Yoga is community.
Yoga has never been more accessible or mainstream. It is everywhere. There are so many ways to practice: yoga studios, gyms, membership organizations, in the workplace, even watching yoga videos at home. I have personally utilized all of these options.
I remember when, several years ago, I started taking a lunchtime yoga class in my office building. It was a beginner-level class, but I enjoyed it so much, I attended every week. I started forming relationships with other coworkers who attended the class. We would talk about the classes during meetings and when we ran into each other in the hallways.
“Wasn’t that class great?”
“I loved it when she taught this pose. I never tried it like that before.”
“That was a hard one today, but I feel awesome!”
“It’s almost like she knows exactly what we need every week.”
As my work life became more hectic, I wasn’t able to attend the class as frequently, and I eventually had to give up my weekly lunchtime yoga class. I started practicing at home, and occasionally attended some local yoga offerings, but it wasn’t enough. A couple of years later, I changed jobs and started working in an office building close to a yoga studio owned by the teacher who taught those lunchtime classes I loved so much. The studio was Central Mass Yoga and Wellness. The teacher (as you may have guessed) was Lucy Cimini.
It was here that I found my yoga community. A place of retreat, of welcoming — outside of my chaotic day-to-day life. As a student, I can’t wait to walk in the door, to see my teachers, to talk about yoga with a community of like-minded people. Now, as a teacher, I can’t wait to see students, to offer what I’ve learned and practiced, and to see the faces of bliss in shavasana. The studio is a wonderful community of love, friendship, and, of course, yoga.
The studio is your community. It is your place to go when you want to practice, sit in stillness, talk about your day, or even if you just want a place to go. The studio provides a yoga home — an anchor for any practice. Your teachers love to answer questions about your home practice, poses you struggle with (we all have them), types of yoga you may be interested in but haven’t tried, or anything else on your mind. We look forward to seeing every person that walks through the studio doors. And we think about all of you, all the time. (It’s true.)
In Sanskrit, the root of yoga means “to yoke” or to join, connect, create union. And really, isn’t that what community is all about?