with Florian Kowatz(director and owner of KR8 burou in Vienna Austria. The process was really enriching. We spent at least three months responding to elaborate questions, and very much long term, and forward thinking possibilities. What Flo designed was a drawing board for us to always return to, to be able to function as a company that has goals, and structure, that we have pillars and values from which we make decisions, it was(is) brilliant progressive thinking. We have this instrument, and manual from which we always come back to.
We rarely make executive decisions, and exclude others. We always meet and decide on what our plan of action is. Yoga Garden is an inclusive space, which would like to inspire environmental and urban community solutions through both the practice of ASANA but also OFF the mat. We are dedicated in producing a safe space both inside and outside(environment) the studio. This might sound loaded, or far fetched, but the reality is, if we always come back to the drawing board, to our pillars, we are able to make the right decisions together, together apart, and as individuals period. This is not to say that everyone who is part of the Yoga Garden team, or community is constantly reflective of these values.
It takes all sorts of strength, and compassion to create an awesome community, and a lot of long exhales. It takes a lot of courage to get up when we fall. Perhaps it is easier to get up when we have someone to support us. To listen, to hear us,and to give us space. This is the studio we want to be. We want to be a place where you can come and chat, laugh, hug, cry, dance, knit, create and also just walk in and out after your practice if that is your mood.