Category: On Yoga Studio Ownership

On Yoga Studio Ownership

This is not a new year’s resolution

by ErinLeave a Comment on This is not a new year’s resolution

Posting on Frozen Spaghetti on the 1st of the year comes with no proclamations of anything I am going to “try to do” or attempt in 2026. This post simply comes from my couch while Starships by Nicki Minaj is played by a marching band (via the Rose Bowl) and my husband breaks down the graveyard of Amazon boxes that have been at the foot of our steps since Christmas… you know… that holiday we celebrate the existence of divinity and everlasting peace with cardboard.

I just got home from the studio (slash yoga clubhouse) that I own here in Webster Groves, Missouri, United States. Smack dab in the middle of the continental US for my non US readers. Hi, by the way. Love that you’re here. I started the day off teaching a little bit of a butt kicker to a groovy little playlist and with gingerbread incense threaded throughout the hour. I knew all the students by name, even to where I got excited when I peeked at the roster last night: these are “my people” and I was genuinely excited to see each one of them in the new year.

Because I am all about gear shifting as little as possible, especially on holidays, I kept the studio open for an open house. We had my friend Anna up giving IV hydrations and IM shots. I got my usual IV hydration with glutathione, zinc, Vitamin C and B 12. The tri-immune glutathione, zinc and Vitamin C mix I absolutely swear by and highly recommend to all of you attempting to avoid or get over the flu.

It was about 4 or 5 of us that stayed throughout the day, working on individual creative projects, getting IVs or watching me and my friend Cindy work on “an intuitive painting”. We are turning the front room of the studio / yoga clubhouse into a dwelling space… meditation room… treatment room… quiet room and it needed art. I really truly love what we came up with but it seems a little “floaty”. The blankets I bought for the room do not go with the painting at all. And though I love a good clashing of things – I need this room to be less march to the beat of your own drum and more held by universal love and spirit. Though I could go into how those are the same, there is an aesthetic difference I am trying to reconcile in the space.

But, like all things, I know it is something I don’t actually have to think about to figure out. My mode of operation with this is to wait and listen, pay attention to the energetic quality of things, take it step by step, notice what is used, what is needed and when and what naturally comes about. This is the practice I started that I call “being consistently inconsistent”.

The afternoon ended with the painting getting cleaned up and a small group of us staying in the studio to work through the Fruits of the Spirit and their definitions and create a spectrum of our opposites as we head into the new year. It is a workshop practice I teach that I refer to as “Finding Your Positive Opposites”. I noticed this year that my opposites were getting more fine-tuned. It’s not that I feel disconnected, it’s that I feel misunderstood. I thank the work of Internal Family Systems therapy and a whole lot of yoga, philosophy, rest, stillness and listening to the things that come out of my mouth when I am feeling certain ways.

The dogs are barking asking to come in and I am ready for the next round of new year’s day… I hope that if you are reading this you have a word for 2026 in mind, better yet – maybe even a Fruit of the Spirit you are going to commune with in this first part of the year. Love? Joy? Peace? This year, I am starting with Gentleness although Self Control, Goodness, Kindness were all runners up. Faithfulness, always as a part of the practice and Patience is a must when dealing with…. these dogs barking.

On that note… Happy New Year!! Tell me your word or fruit! I would love love love love love LOVE to know!

Also – what do you think of the painting???

On Yoga Studio Ownership

A Defining Day

by ErinLeave a Comment on A Defining Day

It feels important to capture this moment in time.

It is amazing to me how hard it is to write what I am trying to write. I want to make some bold statement like “everybody is experiencing unhappiness and the elephant in the room is that it is my fault”. But in a way that clearly denotes it is actually my fault.

I think a lot about the story about how the owner of Starbucks’ father in law came to him when he was still in startup mode and told him he had to get a job. His wife was pregnant and he had not found investors yet. His wife told him “no way – keep at it” and, thanks to her, we have venti refreshers no berries.

I think about it a lot.

David and I blended families in 2020 and the past nearly 5 years have put some major wear and tear on the house…. There is dissatisfaction with the water heater, the need to fix nearly every bathroom, trim chewed up by puppies, a gap in the counter, a need for new paint and a new door and a new backyard and everything that was so beautiful and charming about my “art house” is now just kind of dingy, not that cute and in need of repair.

When you add to that the perspective that the grass is greener on the other side of all the streets and tracks, there is this thick sentiment that feels like sadness and I feel plain guilty straight up horrible that – while the past four years have been unfolding my life’s work and my life’s purpose, it’s not quite a corporate salary and great benefits situation.

Yet.

I mean – I know what I do. I know what I do well. I see the effects of my efforts. I am amazed at how quickly everything is moving and growing and changing yet it still seems so slow. In some ways, I feel like I can’t share my vision anymore because – well, it’s simply time to work.

And, even then I took a pause because I don’t want anybody reading this feeling like bad for me or like “sounds like things aren’t going well”. Things are thriving. Budding. Exciting. I am more motivated than ever. The studio turned a year old and we have 70 members and I have a ton to do to get ready to lead my inaugural training in St. Croix (which only has 3 spots left) and I understand what I do so clearly, that now it’s simply time to keep going. It’s happening.

You keep going and then, when you’ve spend too much time in flow, you stop for a day to take care of the laundry piles and vacuum and make a homemade meal to give people a break from (pretentious) hot dogs. So, there’s that… it’s definitely the marker of a chapter I am in. It’s why I want to capture this… it feels like a grab bag, an intersection, a messy bridge.

I wanted to capture it because I am headed full blast forward. We are at the beginning of a chapter that is going to be defined by my boundless creativity, love of storytelling and conversations with friends and my full faith in the practices my life has taught me that I am going to share with you. I mean – it’s already amazing, the way the studio feels is ripe and nourishing and joyful – why wouldn’t it get more so?

This post needs to exist so I can look back on this night that I made chicken in the new cast iron with a side of thai green lentil curry while reflecting on the podcast I recorded with my coach that made us both jaw drop – like, this conversation is real and good and powerful – this recording happened after cleaning the house which I completed after drafting an email to our 500+ person audience with 70% open rates which I wrote after responding to my team which I did after organizing my day which I took time to do after waking up and making a gut tonic and having a moment where I asked myself: what type of energy do I want to bring today?

The answer? Expansive.

On Yoga Studio Ownership

Looking out the window of my urban retreat…

by ErinLeave a Comment on Looking out the window of my urban retreat…

A couple of weeks ago, I felt stress related to “the yoga studio”. It put me into a little bit of soul searching – was this what I wanted to do when I was happily daydreaming & writing my business plan last year? The work being asked of me felt different than I imagined it. There was pressure, uncertainty and a little bit of confusion. That is not how I want to operate. I left corporate America to experience creative freedom, I had to bring back that feeling of fluidity – trust – and inspiration.

Luckily this investigation coincided with the end of summer and the cosmic energy of “back to school” where even the most unorganized of us feel some sort of reboot with the potential of a fresh notebook or organized binder. The gearing up for fall was the perfect time to reframe and loop back to that original vision that had me so inspired to set out on my own yoga business: retreats, restorative yoga, making opportunities for business women and parents and friends and caretakers and tired people to downshift more than the routine 60 minute yoga class or sporadic sound bath.

Over the past two weeks, I have met one on one with every single one of the teachers and providers out of OM to brainstorm their classes, special events and retreats – all focused in on the question of who we want to serve. The guiding principles?

Does it feel simple? Does it feel life-giving? Is it relational?

And the final motif: “everything must feed everything”.

It’s now a Wednesday morning and I got to the studio pretty early… before 7a, and saw the sunrise from our balcony. The studio was open for silence and that 30 minutes is some of my favorite time in the studio each week. I sit on the mat, with others, and let myself just review what is on my heart and mind without the laptop to multi-task or the phone to Google or the chat to GPT. I feel it out.

Studio silence breaks at 8 with a little small group share:

How are we showing up today?

What is our intention?

Then we proceed with toning the chakras – chanting – and the blessing: lokah samastah sukhino bhavntu.

Everybody’s story starts somewhere and, in reflection of this vision (which is coming to fruition) for retreat and time to feel like yourself, I realize OM Old Orchard is what I always wanted my whole life. You know, there are not a ton of places that allow you to truly show up as you are with reduced pressure to spend, to be and to commit.

As a business woman, I am taking some calculated risks experimenting with pricing and programming – so that everything about this place feels supportive. As my therapist says, “the highest form of respect you can show another person is the power of choice.”

I want the business I run to respect you. If that makes sense.

I know that in a few years, some of the questions I am working through will be answered. The methods I am experimenting with will show me what to run with and what to let die on the vine. I am aware this place of growth I am in is because of the growth I did because of a previous season of growth which I was in because I had grown, and so on….

Isn’t it funny how our edges are constant invitations into present moment acceptance? And – ultimately – into the future that is aligned with the seed of who we have always been…

On September 7th, I’ll be offering a free Fall Intention Setting Workshop from my yoga studio & urban retreat… available in person and via recording. The workshop will present a guiding sutra and inspired text. The programming for fall will be themed on a “pre new year’s new year”, as we lay the groundwork for our desired habit changes, health goals and mental peace.

There is still so much work to do to truly articulate how to maximize what we are creating at OM in support of your personal life. It is not about “going to yoga” but about truly giving yourself the reprieve, the break.

I suppose all of this is to say – to my past self, thank you for growing to this place. To my future self, thank you for your patience.

And to my present self: get to work 🙃 ❤️ ✌🏽erin