Always create without fear.
YESyoga has been a constant evolution of creativity. YESyoga was created before the doors were actually opened, it was created out of a need for creativity and it was created because someone said no.
Now, on the week of our 3rd Birthday I’ve finally realized fear depletes my creativity. I mean, let’s be honest, I knew this already, but like standing in the studio as I write this blog it hit me like a ton of bricks.
I read Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear a few years ago, and it’s just now sinking in…maybe so much I need to read it again.
This past weekend I went out of town with my best friend Tiffany, who helped co-create YESYoga (she’s now a high school English Teacher), but it helped remind me where the hell I am and what I’m doing. It reminded me that we are both very much living in our purpose and our YES.
There was so much fear, anxiety, struggle, determination, resilience, and creativity during the pandemic sometimes I look back and wonder what in the actual f*ck, and then I look down at my feet and wonder what the hell am I doing?
The moment I walk into the studio, talk to our clients, see all the names on the lockers, I remember YES for me is about creativity and purpose. It’s a way to get people moving on purpose. It’s about facing your fears by seeing what’s actually possible step by step.
I look back over these past three years and see failure and success, depletion and fulfillments, and I’m so glad I can experience both the highs and lows because a lot of what’s been created has happened because I made a choice to keep going.
Now after everything I’ve been through even over these past three years: opening the studio with a baby on my hip, leading a YTT, my dad’s accident, getting PTSD, creating boundaries with family members, growing the studio, shutting the studio down with COVID, going from 24 employees to 4, 52 classes per week to 11, no PPP funding, getting a grant, creating a scholarship, taking over studio ownership 100%, hiring more people, moving to a new place, having a crazy builder, creating more classes, becoming a founding member of our Alumni Council of the business school at Wichita State doing all new content, celebrating our best month since COVID, to finally taking a vacation without anxiety, and now celebrating our 3rd birthday….. I don’t believe in hope anymore.
With hope comes fear, and fear depletes creativity. What I look for now is what’s possible. What can I actually say YES to right now, where is my time most valued, what is most needed, and what do I want to be a YES for?
Cheers to YESyoga, all of our staff, our teachers, our clients, our people, and everyone who has been part of the studio. It is so much more than just a space, it’s a way of life.
“What do you love doing so much that the words failure and success essentially become irrelevant?”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
