On 15 Years: A Note from Adi

adi mountain twist
Some of you know this story. Some of you don’t, yet. The only class I failed in my school years was “yoga”. I didn’t pass because it was boring to me, so I stopped showing up.

Around the same time, my friend took me to my first hot yoga class. She would pick me up at the crack of dawn and take me to the awesome team at Village Yoga in Santa Cruz, CA.
I liked the challenge of the hot yoga experience. But I HATED the mirrors; I felt like they stared back at me, glaringly. Back then I used to practice in leggings and board shorts. I hid behind a pole in the room so I didn’t have to look at myself in the mirror!
I couldn’t afford to take classes, so I joined the Work Study crew: free yoga in exchange for weekly cleaning. During after hours, I would try on the little tops and little shorts in hiding. I started to feel better about the way I looked. I liked the way I felt even more. The scale didn’t change, but I felt great.
After two years of regular practice I lost a lot of weight. My body adjusted. I was digesting properly for the first time. I continued work trade for 4 years until I decided to become a yoga teacher in 2005.
Flash forward to March 1, 2008. We opened the doors to our first classes at Hot Yoga Asheville, using money from 0% APR credit cards.
My goal was to create a studio that was everything I needed. A place where people who failed yoga in the past could come back and try again and again with no judgment or expectation. A place where truth and honesty was spaciously held. A place where hard conversations could be had. An open space.

It’s not easy running a yoga studio. All the parts and pieces. All the personalities and business operating stress. There was no money I could fall back on. Just pure willpower to keep it growing and keep it alive.
Flash forward again to March 15, 2020. Covid closure. I felt so scared we would lose our community and studio. It was the first time our community was tested. The outpouring of love and support was incredible. We worked tirelessly to get through the toughest months of the business, took out loans again, and were determined to keep serving our HYA members as long as we could.
I like to joke that for me, Covid time was equivalent to 10 added years in this business.
Our members have been the foundation of HYA. So many have shared stories over the past two years and each is unique and potent.
We held you in our hearts. Many of you moved to Asheville to find peace in the mountains, or moved away for a calling to something new. We welcome the change for all of you and for us. We all learned so many lessons, and had time forced upon us in new twisted ways.
When the physical studio location closed in 2020, we stuck together the best we could. We used technology on a whole new level. Some of you may remember, we launched our first high quality online zoom classes within a day of closing. We continued to record, edit, and launch over 300 videos – a large undertaking. I honestly can’t even begin to get into it. Ack.
We set up outdoor yoga mats with microphones and speakers in the rain, sleet, and sun. We added exceptional classes to our on demand platform and also live streamed, all at once. We even took cooking classes with Rachel and had cocktail night with Julie.
We peeked into your bathrooms as you squeezed onto your yoga mats in the warmest room of the house. Lol.
We cried, laughed, and stressed together. We also grew together in ways I will cherish forever.
Now we have reached 15 years (25 in Covid Time, I believe) and I simply want to tell you how much you all mean to me. HYA is my family. All great families push one another to grow. Together, we have evolved.

I have no big announcement for you, no big news. What I do have is a deep longing to thank each and every one of you for showing up in your lives today again and again.
Yoga is the truest, rawest place to find your internal power. Every single person deserves to live their best life. Hot yoga will encourage you to SHOW UP in your life in the most honest way. You deserve to live your best life. Face your fears. Start on the mat. Work your way from there. Do the hard work. You may even stumble across some incredible good times along the way. It’s 100% worth it.

Special thanks to our incredible staff.
Grateful beyond words…
These paragraphs are just a few I could come up with. ????
adi balance
Much Love & Gratitude,
Adi
PS. This week lots of classes are just $5 with masks optional! And this weekend we’ve got free kids yoga, Live Music, Local Vendors and More. Read up on our 15 Year Bday Events Here.