Our Sacred Space - Fonthill's Newest Home for Yoga

The Village Yogi is now open and beginning to thrive.
www.TheVillageYogi.com

This marks our official 3rd week of classes. And, I'm happy to report that without much advertising, classes are slowly filling up. It's exciting and wonderful to witness. I've felt since the beginning that this space has it's own Life. It's own heartbeat and a very special energy. While it's located on the bottom floor of a rather old building, our renovation extravaganza has transformed a once deeply neglected space into a homey, funky and peaceful place to practice.

After a couple weeks of settling back into teaching a full schedule I'm FINALLY starting to relax and enjoy the studio.

I've observed every one of the 4 amazing teachers that comprise the Village Yogi Team and all 3 of our Energy Exchange Volunteer Staff. And I am nothing short of deeply impressed. I've decided to simply relax and allow each person to blossom in their own way. I'm simply not going to get trapped in the expensive cat & mouse game of advertising and cohersing clients into the doors by de-valuing our incredible services in ridiculous discounts or gimmicks. I feel so proud and honored by The Team that I am simply going to stand back, allow them to flourish and assist in that process however possible.

I know The Village Yogi boasts some of the most talented, creative, wonderful teachers this entire Region has to offer. How wonderful that this is now open for our community to enjoy! And, yes, I must really stop thinking about this and GET TO BED!

Jaya Ganesha!

Here's a few pictures of our lovely new home: (pics complements of our very own  Jenny Karpenko)

The Renovation Experience 2013

Well, here I am at the starting of an exciting week. I haven't checked in to this blog much over the summer months as I have been up to my eyeballs in renovations at the new studio - The Village Yogi.

After floating around for a couple of years I finally made the decision to re-open my yoga studio. It was an oddly difficult decision to make. But in the end, my love and passion for this work trumped my fear. The space for the new studio quite literally found me. I had been searching for almost 3 years for something suitable, when this place just kind of dropped into my lap. I was so excited at the potential the space has for greatness that I was anxious to get started immediately. But, as the Universe would have it, practically all of this past year has been spent waiting. Waiting, waiting, waiting for a truckload of red tape to get sorted out with the former tenants. In a nutshell, the former tenant could not vacate the space until their new building was ready for them to move into. Unfortunately this involved about 10 months of delays as complications with The Town of Pelham and the Municipality prevented anyone from moving forward. This proved to be an incredibly frustrating time for me. I am now aware that this "waiting period" was actually perfectly designed to help me, a rather impatient person by nature, develop perseverance, trust and a willingness to relax with uncertainty. If only you knew how torturous this was for me. I mean, really, if an impatient, dubious worry-wort needed to learn trust and patience - this is the perfect lesson to do just that.

Once I had possession of the space renovations began. Now take a look at the before pics:

This space was a pre-school for kids ages 3 - 6 for approx a decade. The unbelievable amount of work and clean-up that had to be done was intense. New walls framed, sound proofed and built, new wiring, new lighting, new rooms built where there were none, bathrooms facelifted, new floors....absolutely everything was changed or updated in some way. Keep in mind all of this was supposed to happen 10 months prior so the funds to complete these renovations were literally pulled from thin air. To this moment, I have no idea how we got this far. It has been a whirlwind.

But, somehow, by the Grace of the Divine and my amazingly supportive friends, family and colleagues we have managed to get to this point where I thought we'd never arrive. I am officially 5 days away from opening the doors to The Village Yogi. And while it is certainly not a brand new state-of-the-art facility...it is a wonderful space where I hope the community will find a safe, relaxing, gratifying place to practice Yoga & Meditation. I am deeply humbled by this entire process.

More to come!