I will be sharing stories from teachers, students, professionals, and myself of moments from our former physical location, our experiences through covid 19, and what is driving our motivations to keep teaching, practicing, and staying together as a community.

Yoga means Union. Union means Yoga.

Our name is reference to Yoga's fundamental definition. There are a few reasons why we chose this word.
1. We know that it takes an entire village to have a yoga community thrive. That WE, (emphasis on WE) are not well until WE are all well.

2. A response to an unconscious separation between body (physical) , mind (emotional) and spirit (nervous system) ((a system that I find useful, but not claiming any law by any means))...
as western reasoning tends to do when attempting to address socioeconomic, existential, medical, and community and individual wellness issues. And so our effort is to unite the trilogy again, through expressing yoga whole-istically.

3. Union as word, represented Hannah Block and I's Union of our stories and causes, both alcoholism and eating disorders, and our relationship and was to be marriage. Our causes became rooted in our love for each other and passion for our message. That yoga belongs to no one, and it's our responsibility as a society to help those in need to thrive.

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Ganesh is in the room

For the sake of getting it out of the way.
Obstacles... Challenges... Kleshas... Samskaras... So many words I can describe what happened. And so much pain and trauma still needing to be processed from that time. Just a year ago now I burying Dad and marking the thickest part of my romantic dramas with Hannah was being played out. I am passed it now, with some great work with my therapist, my business coach, my accountant, and my friends support. Now I am thankfully again in a thriving, incredible romance with a wonderful woman and I feel mostly free from that painful history.

I am not going to get into details. I trust Hannah is out there somewhere living her highest truth. And I continue to grieve and process what remains as any man would, the sorrow from events that kept me in the depth of my heartbreak and depression.

And I will leave it at that. The rest is for my therapist.

Boketto

5 days have past since exactly a year burying my father. He died on my birthday, and because of covid it took 3 weeks to find a timeslot to bury him. So I sat with my grief. I grieved a man who was complicated until the very end. I grieved my father's death like I never thought I would. A man who's abuse was the foundation of my addictions. His death meant I'd never receive what I wanted from him.
During this time, about a year ago, staring into the ocean, I made a choice, and that choice is why you are reading this today.

I faced 5 family deaths. My brother first, My grandma second, My 2 uncles, back to back, and finally my Father. I faced a crumbling of my marriage at the same time and became an emotionally hostile situation with my still then business partner and roommate. Emotionally crippled and financially handcuffed I started to wonder why at all am I keeping this yoga studio open?

As I grieved in confinement, I wrestled with the understanding that trauma and violence were increasing in our society, disproportionately impacting our most marginalized and underserved communities.
I thought of Shannon (from Memoirs #2), and her story, and her willingness to learn in the face of her trials.

I stared at the pacific ocean asking God / Universe / True Self / What ever word serves you, for direction. And he/she/they did. I remembered again the first 2 reasons why we started this business at all, why Hannah and I started practicing at all, how we were afforded yoga be generous people, and how I knew I still wanted to... well... Pay It Forward.

Somewhere in my heart I knew my cause, was biggest than my sorrow, than my pain, and that my dedication to this message was still helping and serving our members and members to be. That people needed our help more than ever, and that need will grow.
Boketto is a word used in Japan to describe staring in the distance, with no intention. And that is what it took. To look outside myself, and outside my story, to see Shannon again, to reunite myself with the outer world again. My original reason, before any of this grief and loss, is to form a Union. or reUnify (amen Nikki)
To try and be open to any message God had for me, I stood in front of the ocean listening for anything, any sign, and it was Shannon's story that I remembered and reminded me of what was truly my mission. Our mission.
And so I continued, teaching zoom classes from the park, and teacher trainings to folks across the country. Reunited with my passion to teach vulnerability, and marry the Mind, Body, and Spirit through the practice of Yoga. Beyond my story, beyond my grief, is my true nature... there in lies a Union. which is still and always be... rooted In Love.