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Kate

Important News about the Future of Savannah Power Yoga

Recently as I was heading in to take a yoga class in our Sandfly studio, one of our long time yogis said to me "I can't imagine how you feel when you come in here and see so few people in a class." I laughed and replied "That's why I practice Yoga."

 

The truth is it has taken a lot more than yoga in the last 18 months to keep the doors open at both of our studios. We have invented new ways of doing things, gone into a large amount of debt, and our staff has had to pivot over and over again.  It has been exhausting and taken its toll physically, emotionally, and financially.

 

Thankfully yoga includes asana, meditation and inquiry - the practice of asking ourselves hard questions and seeking the truth. This idea of  "Seeking the Truth" is the first of Baron Baptiste's 12 laws of transformation, which we study during our 40 Day program.  In leading this program over the last month I have found new meaning and guidance.

 

Right now these laws are guiding me through what may be one of the most difficult decisions and transitions for Savannah Power Yoga. I’ll let the laws and my experience of their guidance share some important news with you.

 

Seek the truth.

 

We are $250K in debt and still burning $5-$10K per month beyond our revenue.

 

Be willing to come apart.

 

The March 2020 opening of our Wilmington Island studio and timing of the pandemic created the worst possible scenario for our business. We have been holding on trying to keep it all together and it’s time to let go.

 

Give up what you must.

 

Non-attachment is a central teaching of yoga. It’s time to put our practices in action. As of October 31st, we will be closing the doors at our Sandfly studio.

 

Drop what you know.

 

Attachment to our point of view is the source of our suffering. If we come from possibility and drop what we think we know, our options expand. It might seem like the drive to Wilmington Island is too far. I invite you to make the drive a few times and see if you can make it work.

 

Shift your vision.

 

Two years ago it would have been unimaginable for us to close our bustling Sandfly studio. It also would have been nearly impossible to imagine our entire community shifting online within just a few days. The pandemic accelerated many things and it is time for us to shift our drishti to envision something new.

 

Relax with what is.

 

Take a deep breath. The decision has been made. Now is the time to accept the things we cannot change.

 

Don’t rush the process.

 

This has been a long journey and it will take some time to change course. We have updated our business plan to map our way back to solvency. By cutting our overhead and focusing on our mission and core values, we can and will rebuild.

 

Understand the whole is the goal.

 

This decision was made with careful deliberation and experienced counsel. Our online platform, born from the pandemic, offers limitless potential. Our Wilmington location also supports the growth of our community. If you can’t make the drive, please stay in the practice. If you’ve read this far, you know that the tools and practices of yoga can change lives for the better. This is not the end of SPY, this is simply a new beginning.

 

Thanks to your support for the last 10+ years, the team at Savannah Power Yoga has touched more that 15,000 lives, taught more than 25,000 classes and trained over 150 teachers. You have also supported our local non-profits, donating more than $100K to Hospice Savannah and other service organizations. This past Friday alone, we raised over $7,000 for Hospice Savannah. Thank you.

 

The last 2 laws I want to share are these:

 

Step out of your comfort zone.

 

Consistency is part of our mission statement. We like things the way we like them. Closing this studio is way outside of my comfort zone and I am guessing changing your routine will be as well. Change is a universal truth and our practice trains us to do hard things. We can adapt to change even if it is not our preference.

 

Be true to yourself.

 

Take some time and consider what’s truly important to you. If being a part of the SPY community is important, stay connected. Make it work. If it is time to move on and grow in new ways, go forth.

 

Our last day of classes in Sandfly will be Sunday, October 31st. We are planning an open house on that day so that you can come say your final goodbyes and celebrate all that we have created as a community in the last 10 years.

 

Thank you for your incredible support through the last 18 months. Thank you as well for your understanding, kindness and patience as we make this transition. I also want to thank our staff at Savannah Power Yoga. They have been generous and patient and worked vey hard to bring you the best possible service during a very challenging time. I bow in gratitude to each and every person who has been a part of creating our wonderful community.

 

Namaste,

 

Kate

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FAQ

 

What will the new schedule look like?

 

We are meeting with each of our staff members in the next week and will do our best to keep your favorite classes and teachers on the schedule, offering them in Wilmington Island and on Zoom. In the coming weeks we will be working with our team to build this new schedule. After a period of time we will add and update the classes based on your feedback and attendance.

 

What can I do about my membership if I cannot attend the classes on Zoom or in Wilmington Island?

 

All of our monthly memberships are month-to-month at this time. They auto-renew on the date of purchase. You can check on your current renewal date by clicking here and navigating to the Account tab.


While we would love to keep you in the community, you can cancel your membership at any time by following this link

 

What if I have a class pass?

 

If you have a class pass it is valid online and in Wilmington Island and we would love to see you there. You can also take classes in Sandfly between now and October 31st.

 

Can I get a refund?

 

We are not able to make cash refunds at this time. We have done our best to make this clear with every sale. We are happy to offer you a store credit toward retail or gift cards. Please email us if you have any questions.

 

Why Sandfly?

 

Our lease in Sandfly has a limited guaranty clause which allows us to buy out the contract and leave before the end of the lease. Our Wilmington Island lease does not. We simply cannot afford over $10k in rent at this time and closing Sandfly will account for more than half of our rent, not to mention utilities and other overhead. During the last year we have met with legal counsel, business coaches and even bankruptcy lawyers. We have tried very hard to keep both studios open, and at this point the math simply doesn’t work. Closing Sandfly will give us the chance to avoid insolvency and continue to share the tools of yoga.

 

How can I help?

 

Keep your membership. Join us online. Make the drive.

 

Never been to our Wilmington Island location? Check out this map and pics.


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Kate

Kill the Teacher

 

Sometimes the teaching and the learning happen on different timelines. I once hosted a meditation teacher at the Yoga Co-op - it had to have been at least 12 years ago. 

 

A random person cold-called the studio and asked if we would host Swami Ken. They sent a bio and short summary of him and we said sure. 

 

Swami Ken showed up in orange Swami robes with a bunch of books and trinkets to sell and a young male assistant.  I was the host for the event and ushered them in. His assistant set up a table with all of the goods for sale while Swami Ken kept to himself.

 

Once everyone was assembled the assistant came in and introduced the Swami and told the attendees about his expertise.

 

Swami Ken then came to the front of the space and spent a few minutes getting seated and set up in silence. He then told us told close our eyes and bring our attention to the center of our forehead. "I'll let you know when the hour is up."

 

That's it. That was all he said.

 

As the host, my thoughts exploded. What? That's it? How dare he? Some of these folks have never meditated. What are they going to do? This is not teaching. This is nuts!...the thoughts kept coming.

 

I spent an hour struggling with what I thought a teacher should do. I was completely caught up in what I thought they would think of me, of our studio, of this man. 

 

After what seemed like forever, he told us to take a deep breath and thanked us for coming.

 

This morning as I prepared to teach my meditation class, I remembered his teaching and as I sat in my own meditation a big smile crossed my face. I finally saw something I could not see years ago. I saw where my need to hand-hold my students and make them comfortable showed up everywhere in my life.

 

I saw how my need to shepherd everyone, everywhere was silencing their own inner teacher. 

 

We learn best through direct experience. When we touch the stove we learn not to do that again. When we hurt ourself in a yoga pose we (hopefully) learn not to do that again.

 

I am not saying we don't need teachers. I am saying we need to trust the process and trust ourselves. And if we are teachers, we need to trust our students.

 

Namaste.


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Kate

Hot Yoga in a Mask? Are you crazy?

 

Kate Wheel Mask_copyAre you crazy? 

 

Nobody would do hot yoga in a mask.

 

I’m a No.

 

I think all of those words came out of my mouth in the past few months.

 

And this morning I took my first hot yoga class wearing a face mask. Guess what? It was NO BIG DEAL. After the first few moments the temperature of the air inside the mask was pretty much the same as the air outside of the mask and I could almost forget I was wearing it. It was actually less noticeable to me than when I am in air conditioned spaces wearing one.

 

After class the other folks told me the same thing - it was not as bad as they expected. The people who showed up will be coming back. If you haven’t yet tried yoga in a mask, here are some wise words from my teacher, Baron Baptiste:

  

Step Our of Your Comfort Zone.

 

Drop What You Know.

 

Give Up What You Must.

 

Be a Yes.


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Kate

SPY: Past, Present, and Future

Savannah Power Yoga is a privately held company. As such I am not required to share our financial information. I have also been told that it is impolite discuss money. Even so, I would like to share some information for those who are interested in supporting us through the financial struggles of COVID-19. Read More

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Kate

Creating a Legacy for Caregiver Support

On the night of our Hospice Fundraiser in 2018, I lost a good friend. When the auction was over and everything was cleaned up, I went to my car to drive home. I was distracted by the events of the day but before I pulled away I called Carol to check on her. She was at Hospice House with her husband George. When she answered she told me he had just taken his last breaths and that she and their dog Jasper were sitting with him saying one final goodbye. I went and sat with them and said my goodbyes as well, reading the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying into the space, not sure if the ritual would help George on his passage, but knowing that it would help me feel more grounded in the face of the unknown. 

 

When I was a volunteer at Hospice House, George showed me the ropes. He taught me how to make individual flower arrangements from the donated funeral bouquets. He taught me simple things like how to simply sit with the patients and offer comfort without saying a word. 

 

At the time I was in yoga “school” and needed willing students. George was one of my first students and patiently listened and learned ... and taught me how to teach, without telling me. He had been a professor for many years so he knew a lot about how to teach, and he also knew how to a be good student. 

 

Years later, after George completed his own yoga teacher training, he started bringing these two worlds together. George taught the staff at Hospice House and started a Yoga for Grief group at Hospice’s Full Circle grief center.  I think that’s where he met his future wife, Carol. 

 

George understood the healing power of yoga and brought his two passions together in service to the family caregivers as well as the professional caregivers at Hospice. This year I am proud to announce that his legacy will be commemorated with the George Cox Memorial Fund for Yoga at the Edel Caregiver Institute. The money we raise at our annual Hospice Savannah Yoga Relay will fund ongoing yoga classes and support services at ECI. 

 

If you can join us at our fundraiser on Friday, September 20, 2019, sign up here. If you cannot join us but would like to make a tax deductible donation, you can donate here. Thank you for supporting this great cause. Your donations are supporting the healing of others and I know that George would be happy to know that he made a difference and that the initiatives he started are living on. 

 

Namaste,

 

Kate


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Kate

Creating Satsang

Satsang: (sanskrit) being with good/righteous companions. This typically involves listening to or reading scriptures, reflecting on, discussing and assimilating their meaning, meditating on the source of these words, and bringing their meaning into one’s daily life.* 

Starting in February, we will be creating Satsang once a month at the studio. The source for our discussion will be the Yoga Sutras, which have been described as one of the foundations of classical Yoga philosophy. Specifically, we will read and discuss The Yamas and the Niyamas by Deborah Adele.

Last year, one of our SPY students gave me this lovely little book and I was quite taken by it. I have been studying the yoga sutras since 2005, and they can often be arduous and seem very esoteric. This translation and treatment of the ethical principals and guidelines set forth in the sutras is neither…AND I’d love to spend some time in our community discussing the ideas and principles this wonderful author presents.

On Wednesday, February 21st we will kick off a year long inquiry into how to live a good life, by working our way through the Yamas and Niyamas, one at a time. Each month, one of our SPY teachers will lead the discussion and help us reflect on, discuss and assimilate their meaning into our 21st century lives. These gatherings are intended to be a dialog and an inquiry into how we can align ourselves with these principles and bring them into our thoughts and actions. 

If you are new to the Yamas and Niyamas, here is a primer. I think of them as a set of guidelines that teach us how to be in community with others and in alignment with our own spiritual compass. 

The 5 Yamas include:

  • Ahimsa - non-violence
  • Satya - truthfulness
  • Brahmacharya - moderation in all things 
  • Asteya - non-stealing
  • Aparigraha - non-covetousness

The 5 Niyamas include:

  • Saucha - purity i.e. internal and external cleanliness
  • Santosha - contentment
  • Tapas - austerity; discipline
  • Swadhyaya - study of the sacred texts
  • Ishwara Pranidhana - constantly living with an awareness of the divine Presence

These ideas are universal and very similar to many spiritual teachings and guidelines. And yet, it is not always easy to navigate and adhere to these principles in a balanced way. For example, Ahimsa, (non-violence) seems like a commonsense approach and many of us consider ourselves to uphold this value in our daily lives. If we look at our words, though, and not just our actions, we might find that we gossip and malign others in private conversation, which is not in alignment with a broader view of Ahimsa. 

Bringing this kind of awareness to our way of being may not eliminate all of our shortcomings, (we are human after all!) but it will bring the light awareness to our words and actions and start us on a common path to being in community, together, and making each other good. 

I hope you will join us as we embark on creating Satsang together. To read more and preregister for these monthly gatherings click here

Namaste,

Kate

* definition sourced from wikipedia


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info@savannahpoweryoga.com

Yoga Camp, Day 3

The last couple of days I can best describe as demanding: we start with morning meditation, then 3+ hours of Yoga practice, interactive lectures and fine tuning our individual Yoga poses and transitions.

I started Yoga June 1, 2015 because a good friend strongly suggested that I try Yoga and since I had recently retired I thought, why not? Of course, I met Kim and Kate at the counter and I have been coming back ever since.  I find the Yoga community at Savannah Power Yoga to be an astounding group of people and the members of my teacher training class are even more astounding as I get to know them better, day by day.  We share our thoughts and problems, both on the mat and off, and watch out for each other, both on the mat and off.  Tired as we are, emotions can run high from time to time, and yet we are there for each other and keep pushing forward to learn and improve our practice.

Yesterday I flipped my dog for the first time and after class as I was going to my car to get a change of clothes I ran into a delightful member of our SPY community who asked me how I was doing at Camp and I told her about flipping my dog and with her marvelous dry humor and not skipping a beat she said “Oh, what kind of dog do you have”.

Today we start with a Power Hour and then investigate back bends, break for lunch and come back to discuss the Yoga sutras. After that, Kate has more for us, but has kept exactly what that is as a surprise.

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info@savannahpoweryoga.com

Yogis on a Quest

Have you ever wondered what was involved in becoming a certified Yoga Instructor?

Ten of us applied for and started Yoga Camp this past Friday, June 9, 2017.  One from Kentucky, one from Athens, GA and the rest from the more immediate Savannah area.  Yoga Camp is a seven day ordeal of back-to-back yoga sessions, lectures and inquiry, in mainly 10-12 hour days. Our lead instructor is Kate and her number two is Kim.

After Yoga Camp we pick up 4 more students for the four in-depth weekends of instruction across the summer.  Teacher training ends Aug 27, 2017.

We started last Friday evening with a Fast Flow class led by Biza; for those of you that don’t know her, she is a short, energetic woman who almost vibrates with energy even when standing still. I had taken a day and a half break from my practice to prepare for Camp and felt really happy to be back on my mat and then class started and Biz played a great playlist to practice by with some occasional commentary thrown in.  Fast Flow feels like an hour's worth of Yoga in 45 minutes; a great energetic way to start Yoga Camp.

After class we got to change clothes and then meet each other, received our training manuals and we dug right in establishing expectations and procedures for the rest of Yoga Camp and Teacher Training.

Saturday morning at 9:00AM we started our day with 90 minutes of Power Max led by Kim, another energetic woman who does Roller Derby for fun, followed 30 minutes later by an hour of Power Basic led by Kate, our lead instructor and owner of the studio, then followed by about 15 minutes of meditation.

We had time to change clothes, hydrate and grab a quick bite between classes and then participated in a discussion about What is Yoga? The afternoon and early evening were spent in a fairly intensive investigation of Mountain Pose and how it carries into the standing poses. This included lecture as well as physical demonstration by Kim and our own efforts to properly perform the poses.

We finished our first full day tired but satisfied with our efforts and the amazing amount of information passed on to us by Kate.

-written by Steve Bellmoff

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Kate

Yoga as Technology

Technology: science or knowledge put into practical use to solve problems

It’s hard to admit out loud, but I have problems. They range from the mundane - I have to get the laundry, grocery shopping and house cleaning done - to the complex - I run a business with 25 team members and 500+ customers. These responsibilities in and of themselves are not problems, but sometimes it can feel overwhelming. 

Right now, my problem shows up as me feeling overwhelmed. At other points in my life my problems were different - I was unemployed, I was taking care of a sick parent, I was heart-broken.

This is where yoga comes in and this is why I often think of yoga as a technology. The breath, the movement, the practice of constantly redirecting of my attention to the present moment are the practical tools I use to help solve my problems. Time on my mat can put little  distance between me and the problem at hand. Yoga reminds me that I do have control over my thoughts and actions and I am at the helm, setting my own course and creating my own experience of my life. I can choose to feel overwhelmed or I can keep coming back to the present moment and directing my attention to what I am doing right now. 

Yoga doesn’t work, in the same way that technology sitting on a shelf doesn't work. Getting on my mat or meditation cushion - using the tools of breath and present moment awareness - is what works.


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Jane Gray

Everything Is A Practice

I think of my teacher training experience as one that taught me the very basics of how to be the human I wanted to be. I learned that everything I do is a practice, and it started with getting on my mat. Relationships are a practice, eating nutritionally is a practice, getting enough sleep is a practice. Nothing I practice will ever be perfect, but every time I slip up there is a chance to come back and try again with mindful awareness. I used to think that being a yoga teacher meant my practice was over and I couldn’t be the student I wanted to be. Now I understand that teaching is a practice too. Read More

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