expanding our community responsibly

Something that feels continually exciting about practicing yoga, barre, and movement in general, is that it takes you from one state of being to another. You can arrive feeling tired, grumpy, stiff. You can arrive feeling bored or energized. You can bring anything into the studio, and spend 45, 50, 60, 75 minutes with your body and your breath and somehow feel a little bit differently than when you arrived. One could say that physical practice is progressive. Progression doesn't necessarily mean improvement; it can simply mean change, development, or moving into something different.

In an ideal world, a lifelong movement practice inspires us to be more connected to our own bodies, the world around us. By cultivating tolerance for our own body's changes, we become less reactive, instead, we lean towards responsiveness and receptivity. 

Here at the studio, we hope to exemplify this ever changing progression in more than one way.

For the last few years, The Portland Yoga Project has been working hard to truly embody the values of mutuality and solidarity that is at the heart of a fully expressed yoga practice. We’ve created a database of organizations and non-profits who are doing value aligned work. We have invited our students and community members to create comprehensive mutual aid plans that keep them in relationship to all the positive work that's going on in the greater Portland area (whether that’s $5 a month, or $50). We’ve created affinity spaces where folks of all identities can gather, generally for free, to get a chance to move and play in their bodies, and their pace.

But in the spirit of progression, resting on these first attempts was never in the cards for us. With so many people trusting us to be a place where they can feel seen and supported in the fullness of who they are, we feel a duty to continue to improve our offerings alongside the growth we see in our students everyday. And frankly, Mutual Aid Mondays and our database felt like the beginning of something, not the end of a project itself. There will always be ways that we can bring more community, accessibility, and care into the studio.

With this in mind, we have pivoted away from creating more entries for our Mutual Aid Monday database to spearheading events that allow our community to show up in a real material way. While recognizing that everyone is feeling a bit of financial strain in this current political moment, we still think that there is great abundance in getting together, sharing what we have, and expanding our knowledge about the resources that are available right here in Maine. Together, we can do more than simply name organizations that are pursuing value-aligned work. We can do more than hand-wring over what’s happening in our state and across the country. We can do more than say we want to contribute to the tides of good raising all around us. We can be a part of them. 

The traumatic kidnapping and violence against our community with expanded ICE activity in Maine has brought all of this work into clarity for us at the studio. Lip service is no longer enough in an age where memorials line our neighborhoods and children fear for the safety of their parents. Which is why we are offering quarterly Action Events where we host a donation based class that invites our community to show up both physically and financially to the world as it is. 

On October 31st, we will come together to practice in order to raise money for Presente! Maine, hear a little about what services they provide, and have provided, to the immigrant community in Maine. We practice together and put our money where our mouths are. There won’t be any change to the schedule, simply show up for your 11am vinyasa Saturday morning just like normal, just donate to Presente! instead of using your membership or class pass.

It is our hope and dream that these events inspire you to build a mutual aid practice that goes beyond this class, and beyond your participation in our studio. Finding ways to support one another and create a world built in a reality that is the most kind to the most people is why we practice, and how we as a society progress at all.  We hope you can join us for this halloween treat. We hope that you find the progression of your own physical practice, emotional practice, and community practice within the walls of our humble studios. Together, we can make change and protect each other, and we are always aiming to do that in more powerful and potent ways.

Written by: Victoria Rutledge