Like many of you, we try to bring the principles of yoga into our daily life. One way we do this is to apply the axioms of a classic yoga text to our business.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali offer 10 distinct guidelines for making ourselves, and those around us, more inwardly peaceful. We have chosen to focus on the guideline of aparigraha, "non-grasping" or "non-greed," in all of our offerings to you.
It is very common for yoga venues to try to create larger class sizes. This seems to make business sense: the more students in a class, the more money can be made. But is that truly what is best for the students and their teachers? In a workshop with dozens of participants, how can any one get truly personal attention from the instructor? On a Zoom call with 50 participants, how can a teacher feel secure about seeing everybody, and being able to provide appropriate assistance, in every pose?
You may notice that we have chosen a more uncommon approach: we limit our class sizes, both in our home studio and online. While it might be tempting to lament lost income, we find we have gained far more. We don't feel pressured to invest ever more time and money on advertising, or to build our social media audience for numbers' sake. We can still personally answer every phone call, text and email, and dedicate time to simply being with our yoga community. We don't feel pressure to recruit someone who might not be a good fit for a program simply because we crave a higher attendance. And, we can offer numerous free and donation-based events throughout the year without feeling like we have to turn any of them into marketing or upsell opportunities.
We have unequivocally found aparigraha to help us feel that we are serving and benefitting others through yoga. Because of it, we can value and connect to you at a level we could never otherwise maintain. Could applying aparigraha to your work - or life - bring you more mental peace?