I hope you are having a fantastic week. As we are all well aware, this holiday season is presenting us all with unique challenges with regards to Covid-19 stats.
Our HYA community has been truly incredible throughout this challenging time, and we are eternally grateful to you for your support and participation in our services.
We strive to create a space where practicing yoga helps people to live their best life. And we believe in the benefits of yoga to help create a strong immune system and healthy lifestyle.
Our temporary closure a few months back was incredibly challenging for our small business, and continues to create struggles for us. However, your support and kind words mean the world to me.
The last thing we want to do is close again, and in an effort to navigate this holiday season to the best of our ability and be able to stay open, we feel the new executive order is in line with our own intuition. In fact, we had already crafted this email hours before his announcement.
Please understand we do not want to cut off our own legs or create more challenges for you or our business, however, out of an abundance of caution and out of deep love for each of you and our staff, we will be enforcing the mask mandate as it stands beginning Tuesday November 24th through December 11th.
We will continue to allow 21 students in class, however… drumroll please… we will require masks for class until December 11th.
If this gives you pause, please hear us out. I truly believe this is part of our greater yoga journey. There are a few points around masks I really would like to share with you.
So, let’s talk masks…
First of all, I have been in close contact with at least hundreds of different yoga studio owners in other states and countries where masks are required for practice – and yes… Even in the hot room! And the reporting back from them is that it is totally doable!
We have also been testing this ourselves and have a bunch of current students who practice with masks extremely successfully.
Do masks cause harm to the wearer?
Here are my top reasons why masks are A-OK!
1. First and foremost, this keeps each and every one of us as safe as possible while still enjoying our yoga classes and staying healthy. This also helps to protect our immunocompromised friends and elderly population whom we love.
2. Masks may help improve your lung capacity and aerobic capacity. In fact, there are masks called Training Masks, which pre-Covid, fitness enthusiasts willingly wore in order to improve their health and abilities.
3. As a yogi, breath is one of the pillars of a healthy practice and life. Let’s be honest though. Many of us have practiced with very little awareness of how the breath flows in and out during class. This is a fantastic opportunity to bring an internal awareness to your breath work in class.
4. There is an important study that has been done in researching masks and exercise.
SPOILER ALERT!
Wearing Masks = No negative exercise performance effect
Read the full study here.
5. You don’t have to worry about those pesky chin hairs, food in your teeth or bad breath. Haha. But really, I do find that a dab of lavender or your favorite essential oil on the mask can make the whole experience pretty darn dreamy in fact.
So then, which mask is best?
The good ol’ paper blue masks seem to be the best for the hot room when sweating. They don’t get in your mouth when wet. You could bring two masks and swap ’em halfway through class. We just purchased 500 extras, so if you forget one, just let us know. Of course, we’d love you to bring your own mask.
We have heard of success stories by wearing a face bracket underneath the cloth mask for breathability. Click here to grab these super cheap on Amazon.
Other people just wear their regular masks and are fine.
In other words, try out a few masks, styles, and techniques before you bail on yourself here. Yoga is your best friend and we are here for you.
BONUS:
If you would like access to our online library during this time, please let us know and we will hook you up at no additional cost.
If you need to discuss your membership, please let us know. However, we strongly believe each and every one of you badass yogis can handle a mask. You’ve dealt with 60+ people in a 105 degree room in the past. This AIN’T NO THANG!!!
I mean, really… we made it this far into 2020… WE CAN DO THIS! Bring it 2020! We have YOGA-PROOF BLOOD IN US!
Thank you so much and we look forward to continuing our good work together.
Adi
PS. I leave you with this final comic below. I hope it brings a smile to your face. And 
please stay tuned for Black Friday shenanigans coming soon.
