2020 | remember how far you've come.
Remembering 2020
We wanted to use this months blog as a way to remember how we pivoted over and over again in 2020. To remember what we weathered as a world, as a community, as a business. It was not easy, but it helped us stay open and practice observation, reflection, and choice. Deciding what was next again and again with what the world was handing us. Here is a review on some of the things we walked through, processed, began, and began again.
January:
Lauren Camilleri taught our first ever offered New Years Day class, welcoming a new year with movement. Mala’s + Movement workshop with Joy Echlin was a hit, creating malas to incorporate into the practice. We took our second domestic retreat to Mexico. Our teachers did instagram take overs to connect deeper with the community.
February:
We started our 4th RYT-200, welcomed in a new group of tribe members hungry to learn and explore their practice. Hosted the Tween Collective, a yoga workshop series for Youth. The Breakdown, a master class to deepen the practice with Hayley Pierzynski. Kelli McMullen + Susie Kamen hosted our second Process series, an in-house retreat for couples to deepen their awareness of self + relationship. Ali Walker led her Spirit workshop, a faith based movement practice.
March:
We started this month out strong, hosting one of our Unwinding yin workshops. Highlighting clients on our socials, word on the street, we wanted to show our incredible members and their stories. March 13th, we had to unexpectedly shut down with no idea what was to come. COVID-19 was beginning to infect our state, and we needed to slow the spread. We launched an Instagram challenge to stay connected to our community. March 18, we created our first ever virtual class content, taught by Kelli McMullen. We posted it to facebook, we wanted to stay in the work so badly with you. Our team started creating meditations and mini movement sequences for instagram. March 24, we rolled out a full class schedule that our teachers were teaching live from the studio, live streaming to facebook. March 26, we switched gears to “Unplugged” to create consistency and to avoid teachers going into the studio. Teachers taught from their homes, to facebook live, no mic, using bluetooth speakers, their phones for filming, but all the love, energy, and planning still going into classes.
April:
We were still filming from our homes, facebook was beginning to interrupt our connection regularly due to music laws. We kept showing up. Teaching the best we could with what we had. We kept making playlists for you. We missed you so much. We launched our online shop. A small collection of products that were Space specific and we could ship to your home. We were working to get professional virtual system built into the studio.
May:
Facebook continued to be difficult to work with. We used new professional cameras and sound system for the first time, it felt like a little bit of normalcy, but again— another pivot. May 23, we rolled out classes onto our new Mindbody platform. We tried to stream live through MindBody, but the quality was lacking, so we recorded, and upload. Big waves in racial injustice this month. As a studio, we began to analyze how we were doing our part to create more inclusivity.
June:
We began to refine our virtual platform, and began to charge for viewing classes for the first time since March. Instructors would come in 24 hours prior to their class “time”, they would film, upload their class, then the following day, publish the class and email it to the roster of people signed up. it was a PROCESS! lol. We hosted a virtual Solstice practice led by Myra Chopp, Amelia Ritter, Ella Johncox, and Lauren Camilleri. We collected donations and sent them to the Loveland foundation, an organization that financially supports women of color get therapy and resources they need and don’t have access to.
We were still leaning into the big things happening in our world, the things that HAD been happening. We started to sit with learning, educating, creating awareness. Neil Strauss said “Shaming someone into action creates acting. Inspiring someone into action creates change.” We started our 3rd Process series—virtual this time. A series that educated our community through 3 amazing speakers. Tierra Briscoe, William Campbell, and Kimberly Brown. We had to sit down and listen in order to stand up.
July:
July 6, we thought we would reopen. Then we waited. It had been four+ months. We kept waiting. We were kept alive by the donations of our community, no government support. We hosted a class outdoors for the first time ever on July 26.
August:
We hosted our second outdoor offering led by Katie Mann. It was so renewing to be together, to feel a collective energy. We started a virtual book club reading How To Be Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi led by Amelia Ritter. A way to learn more, to understand our deep rooted conscious/unconscious programming around racism. August 15, we had our third outdoor class led by Liv Monte. August 24, we announced we were reopening our doors. August 29th, we opened. Welcomed our community back in. It was magic.
September:
We readjusted to our new studio function, all sorts of new protocols and guidelines in place for safety. We were working at 33% capacity, so lots of new policies came into effect. We wanted to badly to create, to return, to a place that felt warm, safe, inviting. We were different. You were different. We ebbed + flowed over and over. We celebrated our 3rd birthday as a company. We kept focusing. We hosted our 4th outdoor offering, Ali Walker led the way.
October:
We were rocking and rolling. Busy rebooting still. Lauren Camilleri hosted an Unwinding yin workshop. This month’s theme was Shedding. Kelli McMullen wrote a beautiful piece for the blog.
November:
We shift, again. We closed for a “three week pause” to continue to Slow the Spread of COVID-19. We trusted the process, went back to full virtual. We refined our virtual platform, making it easier than ever to access. Kelli McMullen led a live meditation on Thanksgiving morning as we suggested different places to make a donation to. This was SpaceGiving. We began to pour into our online shop, promoting it for holiday season. We celebrated small business saturday. Promoting our fellow small business owners who were undoubtedly suffering after the year we had.
December:
Government called for an additional 12 days of lock down. We stayed the course. Offered curbside pick up, we were so busy with online orders! We continued to ramp up our virtual offerings. Giving you small movement segments, express classes, a high school specific class with Katie Schrock. We announced we’d be reopening January 2nd. 2021— back to YOU.
And here we are.
We are still cultivating new ways for us to lean into diversity and inclusivity. We just started our 5th RYT-200. We are manifesting workshops and offerings to cultivate a reconnection.
Whatever you went through last year personally, professionally, mentally, physically, financially, every aspect— it was not “NORMAL”. You have survived a year of heavy unknowns. Fear, adjusting, deconstructing, finding new joy, stepping away from parts of life that were not funcional. You have weathered so much. And, look at you. fa
Look how far you’ve come.
Don’t forget the journey that has opened your eyes to today. It’s all been part of the plan. Keep seeing yourself. Keep showing up. Keep adjusting. Refining. Leaning in. Breaking up. Starting again.
We love you so much.
Scroll for a few raw moments of our year.
