WELLNESS WITHOUT WALLS

In a time when nearly everything has a price tag - wellness included - it’s extraordinary for yoga to be shared as freely and often as it is at Community Yoga Center. Over 20 free yoga classes are shared weekly. That’s over 80 free yoga classes every month! In our culture, health and well-being have become commodities, mindfulness is marketed, and yoga is now packaged as a lifestyle brand. Monthly memberships, premium subscriptions, and luxury retreats pervade yoga spaces – making the message clear: yoga is available, but only if you can afford it. 

When yogis come together and welcome anyone and everyone to practice yoga without financial barrier, it’s not just unusual - it’s revolutionary. Offering over 900 free classes a year is not just a logistical feat; it’s a radical act of giving in a culture where wellness is often behind a paywall. This kind of giving only happens with immense love and a reimagining of what a wellness space can be. It happens when there is trust in community, commitment to equity, and a genuine understanding of the roots of yoga, where the practice was shared freely, as a way of life, not a product. 

At Community Yoga Center it happens because of the energy and heart of so many yogis - especially AUSTIN, KIM, LINA, CHERIE, SCOTT, INGA, MARGO, MELISSA, CATHERINE, CARLY, TOBY, KRISTIN, VIVIAN, DANI, BLANCA, SHAWNA, LORI, AND ALLISON - who consistently show up with skill and kindness, creating welcoming spaces for all bodies, helping us breathe, move, and be well. They not only co-create a space for thoughtful movement and mindfulness, but also for dignity, inclusion, and belonging. In monetized culture, this is rare. In community-first culture, this is the future.

REGULAR PRACTICE OPPORTUNITIES

Hatha yoga and meditation classes are regularly offered at Community Yoga Center no cost over 20 times a week. All regular practice opportunities are free and registration is not required. Please come and visit us for our weekly offerings – we’d love to meet you.

We ARE COMMITTED TO EXPANDING YOGA ACCESS AND INCLUSIVITY, CHALLENGING DELUDED CONCEPTS ABOUT WHAT YOGA IS AND DOES, AND SHARING YOGA IN WAYS THAT HONOR THE INTERCONNECTEDNESS OF ALL.

Community Yoga Initiative (CYI) is a grassroots, volunteer-driven wellness movement dedicated to improving the physical, mental, and emotional health of human beings through the practice of yoga. These free yoga offerings help a growing number of people access the therapeutic and self-revelatory benefits of yoga - allowing people to experience how yoga strengthens, stretches, and destresses the body; soothes, relaxes, and decompresses the mind; and opens the heart. 

These yoga offerings also contribute to the creation of conscious community and recognition of the truth of interconnectedness. Initiative volunteers are known for nurturing inclusive community and co-creating space for connection and refuge by emphasizing collective collaboration, where everyone is an important part of the group yoga experience. The volunteers honor the infinite aspects of individuality and welcome all bodies, backgrounds, traditions, and situations. They adapt yoga practices to meet individual needs and encourage personal responsibility and intuitive direction.

All CYI yoga offerings are provided solely through voluntary giving - at no cost to participants. The giving of many is what allows the practice opportunities to be offered so freely. In giving, we loosen the grip of our greatest source of suffering - self-absorption. We expand our hearts in a way that recognizes we are not actually separate from others. Giving is a letting go of a sense of separateness that’s based in ignorance. When we practice giving, we feel into how we all depend on one another - how we are all part of the whole. In this way, giving is the natural response of the awakened heart.

IT STARTED WITH FIVE YOGIS

Five yogis who loved practicing yoga together and sharing yoga with others started the initiative in March of 2018. Andrea Brown, Inga Buchbinder, Crystal Coleman, Cherie Robinson, and Kristin Varner appreciated how practicing yoga together in community nurtured a sense of belonging and connectedness to something greater than the boundaries of their separate selves. They hoped through their sharing of yoga others might also feel a sense of belonging in community and more intimately connected to the grace of life itself - by feeling into it with awareness, honesty, and love.

THE LEGACY CONTINUES

This effort is now sustained by a growing group of incredible yogis who practice and share yoga from the heart - in ways that allow others to feel more alive to life - more in synch with the flow and wholeness of life - and more connected to what’s most meaningful to them.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT

You’re invited to join us in group practice and discover for yourself how yoga is one thing that can change everything. Come and experience the therapeutic and self-revelatory benefits of yoga - FOR FREE. Feel for yourself how yoga is one thing that can change everything. We welcome you to practice with us in commUNITY.

HOW FOLKS FEEL ABOUT COMMUNITY YOGA INITIATIVE