Building community
We will see you soon at The Breathing Space!
It has been too long but as you know we have been kind of busy...and yes, fucking tired! September 16th we held our opening party and welcomed so many of you into our new home. The turn out was beyond what we had imagined and to see everyone's expression made all the work, literally until the hour before, worth while and we were shocked only one of you seemed to notice our lack of sleep. Henk running out for a beer re-up was a sign that all were having a good time and enjoying being barefoot on our warm cork floor. Right then and there our intentions of building community began to manifest.
On Sunday after the party we practiced for the first time together in our space. It was special beyond words and we were both exhausted like never before, but it had to be done. We honored our new home with a Primary Series practice and experienced first hand the warm embrace of our heated floors (every savasana is like 'mmmmmmmmm'). Monday, September 18, 2017 our mysore students got to experience the magic of practicing in The Breathing Space for the first time. We love our new home and we are still learning how to move and teach in the space, it is like any relationship really it has to be built from the ground up.
Fortunately we had help. Gretchen Suarez arrived quickly after our launch in the beginning of October. Her visit was a great honor in coming full circle in a line of teaching from Mysore, to Miami, to Amsterdam and also an inspiration for us all. It was incredible to practice as students in our own space with our own students, to have a teacher to push us where we needed pushing and a tender hand to guide us back to the heart of this practice of yoga. Gretchen's visit also reinforced the vision we have for our studio and community.
We are an Ashtanga studio that offers complimentary practices. In todays world where we are bombarded with millions of choices, overstimulated even within the yoga community it is our intention to offer what we feel is the core of how we practice and how we experience yoga as integral to our lives. We want our students to fall in the love with the simplicity of a practice that shows us who we are – in Gretchen's words a tool to self-actualization. Of course this takes time and dedication just as the Yoga Sutras tell us: practice for a long period of time; regularly and with consistency; and with love and respect.
“sat tu dirgha kala nairantaira satkara asevitah dridha bhumih”
Yup waking up early sucks sometimes, biking through the rain can really suck, finding excuses can be so easy, and that is exactly why we need to build a community. A group of people that supports, understands, and encourages one another. That is also why we wanted to create The Breathing Space, to encourage the growth of this kind of support network and why we are introducing you to our Referral Program. Every student at The Breathing Space may bring a friend along to class for a free led class, all you need to do is send us their name, email address, and the class you would like to attend together. Once your friend becomes a member we will be rewarded with a stronger community and you will receive a €5 discount on your next purchase.
Speaking of community, we would like to officially introduce you to our in-house Iyengar teacher, Elias General, or as we like to call him El General! Elias is a musician born in Chile and after struggling for years with lower back pain discovered how to make the practice of Iyengar yoga a tool for healing himself. Make sure to try his classes. For a great way to unwind before the work week attend his Restorative class on Sunday afternoon and for a change of perspective on Monday and Thursday evening check out Asana Lab!
We will see you soon at The Breathing Space!
Love, Lana & Mercedes
A message from home
…there is great strength in letting go and making the best of what we have…
The past weeks have been a testament to how our yoga practice is not only what we deal with and how we deal with it on the yoga mat but off the mat as well. It has been a lesson in learning to ride the tides of unpredictability from getting contractors and subcontractors to open lines of communication to quickly becoming knowledgable about things that fall outside of our usual skill-set — we learned to plaster walls, to tile, to draw up electrical plans, and most importantly how to make nice with contractors! We have tried many times to gain control over things that often seemed out of our control and as much as we tried to be on top of everything, to coordinate and manage multiple aspects of this undertaking, we definitely found there is great strength in letting go and making the best of what we have but also in knowing when to stand up and take action.
The Breathing Space is really starting to take shape and feel like a home. It is getting easier to envision what is to come, to gauge our progress, and admire the improvements. Our awesome carpenters Scott and Levi have been working non-stop and bringing to life the plans of our architects Sarah and Simon. Without these amazing folks the bumps in the road would seem a lot bigger, especially in the middle of the peak of construction madness when we decided to skip town!
At the beginning of August we went to Copenhagen to practice with Sharath Jois. Breathing and moving together with hundreds of people was powerful. Experiencing first hand the strong lineage of this practice and to feeling the integrity of this method through it's raw simplicity – breath, drishti, bandha – is incredibly moving. It was beautiful to be united with so many no matter where you were from, your physical ability, where you were at in your practice, we were all there to be students and explorers of this incredible language of Ashtanga yoga. It was also very special to spend time away together and to focus on being students, to face fears and confront old mental patterns that can still hold us back and just breathe. And even though we were at first quite anxious about leaving in the middle of construction the delicious post practice coffees and Danish pastries definitely helped to settle our nerves!
Okay and on to the good stuff. The opening date is approaching rapidly, if all goes to plan – twirling thumbs, knocking on wood, crossing fingers, say "rabbit" upon waking – our first classes will be held September 6th. Shit, I can't believe we just put that in writing! And mark your calendars we will have a little opening party and meet-n-greet on September 16th from 3-6 pm. Come check out the space and bless it with your breath.
These four walls
So if you see a crack in the wall…
We thought it would be a simple task. No big deal, a couple coats of paint and within a week the walls of our future studio would be gleaming white. So off we went to hire scaffolding, bought good paint, and even consulted and wrangled the help of our very own painting guru, Dion. But really, how often do things go as planned, right? The best-laid plans of mice and men…yes indeed they often go awry!
After many, many, many hours of scraping and prepping we were ready for the first licks of paint to kiss the walls. But the walls put up a good fight. After the first coat the walls protested by cracking and peeling for what seemed to be an endless fight of scrape-sand-primer-repaint. When a new crack would appear we would want so badly to look away, sometimes we would avoid talking about what we saw, each independently hoping that our silence would make the cracks magically go away. But we knew that if we didn’t tackle it then and there it would come back to bite us in the ass later.
If you want to build something that is going to last, something solid and strong, you have to be willing to do the hard work and sometimes start all over again, from the foundation. Though our walls may not be perfect, ultimately it is the little imperfections; the wear and tear; unevenness and roughness that give them character and make them real.
On a lighter note, the shadow garden we have planted out back is thriving and even a pair of frogs has made their home in the small standing pond. Fresh mint, verveine, and citroenmelisse are enthusiastically filling the planters, eager to refresh thirsty yogis and cozy up the place before and after practice.
So, for the past three weeks we have invested a lot of love, energy, and time into the walls of The Breathing Space and it is starting to feel like something. Despite the hard work – and dizzying bouts of frustration – we are so happy to get our hands dirty and be a part of this beautiful and imperfect transformation. It is starting to feel like home, like a part of us.
So if you see a crack in the wall…
Here we go...
A warm welcome awaits you.
We know what you’re thinking: there are so many yoga studios in Amsterdam already – why start another one? Well, because we feel that somewhere along the way, something got lost. And we want to bring it back. Welcome to The Breathing Space. This Mercedes-Lana yoga thing is manifesting in the form of a studio in the heart of de Baarsjes – and we want you two to get to know each other.
Our intention is to offer traditional, down-to-earth yoga. We won’t dilute it with other things or dress it up with pretentious gimmicks. What you will get is personal attention from experienced teachers, which is something we’re really passionate about. In fact, the personal relationship between teacher and student – parampara – has always been at the core of yoga tradition. We want to build a space that returns to this essential principle of students making a real, productive connection with their teacher. A teacher who sees you – and is willing to meet you where you are at.
The demands of everyday life can seem never-ending and sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of ourselves. Making time for ourselves often, unintentionally, loses priority. That’s why The Breathing Space is about providing a place to take a much needed deep breath. The environment will be lush and alive. A place that breathes with you. A place with room to breathe. A place to find and regain clarity. A space for prioritizing ourselves again.
When we decided to create The Breathing Space, we wanted an environment that felt like home. A place of support, community and nurturing. A place for everybody – and every kind of body. Yoga isn't just for the beautiful and bendy. The great teacher Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, known as the founder of Ashtanga Yoga, said that “Anyone can practice. Young man can practice. Old man can practice. Very old man can practice. Man who is sick, he can practice. Man who doesn't have strength can practice. Except lazy people; lazy people can't practice Ashtanga yoga.” It’s a philosophy we share. Yoga really is for everyone. And we welcome people of all ages and abilities. So if you're an experienced student, just beginning, or are simply curious, we’d love to see you in The Breathing Space when our doors open. A warm welcome awaits you.