Starting a Yoga Studio

Dreams are a strange beast. You can feel a calling to do something (anything), and put all of your money, time and energy into making that dream a reality only to find yourself riddled with self-doubt and an overwhelming urge to quit and go back to private practice.

It’s so funny that I used to write blogs for a living. As a copywriter, my entire wheelhouse was pumping out as many words per minute as was physically possible. And yet, now that I begin to write this blog on something I’m truly passionate about, I can’t quite decide on the right voice to use. I guess while I find my feet I will just share where we’re at as of right now.

1. East Hall Yoga exists

   Jules sent me photos of the space and we knew we were onto something special. I ordered all of the equipment and props, I started social media pages, I created a company with ASIC and worked on making sure the branding was done. It was a mad rush but we got the place to where it needed to be - mainly by spending money we didn’t really have to spend while juggling the demanding role of running other businesses.

2. The cafe is taking a long, long time to sell
   For those of you who don’t know, I own a cafe in Emu Park. It is a blessing and a curse. The place is intrinsically special to me, but when you know you know. I knew I needed to get out and work on healing my mental health from the onslaught of being available 7 days a week. However, this took a very long time. It’s only now in the contract stage (hoping to finalise soon) which means I can’t dedicate myself to EHY the way I would like to.

3. Imposter Syndrome
   I know I want to create a community space that is free from judgement where people can share their love for art, yoga, music and just fkn hanging out. BUT there are so many aspects of red tape and not feeling quite good enough to be a leader in this space. I don’t know where I truly stand on the white appropriation of yoga - I just know that it changed my life and I want to do it and share it as authentically as possible. Social media is the greatest hinderance for me - I am stuck between feeling like a phoney and like I don’t have any right to be teaching this practice.

So I am aiming to be mindful of the delicacy of these issues and I hope to make yoga accessible to all - which means giving the community the space they need to engage with yoga in the ways that work for them. I think there are a lot of people in Rockhampton who would really benefit from this so I will put all of that excess cafe energy into this and just hope for the best. If it doesn’t make enough money, we can hire out the hall sometimes as space for rent and I’ll just go get another job. As long as we can move in the hall, I will be happy.