Dear Homegrown Yogis,
On March 6th, Homegrown Yoga’s Macon location will celebrate its one year anniversary. It hadn’t even crossed my mind until Rachel McInnis texted me, “aren’t we coming up to one year?” and I began digging through old emails to find out she was absolutely right. In many ways, it’s felt like this past year has actually lasted a decade – I don’t think I appreciated ahead of time how much work a new location would be and… COVID times. I feel like COVID years should simply count like dog years do.
At the same time, however, it feels like the Macon studio is still a brand new place to me. Before Rachel had even mentioned our upcoming anniversary, I had made a big star on my calendar this past Monday, February 28th after teaching Warm Flow in Macon. “HOME” I wrote next to it. That next night in my Warner Robins Hot Power Flow class, I shared what I meant by my note: I’ve been teaching in our Macon studio since we first opened on March 6, 2021 and my Warm Flow class in Macon on February 28, 2022 was the first class I’ve taught there where I felt everything click. I taught my class with authenticity and lightness; the studio was full of conversation, laughter, sweat and high energy; and it gave me this huge and visceral feeling of relief and gratitude and trust. After just under one year, I was officially home in our Macon space – no anxiety, no forcing, just being myself with people I love teaching what I love.
When we first opened our Macon location, I was getting so much advice and pressure on how to get people in the door right now: I was told you’ve got to shift your social media strategy to capture this new market; you need to identify your target demographic and focus your efforts there; you need to research and see what other businesses are doing so you can compete … on and on it went, and I know it was guidance shared with the best of intentions. And yet if there is anything I‘ve learned over these past several years in business and in yoga, it’s that if I want something that is real, true and long-standing, I almost certainly can’t get it right now. I can’t get it right now because it’s within that up-and-down, sometimes scary process that relationships are forged, lessons are learned and real growth happens. As much as I might want to skip that part (and by might I mean would love to skip that part), I can’t skip it and still create something that is real and powerful. Just like I teach in my classes that you need to prepare your body with sometimes mechanical, not-that-enjoyable postures to get into the ones you want (yes, core work for those fun handstands!), I had to mess up and do some not-that-enjoyable work to create a place that I know represents what I want a yoga community to be. It’s not a fast process by any means, but I can’t imagine anything more worthy of my time, patience and effort.
From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank everyone who has been a part of Homegrown Yoga Macon’s first year and Homegrown Yoga Warner Robins’ sixth year (ahhhh – we’re old!). Whether you know it or not, your support, patience, and decision to show up and practice with us are what makes our work not only possible but also the kind of work that all us teachers are so proud to pour ourselves into each day. Thank you for all the ways you show up for us – we are just getting started and we wouldn’t have it any other way!
With love,
Rachel