Why join The Open Space, or any yoga studio for that matter!

I’ve been around for a while now….being a seasoned yogi and having lived overseas, I have traversed the landscape of yoga studios for many years. My decision to set up The Open Space  was finally made during covid lockdown but this has been a lifelong dream come true.

But as it turns out timing has not been my friend! We all know that many yoga studios, perhaps the local one you went to before lockdown have closed down. The guesstimate  is that one in three studios have closed their doors or more.  The cause are manifold but perhaps the most profound has been the movement towards online offerings. Anyone who was practicing regularly before lockdown would have gone to the www to find classes to take whilst stuck at home. And these classes are good, no doubt, they served a grand purpose at the time….to keep us practicing yoga when we needed it most. Innovative studios started offering zoom classes to their community and many still do. We got used to doing things in our lounge room in our own time.

We developed what we call samskaras around this…routines that became habits…and still are.

 So this has led to a general decline in the commitment and ongoing viability of getting people to turn up to yoga studios to do their practice. While in the olden days, I myself and many others would have signed up to six monthly or even yearly passes and attend 4 times a week at my favoured studio, now we find that people buy shorter passes eg 10 sessions or flip flop between studios. While that might suit the customer on a certain level of choice, it certainly takes its toll on yoga studios maintaining their business and most importantly we lose a sense of our community.

Yoga studios don’t only teach yoga. They are usually a hub of conscious living and well-being experiences. They also provide a space to meet other like minded yogis on similar journeys. We all have made friends at studios, and found them always to be friendly and accepting places to gather. Does a gym do that? Potentially so.  But a gym can also be competitive and the customers are not always interested in spiritual pursuits! Rather the focus is on the body. A true yoga practice at a yoga studio is much more than that. More like an integration for body, mind and soul. 

At The Open Space, we integrate yoga in all its forms with well being modalities such as psychology sessions and body work therapies. As Psychologists and yoga teachers, Michael and I set up this studio with a vision of health and healing from an integrative perspective. The challenge for all of us is to keep healthy through sattvic food, that is foods that both sooth the senses and nourish the body, clear mind, activity that suits our bodies and most importantly attention to our spiritual selves so we remember who we truly are.

We offer workshops designed for expansive consciousness. We  offer unique, uplifting music events that touch the sacred. We offer regular free kirtan (Vedic chanting sessions) to bring our community together in heart opening song. And more! Together with our regular yoga classes each week, we strive to create a place for you to expand your well being together in one space, The Open Space 🙏🏻❤️🙏🏻❤️🙏🏻

Hope you can join us

Namaste

Karen