Recommended not Required
A super sweet life lesson I can’t help but learn over and over again…
I’m sharing these tales of COVID-19 times as the owner of a small yoga studio in Central Vermont, USA. It is a small but relevant part of my personal experience and opinion. I hope it at least sheds some light on the realities we face daily as entrepreneurs + yogis who believe in both centralized community and expansion without limit. If not, it may be a decent look at the essence of duality in human existence today… Disclaimer: I didn’t go to business school, my business has never been “successful” by your typical capitalist (profit oriented) model and I still really, really love what I do. Every single student, colleague, neighbor, family member or otherwise who has ever been a part of this community is why I ramble on for more another 1088 words. It’s recommended but not required that you read the whole thing.
Grateful Yoga opened it’s doors October 1, 2014 in our privileged, tiny and majorly white community. The number of times I have heard “Don’t you think there are enough yoga studios in VT?” or “How do you deal with all the competition?” is truly heartbreaking and honestly a sign that the world needs more mindfulness. Contrary to what appears to be popular belief, most folks living in our community are not practicing yoga + meditation (this is also statistically true for the USA at large); AND yoga is in fact not a competition, nor is small downtown local business for that matter. We are all in this together. If we want to see our neighbors fail, if we hesitate to reach out when they are in need, if we hope for the best but don’t do anything, this is a sign of weakness or fear on some level.
We closed our studio doors on March 16, 2020 and almost three months later we are just beginning to organize small private groups to get back into the studio 4 people at a time. Or is capacity 10 people? Or is it 3? Literally, I HAVE NO IDEA. Reaching out to local officials, my landlord, the VT task force, a business advisor, etc., I have received a lot of conflicting information. One thing that people are consistently throwing out there is the phrase: “recommended, not required…” WTF happened to world pandemic, people? There’s a big sense of personal responsibility when leadership lacks, I am so grateful for a grounded yoga + mediation practice which has given me more clarity than the 8000 emails I’ve written in the last 3 months.
A snapshot: Three months is equivalent to 1 financial quarter. We paid 85% of our rent in March been paying 70% rent for the last 2 months and were just forgiven down to a 50% rate for June. If it sounds arbitrary, it is. The government has said we can open at 25% capacity but no one can agree on what that means. We have received 1 emergency loan from our local bank which payments have already started up on. We received exactly $1000 in grant money from the federal govt. We campaigned a GoFundMe for the first time ever for a total of $1500. We’ve applied for and been denied way more funding than we have been granted. Our COMMUNITY of yogis has helped us the most and continues to do so with generous studio contributions. We are so, so Grateful.
The hurdles to re-opening continue: digital thermometers, pre-registration for human form classes, humans who actually want to participate in the classes, hand sanitizer, instructors and students who trust each other in life-threatening circumstances, masks, shared hallways, railings + staircases, “as long as you’re distanced, your fine.” What if someone injures themselves in class and we are forced to respond with touch? What if someone shows up and their temp is “too high” and we have to ask them leave after they have pre-registered, pre-paid and found parking spot? What if…
What if we never open the yoga studio again? That would be OK, you are all going to be FINE, look at what is going on around you; not just in VT, or even the USA but the whole world… Our people and our planet are both screaming for your attention. You don’t have to do anything huge, you don’t have to have extra money, you don’t have to do yoga, but you have to do something. If it’s too tough to chew or too hard to swallow, slow down, take smaller bites, drink a glass of water, take a break, add some salt, some hot sauce, eat dessert first, you do you but do something. I keep seeing memes about 2020 being “cancelled”… That’s bullshit. I’M RIGHT HERE, 2020 IS NOW, DON’T WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW. The future is bleak if we sit around watching + waiting like it’s a Netflix series.
It’s easy to get trapped in a bubble (it’s safe in there, it’s quarantine time, it’s shiny, it smells nice, I get that), but the risks of thinking or acting exclusively small + local are high. If we don’t look at the big picture and if we don’t listen to the cries for help, we are not doing what is actually required to ensure to future of our people and our planet. Find a way to open yourself to new information (online, outdoors, with humans, or animals, in a book, do something), and the try again, re-open. Repeat.
And don’t worry, we are planning to reopen Grateful Yoga, we’re just taking our time. What’s the point of all these numbers and streams of thought? Here we go, it’s the actual, literal HUMANS who make this practice work. Whether you’re at home, in your yard, at the studio, in the office, working in the hospitals, traveling, staying at home… It doesn’t work unless you do something. We’re definitely not trying to make the decision for you, we’re asking that you make a decision on your own terms. What will you do today? Tomorrow? Next month? At Grateful Yoga, we continue to keep this practice accessible, inclusive and safe.
We will continue to offer online classes because we are connecting with old roommates, far away family members, friends from across the sea and those of you who choose to read + watch our content without making a comment or giving a like. We don’t judge you, we think this is cool!! We are already offering outdoor classes on the paddleboard or the grass so come out if you want, all you have to do is sign-up and prepay thru our website; we’ve made this as clear and easy as possible, but please reach out if you have questions. If you’re not ready to come to class, we don’t judge you, we think this is cool! The studio is NOT open and accessible to all beings, all the time like we wish we could be, but we had a good run at it that way for 5.5 years! Some of our students may never feel comfortable returning to the studio, for very valid reasons of self-preservation. We don’t judge you for this either, we think this is cool!! We don’t know exactly what the post-COVID yoga studio looks like, but we do know it is more dynamic + diverse than ever before.
Remember, yoga is recommended, not required.
EMAIL CHRISSY@GRATEFULYOGAVT.COM
Here’s a link to one article I found helpful for life post COVID 19: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/06/08/upshot/when-epidemiologists-will-do-everyday-things-coronavirus.html?smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR1WVoFCBNQ-noOVehgS5IoNT5Hz60O24Gv9IrlImQvQb_rCUslAgbpPD6I
Here’s a link to yoga classes with Bibby if you’ve been looking for ways to diversify + challenge your yoga practice while supporting a large minority in the wellness world (not to mention classes in Spanish or English!): https://www.yogakitecamp.com/yogapuertoplata
Here’s a link to the Global Action page for Black Lives Matter: https://blacklivesmatter.com/global-actions/