- P
Although I had no idea back then, August 31st, 2018 is the day my life changed forever: I became an entrepreneur. Someone had approached me and asked me if I'd be willing to open my very own yoga studio in Amsterdam, the place I had been calling home for a little over 7 years at that time. I had decided to quit my well paid yet unsatisfying corporate job about 2 months prior to that, had been teaching yoga for just over a year, and even though it seemed pretty crazy, it also strongly resonated with me. Only 6 weeks later, after having defined a concept, a name & a visual identity, finished transforming the space, hired a crew, created a website and set up a back-office system, on 18.10.18, Yoganida opened its doors. Clearly, it's not been a walk in the park since then but we've also had countless magical moments with our yogis, e.g. during our second anniversary celebration week this fall which I doubt I'll ever forget, and I believe taking the plunge to create Yoganida is precisely what was then meant for me. And it still is, but I've never been less sure about how long it will last.
For those of you who don't know it yet, Yoganida (sanskrit term for "yoga nest") is a yogic sanctuary in the heart of Amsterdam where our yogis immediately feel at home. Our studio is filled with natural light & colours, offering an atmosphere enabling to either get energized and break a sweat, or unwind after an exhausting day, depending on what our yogis need at the moment. Our international crew of highly qualified teachers truly embodies the core values of Yoganida: authenticity, simplicity, diversity, fun & humility, as well as caring. Our teachers are known for their creative sequencing and for speaking from the heart. Yoganida is a place for self-discovery and transformation, where we want our yogis to feel nurtured and taken care of. Aside from “regular” yoga classes, Yoganida is also known for its strong focus on pregnancy (pre- & postnatal), baby and kids yoga, leveraging my extensive background in the field of infant & maternal care and being considered as the best pregnancy yoga teacher in town.
Even though we were by no means the very first yoga studio in Amsterdam, I'm very proud of what Yoganida has become and achieved in such a short timeframe. For instance, within the first 12 months, we hosted our very first Yoga Alliance Prenatal yoga teacher training led by Jennifer More whom I flew in from California. For our first anniversary, I threw the spectacular Flow & Glow event which all participants still remember vividly. After its first full year, Yoganida also received its first award, being considered as the 3rd best yoga studio of Amsterdam with a rating of 9.7/10 based on the reviews of thousands and thousands of users. Since then, we not only became the reference yoga-wise for Amsterdam families(-to-be), but also held our first online Yoga Alliance yin yoga & meridians teacher training led by Annie Au from Hong Kong, kicked off an amazing collaboration with the hotel W Amsterdam for rooftop yoga classes over the summer, started offering both on-demand & live-streamed classes and workshops, etc. Since mid March, we've welcomed yogis from all over the world in our online classes: France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the UK, and even the US and Costa Rica! Despite the lockdown and the decrease in activity this year, Yoganida represents today a community of nearly 8000 active members, impacting the lives of hundreds of people every month. And there's so much more Yoganida could do.
That being said though, no matter how hard I've worked in the last 2 years, and even more so in the last 9 months, the survival of Yoganida has never been more threatened. Our landlord is not really understanding of the circumstances we're facing, we haven't reached our pre-lockdown attendance levels just yet, and the support from the government is unfortunately not enough to make ends meet. Here's the good news though: YOU can make a difference. Therefore,
- if Yoganida means anything to you;
- if you want others to benefit from the experience you've had with us;
- if you believe in the tremendous benefits of yoga & the power of the community we've created;
- and/or if you want to show your support to a young entrepreneur who's touched thousands of lives in the last years, often sacrificing her own
YOU can help keep Yoganida alive by making a donation RIGHT NOW. The house is on fire and the clock is ticking.
Very concretely, your donations will help cover our fixed costs (essentially the rent) and help us pull through during these unprecedentedly challenging times. Without your support, Yoganida will most likely cease to exist in the very near future. And if you know me a bit, you'll know that the fact that I'm asking for help means that I've basically tried anything else on my own beforehand, and that if I do so right now, it's because I do really need you. Every. Single. One. Of. You.
Because any donation matters to us, anyone donating minimum 10 euros will be entitled to join one of my online classes. If it's in your power, bigger donations will obviously make a bigger difference, and anyone donating minimum 50 euros will be entitled to a private online yoga class led by me. For donations of 100 euros and above, I will personally reach out to the generous contributors to see how to best express my gratitude. Our objective is definitely reachable! Help us get there asap and even surpass it :)
And yet you may still wonder: "Why is practicing yoga and supporting a yoga studio so crucial right now?" Because we help people stay physically fit and mentally sane in these challenging times. Because we help people dealing with loss (death, unemployment, miscarriages or pregnancy loss, etc.). Because we help decrease maternal mortality & post-partum depression. Because we help expecting & young parents feel more heard, understood & supported. Because these times are overwhelming for all of us at different levels and the lack of physical contact can make us feel disconnected from our own bodies or emotions, and we offer a safe space for these emotions to express themselves, which oftentimes, would have no other place to go.
So if any of the above resonates with you, ACT NOW so we can continue making a difference in people's lives by keeping Yoganida alive.
For those of you who don't know it yet, Yoganida (sanskrit term for "yoga nest") is a yogic sanctuary in the heart of Amsterdam where our yogis immediately feel at home. Our studio is filled with natural light & colours, offering an atmosphere enabling to either get energized and break a sweat, or unwind after an exhausting day, depending on what our yogis need at the moment. Our international crew of highly qualified teachers truly embodies the core values of Yoganida: authenticity, simplicity, diversity, fun & humility, as well as caring. Our teachers are known for their creative sequencing and for speaking from the heart. Yoganida is a place for self-discovery and transformation, where we want our yogis to feel nurtured and taken care of. Aside from “regular” yoga classes, Yoganida is also known for its strong focus on pregnancy (pre- & postnatal), baby and kids yoga, leveraging my extensive background in the field of infant & maternal care and being considered as the best pregnancy yoga teacher in town.
Even though we were by no means the very first yoga studio in Amsterdam, I'm very proud of what Yoganida has become and achieved in such a short timeframe. For instance, within the first 12 months, we hosted our very first Yoga Alliance Prenatal yoga teacher training led by Jennifer More whom I flew in from California. For our first anniversary, I threw the spectacular Flow & Glow event which all participants still remember vividly. After its first full year, Yoganida also received its first award, being considered as the 3rd best yoga studio of Amsterdam with a rating of 9.7/10 based on the reviews of thousands and thousands of users. Since then, we not only became the reference yoga-wise for Amsterdam families(-to-be), but also held our first online Yoga Alliance yin yoga & meridians teacher training led by Annie Au from Hong Kong, kicked off an amazing collaboration with the hotel W Amsterdam for rooftop yoga classes over the summer, started offering both on-demand & live-streamed classes and workshops, etc. Since mid March, we've welcomed yogis from all over the world in our online classes: France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the UK, and even the US and Costa Rica! Despite the lockdown and the decrease in activity this year, Yoganida represents today a community of nearly 8000 active members, impacting the lives of hundreds of people every month. And there's so much more Yoganida could do.
That being said though, no matter how hard I've worked in the last 2 years, and even more so in the last 9 months, the survival of Yoganida has never been more threatened. Our landlord is not really understanding of the circumstances we're facing, we haven't reached our pre-lockdown attendance levels just yet, and the support from the government is unfortunately not enough to make ends meet. Here's the good news though: YOU can make a difference. Therefore,
- if Yoganida means anything to you;
- if you want others to benefit from the experience you've had with us;
- if you believe in the tremendous benefits of yoga & the power of the community we've created;
- and/or if you want to show your support to a young entrepreneur who's touched thousands of lives in the last years, often sacrificing her own
YOU can help keep Yoganida alive by making a donation RIGHT NOW. The house is on fire and the clock is ticking.
Very concretely, your donations will help cover our fixed costs (essentially the rent) and help us pull through during these unprecedentedly challenging times. Without your support, Yoganida will most likely cease to exist in the very near future. And if you know me a bit, you'll know that the fact that I'm asking for help means that I've basically tried anything else on my own beforehand, and that if I do so right now, it's because I do really need you. Every. Single. One. Of. You.
Because any donation matters to us, anyone donating minimum 10 euros will be entitled to join one of my online classes. If it's in your power, bigger donations will obviously make a bigger difference, and anyone donating minimum 50 euros will be entitled to a private online yoga class led by me. For donations of 100 euros and above, I will personally reach out to the generous contributors to see how to best express my gratitude. Our objective is definitely reachable! Help us get there asap and even surpass it :)
And yet you may still wonder: "Why is practicing yoga and supporting a yoga studio so crucial right now?" Because we help people stay physically fit and mentally sane in these challenging times. Because we help people dealing with loss (death, unemployment, miscarriages or pregnancy loss, etc.). Because we help decrease maternal mortality & post-partum depression. Because we help expecting & young parents feel more heard, understood & supported. Because these times are overwhelming for all of us at different levels and the lack of physical contact can make us feel disconnected from our own bodies or emotions, and we offer a safe space for these emotions to express themselves, which oftentimes, would have no other place to go.
So if any of the above resonates with you, ACT NOW so we can continue making a difference in people's lives by keeping Yoganida alive.