Happy Birthday 3B!

Wow - a little over one year ago today I was a mess! We were days away from our grand opening and we still had so much to do. Wacky weather delayed our final inspections, we still needed a front door and the pendant lights were hung so low that only people under 5’6 could enter the studio without ducking. Yet somehow, everything managed to come together at the last minute and…the rest is history. Sarah and I did a lot of research, so I thought I had some sense of the rewards and challenges of owning a studio, but just as parenting is even harder yet more fulfilling than you ever expected, you just can’t comprehend it till you’re in it. The are some big challenges - but I’ll save those for their own blog piece - for now, I want to focus on the joys, and there are many.

So many students have shared their stories with us, about how yoga has helped them to heal from illness, anxiety and loss. We’ve watched friendships being created and a beautifully diverse community growing right before our eyes. I feel like the Grinch whose little heart is growing bigger and bigger each day as Three Birds takes shape. Here are just a few of the stories that inspire us each and every day:

~ The Mom who told me that she used the yogic breathing she just learned at Three Birds to calm her high school son in the middle of the night after waking with a panic attack

~ The woman who said she wished she had found Three Birds 3 years ago when she was ill and suffering from severe anxiety because just walking in the door makes her feel better

~ A young woman struggling with her weight who said Three Birds was one of the few places she has ever felt comfortable in her own skin

~ The student in her late sixties who was so thrilled to find us because she hadn’t moved her body in years and didn’t feel comfortable going to a gym

~ The hockey playing dad who nervously walked into the studio last year for his first ever yoga class and now has a beautifully deep and consistent practice.

This is why we do what we do.

So when the water cooler breaks and the floor gets flooded, or the the heat doesn’t work on the coldest day of the year, I try to remember not to sweat the small stuff. And it’s all small stuff. Namaste.