July 2024
In yoga, we’re often invited to stay in the present moment—to notice our breath, for example, in child’s pose. But about twenty minutes later, we’re asked to look ahead in crow pose, to grow and change, to make goals and take risks. How do we reconcile these two ideas, particularly when it comes to stepping off our mats?
The reminder to be present is so needed in our fast-paced society. We are hyper-focused on what’s next, rarely pausing to appreciate where we are and how far we’ve come. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of growth and what’s next, even in yoga. (After all, growth is one of our core values at Small World Yoga.)
And yet, setting our sights ahead or aligning to something bigger, sometimes what we call our “true north” in yoga, has positive attributes, too. I can think of phases in both my professional and personal life where that “look to the finish line” mentality has been crucial to my success, and most importantly, to my happiness.
Many of you all have practiced with us for years and saw us through the ten-month studio transition from our old home on 17th Avenue to our new one on 12 South. Even as I longed in those days to have our old space and familiar faces to practice with, the excitement of our buildout and what the future held carried me and so many of our team members through.
Finally, in May 2022, we opened the doors to our new studio space, and that very same week, my two-year-old son was diagnosed with a brain tumor. What should have been the greatest triumph and celebration in my career was suddenly clouded by a life-threatening diagnosis and six months of nomadic living in the children’s hospital. Everyone told us we would get through that phase of life, and we did, though it was not easy along the way. It was the hope of the future, of life returning to a familiar routine of doing things we loved, that kept us going. It didn’t change the hardships in the moment, but sometimes when the only way is through, the greatest comfort is found with looking to the future (in yoga, we often refer to setting your drishti) and a mantra that we will ultimately grow from our most trying experiences.
Maybe you felt this way during the pandemic, when some days it seemed impossible to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And yet, as we practiced together via Zoom, we held on to hope that the activities we loved—concerts and live yoga classes—would return, or else, new unexpected adventures awaited us. With no choice to go back, we simply moved forward.
So, here we are celebrating our tenth year as a nonprofit organization at Small World Yoga. We’ve certainly kept things moving forward, most often with small, simple, and calculated steps, but every once in a while with big shoot-for-the-moon leaps that required a clear focus on what lay ahead.
On June 21, we hosted our tenth International Day of Yoga event, and we took a risk and changed locations to Centennial Park with the backdrop of the Parthenon at sunset. Trying something new meant new problems, and in the moments leading up to the start of the event, we lost power and had no sound for about 45 minutes. Figuratively and literally sweating in 96-degree heat, we scrambled to troubleshoot and find a solution, determined to get our event off the ground. And when the sound of our emcee’s voice finally rang through the speakers welcoming everyone to the park, I was finally able to settle in the present moment and enjoy that sunset view. I could not have been more grateful for that evening exactly as it transpired, and to be with so many wonderful people, moving, breathing, and showing up to support the mission of Small World Yoga.
Then this past month, we hosted Baron Baptiste, an internationally recognized yoga teacher, leader and author, in our studio space for the first time. It was a surreal experience for me, having worked alongside Baron for just over a decade helping to put on training programs quite literally across the globe. I never expected to receive a request from him to teach in my home studio in Nashville! It was a large task to host Baron on short notice and the last-minute preparations were fast and furious, but it was worth every hour of lost sleep leading up to it. Our team’s collective eye on the prize made the experience a seamless one. I was truly in awe, watching everyone flow in our studio space (and overflow into our second room), moving together in community and celebration.
When I think about where we have come in ten years, I am filled with immense gratitude for so many people who have contributed their talents, time, and energy to see a mission on paper come alive in tangible, actionable ways. I’m so proud of the leaders we have at Small World Yoga—not just those who are mentors in training, but everyone who manages our operations, teaches yoga across the city, or volunteers their time as a board member. We’ve also been so lucky to have great partnerships with other community leaders and nonprofit organizations who see the value in our work and the positive impact on their own people. A simple idea in 2014 has grown into a full-scale operation and I am so lucky to still be a small part of it.
If I don’t stop to soak it all in, I’m surely missing some of the greatest moments in the history of this organization, unique experiences that will eventually just become a photo on the wall or a data point we’ll use in some future strategic planning session.
I’m officially taking a moment to breathe in and appreciate where we started and how far we’ve come. As I breathe out, I also look forward. Different than ten years ago, there’s now a shared horizon and others who believe deeply in our mission. What a gift to experience collectively dreaming of what’s next for Small World Yoga.