Party Time! 3 years of Studio Yogares!

Do you know that moment when you read or hear something and think: “That’s it!”This week I came across a phrase on Instagram that really resonated with me: “You will never feel ready, because ‘ready’ is not a feeling. It’s a decision.”

When I look back and see that Studio Yogares has already walked its path for 3 years since its opening, I feel moved, enchanted, and I ask myself: “How?”

The fact is, I never felt ready to become an entrepreneur. I always loved teaching, but running a small business and all the tasks that come with it — administration, accounting, maintenance, promotion, website, social media… “No, that’s not for me,” I used to think. Many times I cried, so many times I wanted to give up. I considered other jobs and career paths. I never felt ready. I still don’t.

Even so, here we are: 3 years! How? A few possible answers come to my mind (the order has nothing to do with importance):

1. Love, the dream, the wish to share knowledge and experiences that have made (and still make!) such a difference in my life were stronger than the feeling of not being ready.

2. Along with this wish, Life kept offering unique opportunities for this dream to come true, for example, our space on Roombeekstraat.

3. The support and encouragement of so many friends and family who always believed in me, helped me trust that I was capable, spread the word about my work, and never let me give up.

   
   

Above all, I believe we have come this far because something very powerful unites us: the desire to share. Studio Yogares was not born as a yoga studio three years ago, but as an opportunity for a group of immigrant friends (at the time, newly acquainted) who wanted to practice yoga in their native language to come together.

1as aulas no quintal da antiga casa na Putterstraat

We started out in the backyard, and when the weather began to cool down, we would drag the living room sofa aside. Word spread, and soon I was dragging that sofa every single day.

The most obvious solution would have been to rent a bigger space, but then the pandemic came. Even in the intervals between lockdowns, it was unthinkable to rent a room without knowing when the next lockdown would come...

But what seemed like obstacles to our practice actually turned out to be an opportunity: with all the difficulties in finding a proper place to practice together, the dream of having our own space dedicated to classes began to take shape.

In less than 1 year, Life — generous as it is — placed in our path a house with the potential to build a studio in the garden. Building a studio in the middle of a pandemic was yet another big challenge, but here we are: more than 5 years later, 3 of them as Studio Yogares! Now not only sharing the knowledge of Yoga, but also of Rolfing® Structural Integration. And not only within the Brazilian community as in the beginning, but with doors open to the international and Dutch communities in Enschede.

Looking back on this whole journey, I realize that, indeed, I never felt ready to start Studio Yogares. And yet, it was born! Born from a dream and from the desire to make it happen. If it was really a decision (as the opening quote says), I don’t know exactly when that decision took place. I believe it happened little by little: in every word of encouragement, in every photo for promotion (in the beginning, I couldn’t even look at the camera!), in every wish to be together and share a Yoga practice.

Although it is officially registered as a “one-person business” (as they say here in the Netherlands – eenmanszaak), Studio Yogares is only possible thanks to every person who has been with us and helped build this story, to everyone who is still here, and to the new ones who keep arriving, adding even more to this journey (and there is still a long way ahead!).

I am deeply grateful to each and every one of you! Thank you so much for making Studio Yogares a possible dream, a place of encounters and sharing.

We move forward together!

Namaste!