newsletter archive: december 2019

Dear all,
We’d like to acknowledge our deepest gratitude to Sharon Gannon, David Life, Jivamukti Yoga, and all of its teachers and locations. Jivamukti was the birthplace of many of the first and most authentic yoga teachers in the West. Sadly, it will close its physical location in Manhattan this month.

We met and became friends at the 2nd Ave location sometime in 1993 or 1994. The place was a beautifully funky loft with purple walls, mosaic altars, and a boutique behind a hidden door. Every class required the ritual of rolling up the rugs and putting them back after. There was no teacher training, no Yoga Alliance, no yoga clothes, no computer check-in. There was Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, the Yoga Sutras, and chanting. It was the start of a movement! It felt meaningful. New York was a different city and yoga was still weird. Jivamukti tenderly and fiercely held its students during all of life’s big challenges, comebacks, and transitions. Personally, Jivamukti is responsible for changing our lives and making us decide to become yoga teachers, and for ultimately inspiring us to open the Shala. We are eternally grateful for all the people we met and learned from along the way. 
This month we’ll focus on the practice of meditation as a way to reflect on the past and set our internal compass toward the future. We hope you will join us in taking time each day this month to simply sit still in the present moment. 
With love, 
Kristin + Barbara