To our amazing community, you are our family and friends and we are incredibly blessed and grateful for all of you!
We have important Covid 19 updates to share with you involving our in-studio classes.
At times, the beginning of this year feels just like yesterday, other times it feels like centuries. We all started with New Year’s intentions and a studio filled with new faces and our beloved community from the very beginning. Many of us released 2019, on New Years Day, with Amy leading 108 Sun Salutations! And we were all looking forward to celebrating Yoga from the Heart’s 2 year anniversary on March 24th!!💫
Then the world seemed to be flipped upside down as Covid-19 began to penetrate our lives. I shall never forget trying to write an email, just days out of total hip replacement surgery, to announce we were going to temporarily close to keep everyone safe….our anniversary celebration would have to wait.
We sent encouraging messages and photos to each other and sent prayers and metta to all beings everywhere for peace and ease. We made thank you hearts and put them everywhere in gratefulness to our first responders. Cara and Nicole taught free classes and meditations on Facebook live. And we waited in anticipation for a new season to bring not only the daffodils, but a fresh new start!🌼🌷
We learned to embrace our strength, our adaptability, and our patience!
On July 4th, we reopened our Studio by kicking off our free community Yoga Series at Blue Back Square!! We were so excited and grateful to come together in “our new normal.” We taped off 12×8 foot pods for social distancing accommodating 24 students, unlike years before with 100 celebrating yogis … and we were all tickled pink!!!🤸🏾‍♂️🤸🏼‍♂️
Grateful to embrace Mother Nature, we reopened with over 14 classes outdoors and quickly realized what a gift to practice under the blue sky with bird song!! We popped up everywhere from the park, Blue Back Square, The Bridge Healing Arts Center, The First Baptist Church of West Hartford to the tranquil Hillstead Museum. We even practiced under the lighted trees outside the Studio. Our in studio classes held 6 students with 12 feet of social distance, to practice without a mask on and all the doors wide open!! And say it isn’t so, we figured out yoga on Zoom and yoga on YouTube! 🎤🎼
The summer season ended with our Second Annual Charity… Yoga for Pulmonary Fibrosis at Blue Back Square, in partnership with the Delamar Hotel and the town of West Hartford!!! Thank you so much for coming out to practice, for making a donation and for passing on love to Mal and his family!! 💙
We learned to live simple, to never take anything for granted and to spread kindness wherever our paths took us.
In anticipation of fall, the studio underwent additional enhancements to ensure the safety of our community and our teachers. We had upgraded the HVAC system with Merv filtration, acquired 2 hospital grade Hepa air purifiers and just recently installed Plasma Air Purifiers within the HVAC ductwork.
But wait….. hold on to fall, just like our summer! Mother Nature continued to gift us with amazing weather, so our Summer Yoga turned into a spectacularly long Fall Yoga Series. We just….yep, had our last class outdoors on Sunday, November 29th with Dana! 🍁
So here we are, two weeks after Thanksgiving, a bit chillier and even some snow fell from the sky. ☃️
Prior to Thanksgiving, we had decided to take a two week pause from our in studio classes. With holiday travel and gatherings, it was important to us to err on the side of caution to keep everyone safe. So many of you joined us on zoom and we were excited to see you all!!!
Unfortunately, the rise in cases in our area is continuing to climb. To ensure the safety of all of you, our YFTH teachers and in support of all the doctors, nurses and first responders working tirelessly on the frontline, we will be temporarily extending our in studio closure into January. At this time, we do not have a specific reopening date for in studio classes, but are filled with hope that as the year winds down and a New Year begins, we are steps closer to better days!
In the meantime, we will continue offering our classes on Zoom and keep adding to our Video On Demand library. If you need some additional props for your home practice, simply email us back. We have mats, blanket, block and strap sets, as well as gently used blocks for sale and can arrange a pick up or curbside at the studio. 🙏🏻
We have been working on several virtual workshops for January, to support your New Year, that we will release shortly and are busy planning spring events and YES, that anniversary 🎉 celebration!!
We are grateful, hopeful and excited for a NEW YEAR!!!
with love, Diane and the YFTH team 💜