#also if the pandemic taught us anything it’s that people will refuse to wear masks even when their lives depend on it lmao

[robyntheredhead]

I’ve decided I don’t like the tendrils

I said I would give ‘em a chance, and I did. I saw them in action and can safely say they are not for me

[descendantsramblings]

Style Headcanons

So basically, I’m a big hater to the way the costume team worked on them. The whole “All Isle kids wear Leather” and “Auradon Kids always look like they’re on their first kid and on the way to the country club” thing drives me crazy. It sorta feels like they made costumes before giving them personalities (The leather on Carlos  and Evie feels like it clashes with their personalities. Lonnie’s dresses in the first movie doesn’t fit the personality we see, even though she didn’t have much of a personality until movie two. Audrey dressed like a thirty-four year old mother who just picked up her kid before going to the country club. Ben’s only good outfit was his swim trunks.) So here are some personal headcanons and pictures of what I imagine for them. (I started making them at 1am last night lol)

Villain Kids 

Evie

As someone raised to want to be a princess, she wants to dress like how she imagines a princess would.

She loves pastels and is no stranger to pairing pastel blue with a neutral red or bright white. 

The only pants she really wears are either athletic shorts or those little flowy elastic shorts, otherwise she’s all skirts.

She’s sorta a prep but not in the same way a character like Audrey would be. 

Evie has respect for most aesthetics, even though she doesn’t fully fit just one. However, she hates crocs and those little pastel shorts that white boys wear, she will announce it often.

Wouldn’t be caught dead in neon colors. 

owns a blue fur coat (it’s fake fur, obviously)

Carlos

Baby boy is a total softie

You know that one gay little sweater in movie one, that’s where they went right, more of that.

He’s into the soft boy aesthetic and only strays from it for formal wear

loves layering sweaters over button ups

Cuffed jeans, always because ya know, bisexual 

Owns a floral button up from Jay, normally he hates patterned button ups but it’s his favorite shirt. 

Loves striped sweaters, he owns about 6 variations of them in different colors (all include red, white, or black of course)

Jay 

In theory, Jay doesn’t really have one aesthetic, he’s willing to try on just about anything

Most of his clothing was bought by Evie or Carlos, especially his formal wear

The only clothes that Jay will buy for himself is athletic wear

He doesn’t really see the point of buy clothing that he can’t go straight to practice in. 

Still has the beanie,  but he owns one in just about every color to match it to his outfit.

Listen, we know Jay’s main color is yellow/gold, but why did we always see him with more red/blue in the movie? What type of snow white aesthetic were they trying to give him?

Jay owns a button up that he write on, he refuses to wear it actually buttoned though

Mal

She loves the grunge/alternative aesthetic, she thinks it makes her look more like she belongs to the Isle

She wouldn’t wear skirts until after she and Evie became friends, Evie bought her her first skirt (a purple plaid one) and she fell in love with it

Mal has a whole jewelry box of just chains, both necklaces and ones that attach to clothing 

Owns a pair of Demonia Swing-815 boots (black patent) and a pair of Demonia Camel-203 boots (holographic purple) 

100% owns one of those studded hot topic belts. 

Has a headband with little horns that symbolize her mother’s horns 

Instead of the leather half gloves from the movie, she has those little fishnet gloves and covers her hands in rings.

Uma

Her style is similar to Mal’s because if Mal is going to do something, Uma will do it better.

Uma only wore outfits that were super Fem and had skirts until Mal started doing it

Then it was Uma always wearing pants, because of her love for plaid skirts she owns a whole collection of plaid pants

the only jeans she owns are black or dark wash. 

Her first ever large purchase was a pair of Doc Marten 1460 Zip Tartan Lace up boots (they’re green, black, and blue plaid) 

She and Harry bought matching Doc Marten Jadon platforms (his are more shiny though)

Isn’t as into chains as Mal, more into chockers. 

Harry 

When the E-boy aesthetic came out, Harry was all over it 

Harry definitely has one of those chains with a little lock on it. 

I’d like to imagine he has baby gauges

the before mentioned platform doc martens, he definitely treats them like his baby

Even though Harry dresses like an e-boy,  he always has his pirate hat on

Definitely wears cloth masks as a fashion piece he actually would wear his in the pandemic though, unlike some people who wore them before but not for safety 

Harry is actually really good at graphic liner, he owns a gold, red, and white eyeliner to add color to the outfit if it’s mainly black

gold>silver 

Bought plaid pants because Uma did, he want’s to match with his captain

Gil 

As we know (maybe you don’t) it’s in the canon that Gil’s mother taught him to sew and he enjoys it. 

So Gil doesn't dress in one aesthetic or even close to being in one, he wants to try out everything, both making and wearing them.

He does stick to a monochrome color scheme though, mainly shades of brown with white or black thrown in. Sometimes he adds a little red or yellow though to “honor” Gaston

Most of his clothing is more comfortable than anything

Only owns three pairs of jeans, the rest are different types of pants (he loves corduroys) 

Owns a pants chain that harry bought him but he only really wears it when Harry and Uma are wearing one so he won’t feel left out on it. 

Dizzy 

Baby girl has seen the Isle steal the childhood innocence from people, she dresses in kidcore as a way to keep hers

Her outfits always has at least 4 different colors in it.

No stranger to neon colors, she has a pair of overalls that are neon rainbow and covered in gummy candy and she only wears them with a neon green tee, Evie and Carlos hate this outfits, Jay loves it because of the disappointment it brings to the two fashion fans 

Dizzy’s outfits in the movie were colorful obviously but they should have been just more over the top

She loves patterns and has no fear of pattern mixing

definitely owns some funky earrings, clay rings, and  statement necklaces

puts beads on her shoe laces, especially on her converse (they were white ones, she drew all over them) 

Auradon Kids 

Ben

Okay so Ben’s animated and movie outfits were bad, you can’t convince me of anything else

Why was Ben not dressed in the soft boy aesthetic? You’re trying to tell me that Belle’s son wouldn’t be a soft boy?

He has a jean jacket with his father’s beast symbol painted on the back

Absolutely loves graphic crewnecks, often layers them over collared shirts

He and Carlos go shopping together often in their free time

Lover of funky crew socks,  ones with paintings, patterns, logos, whatever. But his socks always match

After he and Mal started Dating, he bought a white jean jacket and let her paint it, he wears it all the time even though it didn’t match his original clothing, he bought more clothes in her color scheme to match it

He owns like 6 pairs of high top converse (light blue, yellow, white, navy, black, and Purple after getting the jacket back from Mal)

Chad

Listen, out of everyone he was the closest to how I imagined he should be, that being said, he had a little soft boy thing going on in some movies that I don’t think fit his personality

Polos and button ups are basically all he owns, but he does have some of those pastel simply southern esc graphic tees (Southern people probably know what I’m on about, all the guys who act like Chad at my school have like 5 of them each)

Owns 6 pairs of those horrid little southern boy pastel shorts in different shades of blue (plus 1 white pair)

Will not wear jeans, ever, the only pants he owns are khakis

All over the shirts that have logos embroidered into the shirt over the chest. 

Definitely gets asked if he’s on the way to golf/ the country club, the joke is that he is, he has to meet his father there after school

prep.jpg

Audrey 

Listen, I’m not an Audrey stan, but they did her so dirty in the first movie

She should have been the stereotypical mean girl outfit wise, I mean, mini skirts, all pastels

Owns a pink teddy coat, and a white one, she actually cares about if they get dirty though, takes good care of them

definitely has a collection of tennis skirts, pairs them with sweaters/crewnecks or blouses that have a slight puff to the sleeve

The type of girl to wear rufflely rompers on her birthday every year, pink, white, or baby blue obviously

loves those tiny shoulder bags

preppy and looks good in it. 

cropped polos and tube tops

Jane

This account is a Jane should have been cottage core/ fairy core fan page, her outfits were almost there, just not there, she’s literally a fairy but can’t use magic nor did they let her dress like one, I hate it here

Baby girl loves gingham and floral patterns, some of her dresses are a little more to her mother’s taste than hers (her mother bought them) but as long as it’s a pattern she likes she will wear it. 

Cardigans are her best friend, she owns one in multiple shades of pink and blue, plus a white one (all of her clothing fits a pastel pink/blue/white color scheme)

Babydoll dresses her a her favorite style of them (the one I put in the top right corner is what I imagine her birthday dress as) 

People try to mockingly ask if she’s on her way to a tea party/picnic (like they do with Chad and the country club) if the answer isn’t actually yes one of her friends still say yes, no one can be rude to her about it 

She owns a corset (Evie bought it for her, it made her nervous at first but she loves it) 

Owns kitten heels and flats mainly also two pairs of mary janes (in white and blue) 

has one of those little pearl purses that aren’t really useful but they’re cute 

Lonnie

Last but not least, our funky little lesbian (she is, Jay is just her emotional support queer man) Lonnie, she sticks to the teal, blue, and pink color scheme they gave her in movie one

She mainly wears sweats (or athletic clothing) otherwise it’s graphic tees tucked in (many of them are from the men’s section) 

Only wears sneakers, she has places to be but also collects them (also owns 1 pair of pink crocs, Evie tried to burn them)

Carlos and Ben talked her into wearing a collar shirt under a graphic tee once (they bought her a sleeveless button up which she hated at first) and now she does it anytime she wants to look like she put effort into her outfit. 

Wears a lot of necklaces and rings (she loves to layer necklaces, she thinks it makes her sweats look less boring) 

Uses a mini backpack instead of a purse, easier to carry more things.

Has two pairs of custom painted air forces. 

Hates wearing bracelets but always has to have a hair tie on her wrist so they don’t feel empty .

[route22ny]

Survivor stories: Death, loss and selflessness during the pandemic

By Jacqueline Cutler / New York Daily News

Those days when the word corona made you think beer or crown feel like long-gone innocence.

So much happened during these 18 months that how we’re reacting to different phases of the pandemic and how survivors are coping are worth documenting.

“Voices from the Pandemic: Americans Tell Their Stories of Crisis, Courage and Resilience” is a powerful reflection on the last year and a half. Pulitzer-winning journalist Eli Saslow has managed the near-impossible: He makes you want to read more about the pandemic.

This doesn’t bother with maps of where the virus is spiking or death tolls. It can’t be of the moment. Instead, it’s the story of all of us — those who have taken every precaution and those who refused to acknowledge COVID’s deadly path.

Done in the style of the late great Studs Terkel, these are oral histories as the history is happening. Each section has people sharing their stories in their words.

Sure, it’s edited for clarity, but there’s no spin. It’s unfailingly fair: When a tenant recounts her eviction, the next entry is from a landlord who exhausted her savings trying to not evict people.

Even though we think we know the stories of the pandemic, we can’t – at least not all of them. And we never may. Saslow carefully selected a cross-section of people; some who have since died, some who recovered, some who never may.

Saslow reminds us of the first whisperings. On Jan. 4, 2020, there was news about what was considered a pneumonia outbreak in China. Five weeks later, it had a name, COVID-19.

A month later, life as we knew it stopped.

“She’s dead, and I’m quarantined,” Tony Sizemore, of Indianapolis, says of his love, Birdie Shelton, in the first entry from March 2020. “That’s how the story ends. I keep going back over it in loops, trying to find a way to sweeten it, but nothing changes the facts. I wasn’t there with her at the end. I didn’t get to say goodbye. I don’t even know where her body is right now, or if the only thing that’s left is her ashes.”

With that gut-wrenching opening, we’re off. We meet dozens of people we’ve never heard of, which is precisely the point. Everyone knew when Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson were among the first celebrities to get COVID.

But this book introduces Bruce MacGillis, a man in an Ohio nursing home. He refused to let temp workers who couldn’t wear masks correctly get near him and isolated himself until he was vaccinated.

“I’m a hard-ass about this stuff, and I’m not even a little bit sorry,” he told Saslow. “I can’t afford to take chances.”

Some who tell their stories are the superheroes of the pandemic.

A shift leader of a nursing team in Detroit, Sal Hadwan, recounts insane shifts. While we celebrate and honor health care workers – now more than ever – the dire conditions they were working under were horrifying. Remember garbage bags serving as protective gear? Some had one mask per shift.

In April 2020, Hadwan said: “We’re basically handling the most severe cases in the ER, which is not our training. These nurses don’t have a second to relax. You’ve got one patient’s oxygen running out and another whose heart rate is going wild. All you can do is try your best to hear the alarms and then sprint as fast as you can from one emergency to the next. You hope you make it in time. Sometimes you don’t.”

Naturally, it’s bleak. But there are also stories of humanity at its best.

Burnell Cotlon of New Orleans (pictured above) turned his grocery store in the Lower Ninth Ward into a food pantry. He couldn’t afford to, but some of his neighbors couldn’t afford to eat.

As he said in April 2020, “Last week, I caught a lady in the back of the store stuffing things into her purse. We don’t really have shoplifters here.” He knows the customers in his two-aisle market. The woman swiped a carton of eggs, hot dogs, and candy bars.

“She started crying,” Cotlon told Saslow. “She said she had three kids, and her man had lost his job, and they had nothing to eat and no place to go. Maybe it was a lie. I don’t know. But who’s making up stories for seven or eight dollars of groceries? She was telling me, ‘Please, please, I’m begging you. How are we supposed to eat?’ I stood there for a minute and thought about it, and what am I going to do?”

Colton started running tabs – for the first time. He went from having zero customers on credit to 62 within a month. He kept giving to neighbors until he fell three months behind on his mortgage.

In a postscript, Saslow adds that when Colton’s generosity became known, online fundraisers brought in $500,000. Naturally, he put it to great use: forgiving his customers’ debt and beginning construction on a subsidized apartment building. “He also gave out free school supplies and turned his store into a free vaccination site for the community.”

Every page in this is sobering. Every story chilling, relatable, and absolutely forthright.

For those who lost their jobs and who were living paycheck-to-paycheck, rent became impossible to pay. To lose your job, your health, your relatives and now your home is unbearable. Granted, the news often focuses on the tenants, while many of us assume landlords only take time out from counting their money to harass tenants.

It’s a lot easier to feel for the tenants, who are doing all they can.

Saslow interviewed Tusdae Barr, evicted during the pandemic. Although money was tight before COVID, Barr was making rent with everyone in her family chipping in — until work dried up. Barr eventually found herself ousted, then in cheap motels, and finally with relatives.

If you never thought you could sympathize with a landlord, meet Jayne Rocco of Deland, Fla. She became a landlord 25 years ago when broke, reeling from a divorce. Rocco found a lender, bought and fixed up a cheap house, then flipped it and bought two houses. She continued doing this until she had 10 properties, none fancy. Rocco’s profit was about $40,000 a year pre-pandemic.

Trying to help her tenants and pay her bills, Rocco exhausted her savings. She’s still trying, and still has troubles. With some of the people featured, their troubles are financial. For some, such as a newlywed, former athlete Kaitlin Denis, of Chicago, the effects of long-term COVID, are medical. She’s drained and can barely get out of bed.

And some trying to help, such as Amber Elliot, county health director in Farmington, Mo., found herself threatened with anti-vaxxers posting photos of her kids online.

The book ends with a leading voice of science. Stanley Plotkin, 88, a virologist, “developed the rubella vaccine that’s now in standard use throughout the world.” He’s worked on other life-saving vaccines and consults for the World Health Organization.

“Parents can expect their children to grow up, and that’s a relatively new thing,” Plotkin told Saslow in January. “It shouldn’t be taken for granted.”

If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that nothing can.

(source)

[thedepressionoftrees]

I didn't want to get political on this blog but due to recent events (cough cough the delaying of a stimulus check that will save literally thousands of people from homelessness and keep children from going to bed hungry cough)

It disgusts me to know that this country that I live in is so far conservative, that saying, "hey, maybe we shouldn't let poor people starve to death" is considered communist speech. Bitch no, that is a basic human right. It's bad enough that if you tried to propose the idea of a public library nowadays, people would call it socialism and anti-capitalist.

The people ruling my country are so fucked up. They refuse to send aid to the people literally starving on the streets. The people who list their jobs because the people in charge didn't listen to the fucking warning of a global pandemic. More people are dying each day then people died in the 9/11 attacks. If this were a terrorist attack, we would have gone after the culprits with everything we have. Instead, the talking tangerine in the white house has done nothing.

Meanwhile the rich keep getting richer. They exploit the system meant to give everyone a chance for prosperity. Jeff bezo's wealth has jumped by 64% by exploitation of workers and human suffering.

I feel especially bad for our medical workers and the heroes that fight on the front line of this pandemic. They have been working non-stop to try and keep us healthy and alive. At first we thanked them. We applauded them. We prayed for them. But we didn't pay them. How the fuck do you eat applause and thanks? You can't.

Then the vaccine comes out. The frontline workers should get it first, right? Nope, it's the politicians that have fervently called this virus a hoax, despite us have 19.4 million fucking cases and 336,000 deaths in the US alone. That's more Americans then the amount of americans that died in the revolutionary war, the war of 1812, the Mexican American war, World War 1, the Korean war, and the vietnam war COMBINED. And that number is still going up.

Also if you refuse to wear a mask because, "iT gOeS aGaInSt My RiGhTs" do me a favor. Take that dildo in your skull that you call a brain, and shove it up your ass until you hit teeth. You are all literally the worst and if you catch covid, congratulations, that's karma.

There are other things that I could get into like systemic police brutality, companies that don't allow their employees to unionize, global warming, the upcoming energy crisis, the raping of mother nature's resources, racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia, gun laws, anti abortion laws, the absolute lack of sex education taught in schools, the lack of a living wage, college prices, the housing market, the slow decline and fall of capitalism, the rampant opioid crisis, the handling of foreign relationships, how the United States is literally the laughingstock of the world, how Trump's "make America great again" slogan has absolutely failed, relationships with China, the national debt, the lack of education resources, the amount of money poured into National defense (despite the fact that the US is not at war), the civil war that might happen when biden takes over as the president, the black lives matter movement (black lives matter, I support you guys), how we are rapidly approaching an overthrow of a corrupt government similar to the french revolution, the exploitation of the lower class and workers, the constant inflation of the economy, student debt, monopolies, the 1%, how when the far right invade a government building and pepper spray police officers they're hailed as "heroes who stood up to the law" but when the left tried to peacefully protest literally anything, it's shut down with literal military force. The crime rates, payed prisons, tax cuts, megachurches, robocalls, the education system, religious tax breaks, how the middle and lower class are slowly melding into one group of people getting fucked over by the rich. But I'm not going to get into any of that, at least not today.

If the founding fathers could see what we've done with this country they would be disgusted.

On the slightest chance that any political leaders are reading this, I'm begging you, help us. We cannot survive like this.

[northamptoncouplestherapy]

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's this - humans need each other. Even those of us who enjoy alone time and appreciate life's current slower-paced version will agree, being confined to a mere handful of face-to-face connections 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is not optimal.

Our prevailing human need to connect during a global crisis has launched the innovative concept of a Pod –– doing life with a select group of people (without masks and social-distancing). The Pod has undoubtedly been a saving grace for many neighborhoods and communities worldwide these past several months.

But with summer's departure and the weather growing colder, we must navigate a myriad of new (and unknown) variables, including flu season, school reopenings, and an increased need to be indoors. Collectively, these challenges have the potential to influence both our health and hearts. How do we measure the risks and gains in each potential scenario? How do we negotiate and have honest communication with friends and family concerning social distancing ––find the sweet spot between connected and safe?

For guidance on how to do the Pod-life well, we'll invite some leading couple therapy models and researchers to be our mentors. As a couples therapist who utilizes these methods regularly, I'm confident we can apply segments of these approaches to foster a viable and indispensable Pod experience. Which may be the exact antidote we need in this ever-changing world.

A Step-by-Step Guide to mastering life within the Pod

1. Create a Contract

Many people fail to explicitly discuss what constitutes the bulk of everyday relational life with friends and family. How often do we do things like getting together for coffee or texting or merely checking-in? How do we best communicate our news or accomplishments or plain-old, regular days - phone, Instagram, or in-person? And, how do we reach out for support when we're really struggling?

Stan Tatkin, a relationship guru, encourages us to get things out in the open by creating a contract or a list of agreements with the people closest to us. This approach ensures clarity, understanding, and genuineness in the exchange if we are honest about what we need and want.

The brilliant result of both making agreements with one another and keeping our end of the bargain is secure functioning ––feeling seen and known in a mutually supportive way. Secure functioning in the Pod characterizes a safe environment - a refuge - where we live as an interdependent system. From this vantage point, the Pod relationships exist within the governance of our agreements with one another.

Examples of making agreements or a contract with fellow Pod members might include:

Who we agree to spend face-to-face time with

How we commit to wearing masks with anyone other than our agreed-upon individuals

When we will distance ourselves from other Pod-members if we are feeling ill or experiencing problematic symptoms.

Beyond COVID safety and protocols, our contracts might also include how often we gather, where we do so, and what we do when that happens - Games? Gossip? Netflix-binging? We might agree to weekly potlucks (Pod-lucks!) or sharing babysitting with fellow Pod-members so that we can get a break from these days of relentless responsibilities.

Lastly, since your agreement(s) are essential, we encourage you to make it formal. Set a date to meet with your pod-to-be, grab some pens and paper, write up your contract, and have everyone sign it ––even the kids!

Getting clear and keeping agreements will begin the necessary and critical process of building trust within the Pod.

2. Build Trust

Couples therapists assess trust from the start because we know how critical it is to human relationships' sustainability and success. This sentiment also rings true for the Pod concept. Without trust, engagement and collaboration quickly disintegrate ––taking the Pod and its inhabitants down with it.

In John Gottman's Sound Relationship House, we encounter two load-bearing walls essential to a relationship's long-term stability. These walls are commitment and trust.

But how do we cultivate trust within the Pod? According to Gottman, we do this with small things often. Small and incremental steps marked by consistently showing up, keeping your word, and displaying genuine interest in other Pod-members are the ticket to ensuring trust's constructive evolution. The result of this will be a deepened sense of togetherness and collective goodwill.

Gottman terms these occasions of trust-building, sliding door moments - seemingly insignificant flashes of time, pivotal to any relationship's well-being. When we make the deliberate choice to connect, understand, and appreciate one another consistently, we encourage and champion an essential ingredient for any authentic community to thrive.

My all-time favorite job was the role of counselor at an overnight camp in magnificent Alaska (yes, it gets warm there in Summertime!). I worked at this camp for three consecutive years during my late adolescence and fell in love with the people and experiences. I was far from home and didn't see my friends or family for the entirety of my summers. But the camaraderie I encountered with my fellow camp counselors was unforgettable.

People I'd never met and would likely never see again became like family in a very brief time. We spent days together and relied on one another because we were all each other had. Being a camp counselor is fun, but it's also exhausting - working with kids all day and night and being responsible for them 24/7 is no small task. Each of us required unwavering support from our fellow counselors.

We did life together. We were there for each other on our good and bad days. Ultimately, we built trust with one another in a million little ways, and it paid off.

I remember a particularly tricky cabin of campers one summer week. These campers were cute, but they were also loud, pranky, and not good listeners - a perfect formula for counselor burnout. What got me through that week was my "camp family" who listened to me, wrote me encouraging notes, and cheered me on (and cheered with me when the parents picked up those little rascals that long-awaited Saturday morning!).

3. Sign up for vulnerability

Bréne Brown, a prominent researcher in gutsy topics like vulnerability, shame, and courage, describes an anatomy of trust that must be recognized and refined for relationships to succeed. With trust in mind, she handily breaks things down into the acronym, BRAVING.

Boundaries: we respect others boundaries and are clear about our own

Reliability: we can count on each other

Accountability: we take responsibility to make things right when things go awry

The Vault: we only communicate our own experiences and feelings and let others speak for themselves; we keep things confidential for others

Integrity: we are who we say we are; we live according to our values

Non-judgment: we honor our needs and the needs of others without judgment

Generosity: we believe that each member of the Pod is doing the best they can; we give one another the benefit of the doubt

If we value BRAVING within the Pod, we have to choose our foxhole inhabitants wisely from the start. Ask yourself if the Pod-members you're considering are BRAVE people who won't back down when Pod-life goes sideways, or someone gets sick or stops keeping their agreements. Read this list - a recipe for trust - and decide if YOU will be that person, too.

BRAVING is not a task for the faint of heart. This type of commitment requires mega buy-in and an ability to see things through when times get tough. Because let's face it, conflict will arise and when it does, we're going to want to know what to do about it.

4. Prepare for bumps in the road

The final step to getting the hang of Pod-life involves understanding the role of conflict, not eradicating or avoiding it, but to manage it in a beneficial and connective way. Brent Atkinson, the founder of the Pragmatic-Experiential Model (PEX) of couple therapy, prescribes a set of skills needed to react effectively when disagreements arise.

He divides these skills into two parts: the "Openness and Flexibility" Skills and the "Standing Up" Skills.

Within the Openness and Flexibility skills, Atkinson invites us to:

Not jump to conclusions,

Look for something in the other's viewpoint that makes sense,

Identify what needs, values, and worries might be lurking under the surface,

And, assure the person you conflict with that you are keeping a flexible and open mind while asking them to do the same.

And, when the Openness and Flexibility skills don't cut the mustard, we can utilize Atkinson's Standing Up skills, which include:

A non-judgmental stance,

Asking for more open-mindedness and flexibility,

Considering other reasons why the person is upset,

Temporarily distancing yourself,

Not making a big deal that you had to,

Trying again later,

And, if all else fails, refusing to continue "business as usual" until the other is willing to find common ground.

I've had lots of experiences with conflict within community life - both successful and disastrous. The time's conflict has been constructive, and generative has always included all parties' willingness to be open, flexible and gracious collectively. I don't think there's a way around this for authentic connection.

*****

In this COVID climate, we live out our values, and our beliefs differ from one another in a myriad of ways. Some of us haven't been inside a restaurant in over eight months or hugged our mom ––not even once. We haven't gone to a single person's house for a visit. Others have attended indoor weddings, traveled to Disneyworld, and continued life as usual.

To do the Pod-life well, we have to find like-minded people with whom we can build trust, create agreements, practice vulnerability, and effectively manage conflict for the long-haul. Because there isn't an end in sight, now might be the perfect time to consider such a venture.

Couple therapy and relationship models teach us a great deal about how to coexist within a community. Knowing how to generate trust and how to cultivate it once you have it are crucial. Taking the time to discern and create agreements will bypass stress down the road. Moreover, choosing vulnerability with one another will produce the qualities needed to face the inevitable trials and experience the sure-fire joys that life within the Pod will provide even when it's tough.

Click Here for your Discussion Guide - How to form a Pod and keep it going strong

Like what you’ve read? Sign up to receive my musings filled with heart, concrete tools, and cutting edge resources via my blog: Loving Well.

[hell0-winghead]

You know what really fucking sucks??? All these people complaining about being put in another lock down... Like seriously, I've never left the first one!!! I'm a "key worker" that has been forced to come into work through every, single, fucking minute of this cluster fuck the world has got itself into.

I have been wearing a mask since literally the 3rd or possibly 4th week of the pandemic because our company sent us those even when the rule was not necessary because people didn't fucking listen to the 2m distance rule or following a simple one way fucking system!

I have been shouted at, sworn at, locked down upon and generally been treated like shit while also being run off my feet since April because the general public can't listen to such simple rules as wear a mask, keep a distance and don't go out unless it's ESSENTIAL!!!

By the way... Those essential purchases that were being made during those first few weeks of actual QUARATNNE status... They were mostly people coming out for lottery tickets, cigarettes and booze 😑😑😑

Now, I know that yes, we have alcoholics that come into our store and that to go cols turkey might cause them actual bodily harm, possibly even kill them... So that line is not exactly black and white.

The cigrattes... While I've been told is the same I have known at least 3 friends and several people that used to buy smokes off us that they went cold turkey and they didn't think it was bad at all. And this is people that have smoked 7-10 years of their lives.

The fucking lottery tickets and scratchcards though!?! Seriously... WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK?!?!? that is not an essential purchase and I wish we were allowed to refuse the sale.

So... I've literally came to work and went home, came to work and went home for MONTHS!!! I have one day a week where I get to see 1 other household in my family and even that was on hold for the first half of this Year. Through birthdays celebrated apart, anniversaries spent apart, everything else spent apart. I never went to the pub to get shit faced when they were still open. I never attended a party even though I know they weren't allowed. We have literally been out to eat maybe 10 times during all this and that is only because to see that extended household this is the only way we're allowed because we can meet at a cafe and not in the safety of our own home.

I haven't even been able to give my closest friends their Christmas presents since LAST YEAR because work got mad and then we weren't allowed to so much as drop a present off on someone's doorstep! I'm now holding their Xmas gifts and birthday gifts from this year hostage while buying their gifts for next month in the hopes we'll be able to see each other before the next 5 years passes.

So yeah... IT FUCKING SUCKS to be someone who is actually listening and following every, single rule they throw at me while being forced to keep working on the front lines as a "key worker" while being shown nothing but the absolute worst of all humanity because I can't take a day off. I don't get holidays during this because we have employees who are being forced to shield themselves and we need to pick up the slack. We are being worked to the fucking bone and being slowly driven into insanity by the treatment we are receiving for the public we are forced to serve.

If this year has taught me anything it is that the human race is so unbelievably fucking selfish in its treatment of other humans. Would you treat us the same way if we were your family? Hell no! You'd be as quick as anything to put in a complaint to any company if someone spoke to and treated me the same as if you do.

So yeah, it really FUCKING SUCKS to be forced into another lockdown where I don't get to see my friends and extended family while you moan and complain about not being able to go to the pub or have a party and still refuse to wear a mask, keep your distance or treat me like a human being... All while expecting my to treat you like the leader of the fucking free world god that you obviously are.

I am so lucky to have an amazing bunch of people at work to vent to, friends that aren't bothered when I have to vent to them via the phone even though we just wish we could be sitting in the house together with a bottle of wine, and to have family in my home so I don't go fucking insane along the way due to mental health issues.

Please treat your key workers with the kindness and respect they are due after literal months of hell with no end in sight. All the people out there who are too good to find themselves in our jobs because they are too important, too smart, too fucking good to be there just imagine for a few minutes on how you would get your food, groceries, alcohol, lottery, health services, protection or any other services we provide for you during this time and say that you could do without us. I'm willing to bet that alot of you would be fucking useless without us staying open during this time and all you do is treat us like shit and look down on us for being at the bottom of the ladder in your eyes.

[laurelkrugerr]

What’s Up With Open Yoga Studios in COVID-19 Hotspots?

July 28, 2020 15+ min read

“Okay. So, the ‘Breath of Joy’ is a practice we would do at the beginning of every Hatha class, which involves a very heavy open mouth exhalation. It’s a three-part inhale through the nose with corresponding arm movements.” 

Mimi Thomas, a Phoenix-based yoga teacher, is sitting on a patio in a maroon floral beach cover-up. She stands to demonstrate.

“Inhale one, arms out in front of you,” she says. “Inhale two, arms come out wide. Inhale three, filling your lungs all the way to the top, arms up, biceps by the ears. And as you exhale, open your mouth and go, ‘Haaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.’” As she exhales, she swings her upper body forward and down, her curly blonde hair tumbling over her head to brush the ground.

“Now imagine 50 people in a room doing that during a fucking pandemic,” she says.

Thomas, 26, observed this scene in a Scottsdale yoga studio in early June, as Arizona was making headlines as the country’s latest COVID-19 hotspot. The first week of June, the state saw a 54 percent increase in new cases over the previous week, with ICU beds surpassing 80 percent capacity.

Thomas — who is, full disclosure, my fiancé’s sister, whom I saw on a family visit to Virginia in early July — taught online classes throughout the first months of the pandemic. Three or four nights a week, I would log onto Zoom from my apartment in Brooklyn to follow her through an hour of “Energized Vinyasa” or “Slow Flow.” In the void of normalcy that was quarantine, those hours on the mat were bright spots on the horizon of each day. And when things finally started re-opening in Phoenix mid-May, she agreed to teach some in-studio classes in the non-heated room at Hot Yoga University (HYU). 

“The non-heated room was very small. Like, when we re-opened I would have one person in my class, maybe two,” Thomas says. “And HYU had made an announcement that they were following CDC guidelines — everyone six feet apart, masks inside, sanitized, touchless check-in, etc. But then you go in and there are 48 people in the hot room, not six feet apart, breathing all over each other. I was standing by the front desk when a lady walked out and said, ‘You guys are not following CDC guidelines. I want my money back. You’re blatantly putting people at risk.’”

Related: 5 Reasons to Start a Yoga Routine While You’re Social Distancing

HYU’s owner, Karin Fellman, was teaching the class the student walked out of, and later had a conversation with Thomas about the mask-wearing policy. “She made this comment about how she refuses to support any business that requires you to wear a mask inside,” Thomas says. “So that’s when my eyes were kind of opened.”

Soon after, Thomas told Fellman she didn’t feel comfortable teaching classes at HYU anymore, and parted ways with the studio. In the following weeks she began to hear — through other HYU teachers — that numerous teachers and students had tested positive. The studio continued operating on a regular class schedule until June 28, when an email was sent out with the subject line: “In Response to COVID-19.”

I went to a class at HYU a few years ago on a trip to Phoenix, so was on the studio’s mailing list and received the email. “Like most businesses in Scottsdale,” it read, “we have had some people come forward and inform us they have tested positive. The most recent person received their test result today. The last day they were at the studio was June 16th.” The email went on to say the studio would be closing down to disinfect and would reopen July 5. 

But on June 29, the day after HYU sent out their email, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed an executive order mandating that the state’s gyms, bars, theaters, waterparks and inner-tubing businesses close for 30 days (on July 23 he extended the order indefinitely). On July 1, HYU announced that in light of the second shut-down order, the studio would be closing permanently.

“The fatigue… simply became too great”

I reached out to HYU’s owner, Fellman, to get her account of what had happened in the weeks between re-opening in May and closing down at the end of June. She maintains that the studio followed all CDC guidelines throughout the period of re-opening. “I do remember one student who left because she felt it was too crowded,” Fellman told me in an email. “I spoke to her before class explaining that the squares on the floor where yogis put their mats down were 6 feet apart following the CDC guidelines and if they were (husband/wife etc.) they could practice closer together. I think that was what she saw near her and was uncomfortable.”

Fellman says that the ultimate decision to shut down was because, “At a certain point, it became obvious we could not guarantee students would not be exposed to someone if they attended class,” she said. “We could not control where people had been before class, or where they worked. Many of our students and teachers worked with the public and exposure was inevitable. At the time we closed we had three confirmed cases and after closing we had members of our community reach out with additional positive tests results, reaffirming our decision to close. The mental, emotional, and spiritual fatigue with providing a safe environment and at the same time trying to ease those who were fearful, simply became too great.”

Of course, these difficult calculations are not unique to HYU. And although some yoga studios in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area have taken the threat of COVID-19 very seriously and continued operating virtually throughout the pandemic, a number also resumed normal class schedules as quickly as possible and even defied executive orders to shut back down. These decisions aren’t just happening in Phoenix, of course; in cities across the country, some studios are opting to offer in-studio classes while others are remaining virtual. 

A document recently prepared for the White House Coronavirus Task Force lists 18 states as being in the “red zone” (10 percent or higher positive test rate) for COVID-19 cases. The experts who prepared the report recommended that those states close down bars and gyms immediately, require masks be worn at all times and limit gatherings to 10 people or fewer. The report also offers data on the three counties in each state with the highest number of cases. We looked at those three counties in all 18 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah — and found multiple yoga studios offering in-studio classes in 48 of 54 counties. The exceptions were in North Carolina and Southern California, where gyms have been ordered to close (though multiple studios in Orange County still appear to still be offering in-studio classes) and the county of Elko, Nevada, which seems to have only one yoga studio. 

To be fair, these studios are mostly small, independent businesses doing everything they can to survive, and their state governments are permitting them to stay open. The majority claim to be following CDC guidelines with limited class sizes and social distancing, along with virtual or livestream options. But in most counties, for every studio offering indoor classes, there is one or more that have opted to stay entirely virtual — or to offer only outdoor classes. This suggests that a significant portion of the yoga community believes the right thing is to stop offering in-studio classes regardless of whether they are legally permitted. There are obvious exposure risks in the physical practice of yoga — a form of exercise that involves heavy breathwork — so for studio owners hoping for their business interests and core yogic values to align, this virus presents an ethically murky dilemma. 

Throughout the pandemic, as the U.S. outbreak became the largest in the world, there have been conversations about the downsides of America’s robust strain of individualism. The necessity of considering what’s best for the larger collective, as opposed to yourself and your bottom line, has been a tough pill for many Americans to swallow. But it’s particularly interesting to observe this playing out in the yoga universe, rooted as it is in Eastern philosophy, with its emphasis on mindfulness and the collective good. Every person I spoke to for this story mentioned yoga’s guiding principle of “ahimsa” — meaning “nonviolence,” or “do no harm.”

So, what are the motivating factors and viewpoints of studio owners who are dead-set on opening? Are there any circumstances under which it could be truly safe to practice inside while this virus is still a threat? And if yoga is a business like anything else, what does its future look like in a country that is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic normalcy anytime soon? Will it look like these studios, resisting change and hoping for the best, or will it look like those who lean into the unknown and seek out opportunities to innovate?

“We’ve been forced to pull our in-studio offering”

Back in Phoenix, following Governor Ducey’s June 29 executive order for gyms to shut down, HYU decided to close for good. But meanwhile, other studios in the area were telling students that they were planning to stay open, because they considered themselves exempt from the “gym” category.

Radi8 Hot Yoga, for example, posted an Instagram update on June 30 saying that it was  staying open despite the executive order, with the following justification: “After further review of the Governor’s mandate, it is our interpretation that we do not fall under ‘Gyms’ as we are a boutique studio with set class times allowing for full social distancing and space between each student. We will continue our elevated cleaning procedures, touchless check in, socially distanced mat markers, deep clean between each class, and require all students to wear masks on the way in and out of the studio.” Per its website, it appears to have offered a full schedule of in-studio classes through July 15 (Radi8 did not respond to our requests for comment).  

Yoga 6, a California-based franchise with two locations in Arizona, also stayed open in defiance of the executive order until July 7, when the Scottsdale location received a visit from law enforcement. “We have some disappointing news to share,” it wrote on the studio’s local Instagram account later that day. “Unfortunately, due to the recent local ordinance, we have been forced to pull our in-studio offering for the time being. While we don’t agree with the decision to lump us into the same category as ‘gyms’ (given we are smaller and no one moves stations or shares equipment, have special UVC germicidal lights, and enhanced cleaning standards), we will respect the order while we petition to be allowed to safely reopen.” 

Related: A Men’s Yoga Brand Learns the Real Meaning of Flexibility

On July 13, Yoga 6 and its parent company Xponential Fitness — which also includes Club Pilates, Pure Barre, AKT and CycleBar — sued the Arizona governor for requiring its various brand locations in the state to close for 30 days. On July 14, an Arizona judge ruled against the company. Kate Kwon, the VP of communications at Xponential, told Entrepreneur that the lawsuit was filed because  it believed there wasn’t sufficient evidence showing that gyms contributed to the spread of the virus. “We reopened with extensive health and safety procedures in place and as you mentioned, felt the executive order was arbitrary in nature including gyms and fitness centers,” Kwon said in an email. “No data was referenced to show gyms and fitness centers were contributing to the spread of COVID19 so we simply wanted to understand how they got to the conclusion to include all fitness.”

Is it ever safe to practice yoga inside?

Ingrid Yang is a hospital physician based in San Diego who has been working on the frontlines of the pandemic. She has also been a yoga teacher for over 20 years and is the author of two books, Hatha Yoga Asanas (2012) and Adaptive Yoga (forthcoming in November 2020). As a former studio owner herself, Yang is sympathetic to studios trying to navigate the pandemic. But she also says that from a medical perspective, doing yoga classes indoors — even with mats placed six feet or more apart — is an undeniable risk. 

“It is hard to maintain strict distancing and mask adherence, even for the most educated of us, and it is simply impossible to ensure that you are creating an environment that is transmission-free,” Yang says. “If I still owned my yoga center, I would have a hard time justifying opening. People in America are welcome to make their own decisions and take on their own risk, but maybe they aren’t asking themselves the right questions: Do you have to go to that yoga class? Will your life end if you don’t go to that yoga class? Well, yours might not, but someone else’s might.”

Dr. Ingrid Yang, practicing pandemic yoga // Image credit: Colin Gazley

In enclosed spaces, even if all social distancing precautions are taken, the most dangerous factor is likely to be aerosolized transmission. Recent research suggests that tiny virus particles can hang in the air for a significant period of time, particularly in enclosed spaces.

“In yoga, the technique ‘ujjayi’ breathing is utilized, which is used to both elongate and deepen the breath,” Yang says. “So maybe you’re six feet apart, but if you’re next to someone who is asymptomatic, and they’re inevitably breathing more heavily — because their heart rate is up and they are requiring more oxygen to their muscles — they will be taking in bigger, deeper breaths that may create more aerosolized droplets. And you’re taking in longer, more elongated breaths with more volume of air, so you’re more at risk for taking in their droplets.” 

Yang does think the use of UVC lights — which Yoga 6 purports to use — in yoga studios is an interesting innovation, and promising research has been done around UV radiation’s ability to kill the virus under specific conditions. But there are simply still so many unknowns that it’s impossible to guarantee a safe experience. “Based on the research we have, the SARS‑CoV can be inactivated by UV radiation at 254 nm (UVC or 200–280 nm), with partial viral inactivation at one minute and increasing efficacy up to six minutes,” Yang says. “But research and our discoveries are changing all the time. There’s still so much we don’t know … so the continued unknown risks may not be worth the benefit for many yogis.”

The majority of studios I’ve come across during research have been asking yogis to wear masks to and from their mats, but not while they’re actually practicing. Yang acknowledges the difficulties that studios face in asking customers to wear masks throughout the class. “When you’re a business owner, the customer’s always right. Most customers say, ‘I don’t want to wear a mask while I’m exercising or practicing yoga because it’s uncomfortable.’ You can’t control someone who just takes off their mask in Shavasana to get a deep breath in.”

Kim, a Phoenix-based yoga teacher who asked to be identified by her first name, says it’s definitely been uncomfortable interacting with students who don’t want to wear masks. “It’s just been really hard to maneuver, because people would show up for classes and there will be a sign that says, ‘You have to wear a mask.’ But they come in without one like, ‘What?’ You feel like a jerk saying, ‘Sorry you need to go out and put a face covering and then you’re free to come back in.’ I had a student who left and didn’t come back. I was like, ‘Okay, well, that’s your call.’ It’s just changing everything.”

Doubt, denial and God-complexes

What Kim has found more unsettling than awkward interactions with students, however, are the underlying reasons for some students’ and studios’ resistance to COVID-19 safety precautions. “There are conspiracy theories that have been growing within the yoga community,” she says. “Like, some students and teachers think that the pandemic is a hoax — a political angle to try to get people to vote a certain way. They think that wearing a mask kind of puts you in a certain group, like you’re a Democrat, or you’re a Republican or liberal or whatever. My personal opinion is that it’s a coping mechanism, like, ‘Oh, this isn’t really happening.’ It’s a form of denial, because they would have to stop doing what they want to do. But I’m willing to bet that every studio has had cases or teachers that have come down sick. I mean, it’s like wildfire here.”

A somewhat blatant example of this was on July 4, when Radi8 and Yoga 6, two Phoenix studios that were open despite the executive order to close, posted their in-studio class schedules to their Instagram pages along with the same quote: “May we think of freedom as not the right to do what we please, but the opportunity to do what is right.” 

For her part, Thomas thinks that there are some teachers who suffer from misguided feelings of invincibility, which can feed into attitudes of denial. “I totally get that survival mode is kicking in for these studio owners,” she says. “But there is almost like a God complex that a lot of popular yoga teachers get, knowing that if they stay open, their students will come. Maybe it’s denial, but teachers have a real responsibility to educate themselves and their students.”

Leah Bosworth is the owner of Ironwood Yoga Studios in Phoenix, where Thomas teaches now. Ironwood has stayed fully virtual since the pandemic began, but Bosworth says she is aware of some local studios that buy into these conspiracy-type perspectives. She thinks much of it comes from a place of fear and difficulty imagining another way of doing things.

“I think people are attached to the idea that they started with, and understandably so,” she says. “I’ve heard from a few studio owner friends that ‘this just wasn’t what I signed up for.’ And rent is a huge thing. I have heard many upsetting stories about landlords who are not forgiving at all. Taking a brick and mortar studio online with all of your teachers is quite complex… To make [a virtual model] viable long-term it is truly like starting another business. I think for a lot of studio owners the idea of starting over is just too much, so the only path they see forward is in-person or bust.”

Finding clarity, accepting reality and embracing change

For Bosworth, the decision to keep building and perfecting her studio’s virtual offering boiled down to the fact that when she looked reality square in the face, it was the only way forward that was clear. 

“I kind of figured out really quickly that nobody really knows what’s going on,” she says. “So I had to do what I thought was right in my gut. We closed down in March and immediately, two days later, shifted to doing whatever we could online, which was Facebook Live at the time. But it took us about 20 days of nonstop scrambling to get it together. Figuring out how to do a platform and delivery and all of that stuff is an enormous undertaking.”

Leah Bosworth teaching a virtual session at Ironwood Yoga Studios // Image credit: Leah Bosworth

But Bosworth says part of the reason she was probably more open to shifting entirely online was that before she started Ironwood, she had done a lot of research into starting an online health and wellness brand. So she saw the “possibilities and creativity” of a virtual studio.

“As I was doing my research and working with my web designer, this little voice in my head kept saying, ‘Online is the future for yoga studios and gyms,’” she says. “Because nothing [about the pandemic] has actually changed. People are just opening because the economy is going to collapse if we don’t. But from a business perspective, I can’t grow my studio if there are only eight people in the room. From a safety perspective, it’s going to put my community at risk. And from a yoga perspective, I wanted to keep that clarity for everyone when everything else was uncertain. I didn’t want to go back and forth. I wanted to practice ‘ahimsa,’ not causing harm to the community. So I just thought, let’s commit to this.”

The commitment has paid off. Ironwood’s virtual attendance has stayed steady since March, and even grown some recently. “I’ve got my pricing options in place, and now I’m shifting into marketing agency,” she says. “I just invested in a bunch of video equipment. I’m trying to uplevel everything so we can compete with what’s out there. Quality has always been really important to me, and how you deliver makes a big difference in engagement for people.” 

Yang says that because this virus isn’t going away anytime soon, this perspective is likely to be the long-term winning approach. “Yoga centers have become innovative with providing online yoga classes,” she says. “That’s the best and most important way that studios can stay connected and continue to generate income. Now is the time for every yoga studio owner to become a true entrepreneur and to utilize the power of social media to maintain their revenue streams and their connection to their student base.”

Bosworth says that, of course, she is not blind to what is lost by not practicing in-person with her students. A big part of the yoga experience has traditionally been about holding space in a room with others. But ultimately, she thinks that the way yogis conceptualize community right now has to be bigger than the community of one yoga class.

“What I’ve been saying to our students and teachers — and basically to myself — is that we just have to put aside our preferences right now,” she says. “No, it’s not ideal for me to teach to a camera in an empty room. But it’s not really about us right now. It’s about the community taking care of each other in this time and being open to doing something differently. People build communities online all the time, and at the end of the day it’s about, did you practice yoga today? I’ve certainly thought of giving up, but ultimately, I’m sort of excited by this opportunity to transcend this disaster. I guess I like a good challenge. I’m weird like that.”

Related: Workplace Wellness Isn’t Just for Big Corporations. Here’s How …

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What’s Up With Open Yoga Studios in COVID-19 Hotspots?

July 28, 2020 15+ min read

“Okay. So, the ‘Breath of Joy’ is a practice we would do at the beginning of every Hatha class, which involves a very heavy open mouth exhalation. It’s a three-part inhale through the nose with corresponding arm movements.” 

Mimi Thomas, a Phoenix-based yoga teacher, is sitting on a patio in a maroon floral beach cover-up. She stands to demonstrate.

“Inhale one, arms out in front of you,” she says. “Inhale two, arms come out wide. Inhale three, filling your lungs all the way to the top, arms up, biceps by the ears. And as you exhale, open your mouth and go, ‘Haaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.’” As she exhales, she swings her upper body forward and down, her curly blonde hair tumbling over her head to brush the ground.

“Now imagine 50 people in a room doing that during a fucking pandemic,” she says.

Thomas, 26, observed this scene in a Scottsdale yoga studio in early June, as Arizona was making headlines as the country’s latest COVID-19 hotspot. The first week of June, the state saw a 54 percent increase in new cases over the previous week, with ICU beds surpassing 80 percent capacity.

Thomas — who is, full disclosure, my fiancé’s sister, whom I saw on a family visit to Virginia in early July — taught online classes throughout the first months of the pandemic. Three or four nights a week, I would log onto Zoom from my apartment in Brooklyn to follow her through an hour of “Energized Vinyasa” or “Slow Flow.” In the void of normalcy that was quarantine, those hours on the mat were bright spots on the horizon of each day. And when things finally started re-opening in Phoenix mid-May, she agreed to teach some in-studio classes in the non-heated room at Hot Yoga University (HYU). 

“The non-heated room was very small. Like, when we re-opened I would have one person in my class, maybe two,” Thomas says. “And HYU had made an announcement that they were following CDC guidelines — everyone six feet apart, masks inside, sanitized, touchless check-in, etc. But then you go in and there are 48 people in the hot room, not six feet apart, breathing all over each other. I was standing by the front desk when a lady walked out and said, ‘You guys are not following CDC guidelines. I want my money back. You’re blatantly putting people at risk.’”

Related: 5 Reasons to Start a Yoga Routine While You’re Social Distancing

HYU’s owner, Karin Fellman, was teaching the class the student walked out of, and later had a conversation with Thomas about the mask-wearing policy. “She made this comment about how she refuses to support any business that requires you to wear a mask inside,” Thomas says. “So that’s when my eyes were kind of opened.”

Soon after, Thomas told Fellman she didn’t feel comfortable teaching classes at HYU anymore, and parted ways with the studio. In the following weeks she began to hear — through other HYU teachers — that numerous teachers and students had tested positive. The studio continued operating on a regular class schedule until June 28, when an email was sent out with the subject line: “In Response to COVID-19.”

I went to a class at HYU a few years ago on a trip to Phoenix, so was on the studio’s mailing list and received the email. “Like most businesses in Scottsdale,” it read, “we have had some people come forward and inform us they have tested positive. The most recent person received their test result today. The last day they were at the studio was June 16th.” The email went on to say the studio would be closing down to disinfect and would reopen July 5. 

But on June 29, the day after HYU sent out their email, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed an executive order mandating that the state’s gyms, bars, theaters, waterparks and inner-tubing businesses close for 30 days (on July 23 he extended the order indefinitely). On July 1, HYU announced that in light of the second shut-down order, the studio would be closing permanently.

“The fatigue… simply became too great”

I reached out to HYU’s owner, Fellman, to get her account of what had happened in the weeks between re-opening in May and closing down at the end of June. She maintains that the studio followed all CDC guidelines throughout the period of re-opening. “I do remember one student who left because she felt it was too crowded,” Fellman told me in an email. “I spoke to her before class explaining that the squares on the floor where yogis put their mats down were 6 feet apart following the CDC guidelines and if they were (husband/wife etc.) they could practice closer together. I think that was what she saw near her and was uncomfortable.”

Fellman says that the ultimate decision to shut down was because, “At a certain point, it became obvious we could not guarantee students would not be exposed to someone if they attended class,” she said. “We could not control where people had been before class, or where they worked. Many of our students and teachers worked with the public and exposure was inevitable. At the time we closed we had three confirmed cases and after closing we had members of our community reach out with additional positive tests results, reaffirming our decision to close. The mental, emotional, and spiritual fatigue with providing a safe environment and at the same time trying to ease those who were fearful, simply became too great.”

Of course, these difficult calculations are not unique to HYU. And although some yoga studios in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area have taken the threat of COVID-19 very seriously and continued operating virtually throughout the pandemic, a number also resumed normal class schedules as quickly as possible and even defied executive orders to shut back down. These decisions aren’t just happening in Phoenix, of course; in cities across the country, some studios are opting to offer in-studio classes while others are remaining virtual. 

A document recently prepared for the White House Coronavirus Task Force lists 18 states as being in the “red zone” (10 percent or higher positive test rate) for COVID-19 cases. The experts who prepared the report recommended that those states close down bars and gyms immediately, require masks be worn at all times and limit gatherings to 10 people or fewer. The report also offers data on the three counties in each state with the highest number of cases. We looked at those three counties in all 18 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah — and found multiple yoga studios offering in-studio classes in 48 of 54 counties. The exceptions were in North Carolina and Southern California, where gyms have been ordered to close (though multiple studios in Orange County still appear to still be offering in-studio classes) and the county of Elko, Nevada, which seems to have only one yoga studio. 

To be fair, these studios are mostly small, independent businesses doing everything they can to survive, and their state governments are permitting them to stay open. The majority claim to be following CDC guidelines with limited class sizes and social distancing, along with virtual or livestream options. But in most counties, for every studio offering indoor classes, there is one or more that have opted to stay entirely virtual — or to offer only outdoor classes. This suggests that a significant portion of the yoga community believes the right thing is to stop offering in-studio classes regardless of whether they are legally permitted. There are obvious exposure risks in the physical practice of yoga — a form of exercise that involves heavy breathwork — so for studio owners hoping for their business interests and core yogic values to align, this virus presents an ethically murky dilemma. 

Throughout the pandemic, as the U.S. outbreak became the largest in the world, there have been conversations about the downsides of America’s robust strain of individualism. The necessity of considering what’s best for the larger collective, as opposed to yourself and your bottom line, has been a tough pill for many Americans to swallow. But it’s particularly interesting to observe this playing out in the yoga universe, rooted as it is in Eastern philosophy, with its emphasis on mindfulness and the collective good. Every person I spoke to for this story mentioned yoga’s guiding principle of “ahimsa” — meaning “nonviolence,” or “do no harm.”

So, what are the motivating factors and viewpoints of studio owners who are dead-set on opening? Are there any circumstances under which it could be truly safe to practice inside while this virus is still a threat? And if yoga is a business like anything else, what does its future look like in a country that is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic normalcy anytime soon? Will it look like these studios, resisting change and hoping for the best, or will it look like those who lean into the unknown and seek out opportunities to innovate?

“We’ve been forced to pull our in-studio offering”

Back in Phoenix, following Governor Ducey’s June 29 executive order for gyms to shut down, HYU decided to close for good. But meanwhile, other studios in the area were telling students that they were planning to stay open, because they considered themselves exempt from the “gym” category.

Radi8 Hot Yoga, for example, posted an Instagram update on June 30 saying that it was  staying open despite the executive order, with the following justification: “After further review of the Governor’s mandate, it is our interpretation that we do not fall under ‘Gyms’ as we are a boutique studio with set class times allowing for full social distancing and space between each student. We will continue our elevated cleaning procedures, touchless check in, socially distanced mat markers, deep clean between each class, and require all students to wear masks on the way in and out of the studio.” Per its website, it appears to have offered a full schedule of in-studio classes through July 15 (Radi8 did not respond to our requests for comment).  

Yoga 6, a California-based franchise with two locations in Arizona, also stayed open in defiance of the executive order until July 7, when the Scottsdale location received a visit from law enforcement. “We have some disappointing news to share,” it wrote on the studio’s local Instagram account later that day. “Unfortunately, due to the recent local ordinance, we have been forced to pull our in-studio offering for the time being. While we don’t agree with the decision to lump us into the same category as ‘gyms’ (given we are smaller and no one moves stations or shares equipment, have special UVC germicidal lights, and enhanced cleaning standards), we will respect the order while we petition to be allowed to safely reopen.” 

Related: A Men’s Yoga Brand Learns the Real Meaning of Flexibility

On July 13, Yoga 6 and its parent company Xponential Fitness — which also includes Club Pilates, Pure Barre, AKT and CycleBar — sued the Arizona governor for requiring its various brand locations in the state to close for 30 days. On July 14, an Arizona judge ruled against the company. Kate Kwon, the VP of communications at Xponential, told Entrepreneur that the lawsuit was filed because  it believed there wasn’t sufficient evidence showing that gyms contributed to the spread of the virus. “We reopened with extensive health and safety procedures in place and as you mentioned, felt the executive order was arbitrary in nature including gyms and fitness centers,” Kwon said in an email. “No data was referenced to show gyms and fitness centers were contributing to the spread of COVID19 so we simply wanted to understand how they got to the conclusion to include all fitness.”

Is it ever safe to practice yoga inside?

Ingrid Yang is a hospital physician based in San Diego who has been working on the frontlines of the pandemic. She has also been a yoga teacher for over 20 years and is the author of two books, Hatha Yoga Asanas (2012) and Adaptive Yoga (forthcoming in November 2020). As a former studio owner herself, Yang is sympathetic to studios trying to navigate the pandemic. But she also says that from a medical perspective, doing yoga classes indoors — even with mats placed six feet or more apart — is an undeniable risk. 

“It is hard to maintain strict distancing and mask adherence, even for the most educated of us, and it is simply impossible to ensure that you are creating an environment that is transmission-free,” Yang says. “If I still owned my yoga center, I would have a hard time justifying opening. People in America are welcome to make their own decisions and take on their own risk, but maybe they aren’t asking themselves the right questions: Do you have to go to that yoga class? Will your life end if you don’t go to that yoga class? Well, yours might not, but someone else’s might.”

Dr. Ingrid Yang, practicing pandemic yoga // Image credit: Colin Gazley

In enclosed spaces, even if all social distancing precautions are taken, the most dangerous factor is likely to be aerosolized transmission. Recent research suggests that tiny virus particles can hang in the air for a significant period of time, particularly in enclosed spaces.

“In yoga, the technique ‘ujjayi’ breathing is utilized, which is used to both elongate and deepen the breath,” Yang says. “So maybe you’re six feet apart, but if you’re next to someone who is asymptomatic, and they’re inevitably breathing more heavily — because their heart rate is up and they are requiring more oxygen to their muscles — they will be taking in bigger, deeper breaths that may create more aerosolized droplets. And you’re taking in longer, more elongated breaths with more volume of air, so you’re more at risk for taking in their droplets.” 

Yang does think the use of UVC lights — which Yoga 6 purports to use — in yoga studios is an interesting innovation, and promising research has been done around UV radiation’s ability to kill the virus under specific conditions. But there are simply still so many unknowns that it’s impossible to guarantee a safe experience. “Based on the research we have, the SARS‑CoV can be inactivated by UV radiation at 254 nm (UVC or 200–280 nm), with partial viral inactivation at one minute and increasing efficacy up to six minutes,” Yang says. “But research and our discoveries are changing all the time. There’s still so much we don’t know … so the continued unknown risks may not be worth the benefit for many yogis.”

The majority of studios I’ve come across during research have been asking yogis to wear masks to and from their mats, but not while they’re actually practicing. Yang acknowledges the difficulties that studios face in asking customers to wear masks throughout the class. “When you’re a business owner, the customer’s always right. Most customers say, ‘I don’t want to wear a mask while I’m exercising or practicing yoga because it’s uncomfortable.’ You can’t control someone who just takes off their mask in Shavasana to get a deep breath in.”

Kim, a Phoenix-based yoga teacher who asked to be identified by her first name, says it’s definitely been uncomfortable interacting with students who don’t want to wear masks. “It’s just been really hard to maneuver, because people would show up for classes and there will be a sign that says, ‘You have to wear a mask.’ But they come in without one like, ‘What?’ You feel like a jerk saying, ‘Sorry you need to go out and put a face covering and then you’re free to come back in.’ I had a student who left and didn’t come back. I was like, ‘Okay, well, that’s your call.’ It’s just changing everything.”

Doubt, denial and God-complexes

What Kim has found more unsettling than awkward interactions with students, however, are the underlying reasons for some students’ and studios’ resistance to COVID-19 safety precautions. “There are conspiracy theories that have been growing within the yoga community,” she says. “Like, some students and teachers think that the pandemic is a hoax — a political angle to try to get people to vote a certain way. They think that wearing a mask kind of puts you in a certain group, like you’re a Democrat, or you’re a Republican or liberal or whatever. My personal opinion is that it’s a coping mechanism, like, ‘Oh, this isn’t really happening.’ It’s a form of denial, because they would have to stop doing what they want to do. But I’m willing to bet that every studio has had cases or teachers that have come down sick. I mean, it’s like wildfire here.”

A somewhat blatant example of this was on July 4, when Radi8 and Yoga 6, two Phoenix studios that were open despite the executive order to close, posted their in-studio class schedules to their Instagram pages along with the same quote: “May we think of freedom as not the right to do what we please, but the opportunity to do what is right.” 

For her part, Thomas thinks that there are some teachers who suffer from misguided feelings of invincibility, which can feed into attitudes of denial. “I totally get that survival mode is kicking in for these studio owners,” she says. “But there is almost like a God complex that a lot of popular yoga teachers get, knowing that if they stay open, their students will come. Maybe it’s denial, but teachers have a real responsibility to educate themselves and their students.”

Leah Bosworth is the owner of Ironwood Yoga Studios in Phoenix, where Thomas teaches now. Ironwood has stayed fully virtual since the pandemic began, but Bosworth says she is aware of some local studios that buy into these conspiracy-type perspectives. She thinks much of it comes from a place of fear and difficulty imagining another way of doing things.

“I think people are attached to the idea that they started with, and understandably so,” she says. “I’ve heard from a few studio owner friends that ‘this just wasn’t what I signed up for.’ And rent is a huge thing. I have heard many upsetting stories about landlords who are not forgiving at all. Taking a brick and mortar studio online with all of your teachers is quite complex… To make [a virtual model] viable long-term it is truly like starting another business. I think for a lot of studio owners the idea of starting over is just too much, so the only path they see forward is in-person or bust.”

Finding clarity, accepting reality and embracing change

For Bosworth, the decision to keep building and perfecting her studio’s virtual offering boiled down to the fact that when she looked reality square in the face, it was the only way forward that was clear. 

“I kind of figured out really quickly that nobody really knows what’s going on,” she says. “So I had to do what I thought was right in my gut. We closed down in March and immediately, two days later, shifted to doing whatever we could online, which was Facebook Live at the time. But it took us about 20 days of nonstop scrambling to get it together. Figuring out how to do a platform and delivery and all of that stuff is an enormous undertaking.”

Leah Bosworth teaching a virtual session at Ironwood Yoga Studios // Image credit: Leah Bosworth

But Bosworth says part of the reason she was probably more open to shifting entirely online was that before she started Ironwood, she had done a lot of research into starting an online health and wellness brand. So she saw the “possibilities and creativity” of a virtual studio.

“As I was doing my research and working with my web designer, this little voice in my head kept saying, ‘Online is the future for yoga studios and gyms,’” she says. “Because nothing [about the pandemic] has actually changed. People are just opening because the economy is going to collapse if we don’t. But from a business perspective, I can’t grow my studio if there are only eight people in the room. From a safety perspective, it’s going to put my community at risk. And from a yoga perspective, I wanted to keep that clarity for everyone when everything else was uncertain. I didn’t want to go back and forth. I wanted to practice ‘ahimsa,’ not causing harm to the community. So I just thought, let’s commit to this.”

The commitment has paid off. Ironwood’s virtual attendance has stayed steady since March, and even grown some recently. “I’ve got my pricing options in place, and now I’m shifting into marketing agency,” she says. “I just invested in a bunch of video equipment. I’m trying to uplevel everything so we can compete with what’s out there. Quality has always been really important to me, and how you deliver makes a big difference in engagement for people.” 

Yang says that because this virus isn’t going away anytime soon, this perspective is likely to be the long-term winning approach. “Yoga centers have become innovative with providing online yoga classes,” she says. “That’s the best and most important way that studios can stay connected and continue to generate income. Now is the time for every yoga studio owner to become a true entrepreneur and to utilize the power of social media to maintain their revenue streams and their connection to their student base.”

Bosworth says that, of course, she is not blind to what is lost by not practicing in-person with her students. A big part of the yoga experience has traditionally been about holding space in a room with others. But ultimately, she thinks that the way yogis conceptualize community right now has to be bigger than the community of one yoga class.

“What I’ve been saying to our students and teachers — and basically to myself — is that we just have to put aside our preferences right now,” she says. “No, it’s not ideal for me to teach to a camera in an empty room. But it’s not really about us right now. It’s about the community taking care of each other in this time and being open to doing something differently. People build communities online all the time, and at the end of the day it’s about, did you practice yoga today? I’ve certainly thought of giving up, but ultimately, I’m sort of excited by this opportunity to transcend this disaster. I guess I like a good challenge. I’m weird like that.”

Related: Workplace Wellness Isn’t Just for Big Corporations. Here’s How …

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What’s Up With Open Yoga Studios in COVID-19 Hotspots?

July 28, 2020 15+ min read

“Okay. So, the ‘Breath of Joy’ is a practice we would do at the beginning of every Hatha class, which involves a very heavy open mouth exhalation. It’s a three-part inhale through the nose with corresponding arm movements.” 

Mimi Thomas, a Phoenix-based yoga teacher, is sitting on a patio in a maroon floral beach cover-up. She stands to demonstrate.

“Inhale one, arms out in front of you,” she says. “Inhale two, arms come out wide. Inhale three, filling your lungs all the way to the top, arms up, biceps by the ears. And as you exhale, open your mouth and go, ‘Haaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh.’” As she exhales, she swings her upper body forward and down, her curly blonde hair tumbling over her head to brush the ground.

“Now imagine 50 people in a room doing that during a fucking pandemic,” she says.

Thomas, 26, observed this scene in a Scottsdale yoga studio in early June, as Arizona was making headlines as the country’s latest COVID-19 hotspot. The first week of June, the state saw a 54 percent increase in new cases over the previous week, with ICU beds surpassing 80 percent capacity.

Thomas — who is, full disclosure, my fiancé’s sister, whom I saw on a family visit to Virginia in early July — taught online classes throughout the first months of the pandemic. Three or four nights a week, I would log onto Zoom from my apartment in Brooklyn to follow her through an hour of “Energized Vinyasa” or “Slow Flow.” In the void of normalcy that was quarantine, those hours on the mat were bright spots on the horizon of each day. And when things finally started re-opening in Phoenix mid-May, she agreed to teach some in-studio classes in the non-heated room at Hot Yoga University (HYU). 

“The non-heated room was very small. Like, when we re-opened I would have one person in my class, maybe two,” Thomas says. “And HYU had made an announcement that they were following CDC guidelines — everyone six feet apart, masks inside, sanitized, touchless check-in, etc. But then you go in and there are 48 people in the hot room, not six feet apart, breathing all over each other. I was standing by the front desk when a lady walked out and said, ‘You guys are not following CDC guidelines. I want my money back. You’re blatantly putting people at risk.’”

Related: 5 Reasons to Start a Yoga Routine While You’re Social Distancing

HYU’s owner, Karin Fellman, was teaching the class the student walked out of, and later had a conversation with Thomas about the mask-wearing policy. “She made this comment about how she refuses to support any business that requires you to wear a mask inside,” Thomas says. “So that’s when my eyes were kind of opened.”

Soon after, Thomas told Fellman she didn’t feel comfortable teaching classes at HYU anymore, and parted ways with the studio. In the following weeks she began to hear — through other HYU teachers — that numerous teachers and students had tested positive. The studio continued operating on a regular class schedule until June 28, when an email was sent out with the subject line: “In Response to COVID-19.”

I went to a class at HYU a few years ago on a trip to Phoenix, so was on the studio’s mailing list and received the email. “Like most businesses in Scottsdale,” it read, “we have had some people come forward and inform us they have tested positive. The most recent person received their test result today. The last day they were at the studio was June 16th.” The email went on to say the studio would be closing down to disinfect and would reopen July 5. 

But on June 29, the day after HYU sent out their email, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed an executive order mandating that the state’s gyms, bars, theaters, waterparks and inner-tubing businesses close for 30 days (on July 23 he extended the order indefinitely). On July 1, HYU announced that in light of the second shut-down order, the studio would be closing permanently.

“The fatigue… simply became too great”

I reached out to HYU’s owner, Fellman, to get her account of what had happened in the weeks between re-opening in May and closing down at the end of June. She maintains that the studio followed all CDC guidelines throughout the period of re-opening. “I do remember one student who left because she felt it was too crowded,” Fellman told me in an email. “I spoke to her before class explaining that the squares on the floor where yogis put their mats down were 6 feet apart following the CDC guidelines and if they were (husband/wife etc.) they could practice closer together. I think that was what she saw near her and was uncomfortable.”

Fellman says that the ultimate decision to shut down was because, “At a certain point, it became obvious we could not guarantee students would not be exposed to someone if they attended class,” she said. “We could not control where people had been before class, or where they worked. Many of our students and teachers worked with the public and exposure was inevitable. At the time we closed we had three confirmed cases and after closing we had members of our community reach out with additional positive tests results, reaffirming our decision to close. The mental, emotional, and spiritual fatigue with providing a safe environment and at the same time trying to ease those who were fearful, simply became too great.”

Of course, these difficult calculations are not unique to HYU. And although some yoga studios in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area have taken the threat of COVID-19 very seriously and continued operating virtually throughout the pandemic, a number also resumed normal class schedules as quickly as possible and even defied executive orders to shut back down. These decisions aren’t just happening in Phoenix, of course; in cities across the country, some studios are opting to offer in-studio classes while others are remaining virtual. 

A document recently prepared for the White House Coronavirus Task Force lists 18 states as being in the “red zone” (10 percent or higher positive test rate) for COVID-19 cases. The experts who prepared the report recommended that those states close down bars and gyms immediately, require masks be worn at all times and limit gatherings to 10 people or fewer. The report also offers data on the three counties in each state with the highest number of cases. We looked at those three counties in all 18 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah — and found multiple yoga studios offering in-studio classes in 48 of 54 counties. The exceptions were in North Carolina and Southern California, where gyms have been ordered to close (though multiple studios in Orange County still appear to still be offering in-studio classes) and the county of Elko, Nevada, which seems to have only one yoga studio. 

To be fair, these studios are mostly small, independent businesses doing everything they can to survive, and their state governments are permitting them to stay open. The majority claim to be following CDC guidelines with limited class sizes and social distancing, along with virtual or livestream options. But in most counties, for every studio offering indoor classes, there is one or more that have opted to stay entirely virtual — or to offer only outdoor classes. This suggests that a significant portion of the yoga community believes the right thing is to stop offering in-studio classes regardless of whether they are legally permitted. There are obvious exposure risks in the physical practice of yoga — a form of exercise that involves heavy breathwork — so for studio owners hoping for their business interests and core yogic values to align, this virus presents an ethically murky dilemma. 

Throughout the pandemic, as the U.S. outbreak became the largest in the world, there have been conversations about the downsides of America’s robust strain of individualism. The necessity of considering what’s best for the larger collective, as opposed to yourself and your bottom line, has been a tough pill for many Americans to swallow. But it’s particularly interesting to observe this playing out in the yoga universe, rooted as it is in Eastern philosophy, with its emphasis on mindfulness and the collective good. Every person I spoke to for this story mentioned yoga’s guiding principle of “ahimsa” — meaning “nonviolence,” or “do no harm.”

So, what are the motivating factors and viewpoints of studio owners who are dead-set on opening? Are there any circumstances under which it could be truly safe to practice inside while this virus is still a threat? And if yoga is a business like anything else, what does its future look like in a country that is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic normalcy anytime soon? Will it look like these studios, resisting change and hoping for the best, or will it look like those who lean into the unknown and seek out opportunities to innovate?

“We’ve been forced to pull our in-studio offering”

Back in Phoenix, following Governor Ducey’s June 29 executive order for gyms to shut down, HYU decided to close for good. But meanwhile, other studios in the area were telling students that they were planning to stay open, because they considered themselves exempt from the “gym” category.

Radi8 Hot Yoga, for example, posted an Instagram update on June 30 saying that it was  staying open despite the executive order, with the following justification: “After further review of the Governor’s mandate, it is our interpretation that we do not fall under ‘Gyms’ as we are a boutique studio with set class times allowing for full social distancing and space between each student. We will continue our elevated cleaning procedures, touchless check in, socially distanced mat markers, deep clean between each class, and require all students to wear masks on the way in and out of the studio.” Per its website, it appears to have offered a full schedule of in-studio classes through July 15 (Radi8 did not respond to our requests for comment).  

Yoga 6, a California-based franchise with two locations in Arizona, also stayed open in defiance of the executive order until July 7, when the Scottsdale location received a visit from law enforcement. “We have some disappointing news to share,” it wrote on the studio’s local Instagram account later that day. “Unfortunately, due to the recent local ordinance, we have been forced to pull our in-studio offering for the time being. While we don’t agree with the decision to lump us into the same category as ‘gyms’ (given we are smaller and no one moves stations or shares equipment, have special UVC germicidal lights, and enhanced cleaning standards), we will respect the order while we petition to be allowed to safely reopen.” 

Related: A Men’s Yoga Brand Learns the Real Meaning of Flexibility

On July 13, Yoga 6 and its parent company Xponential Fitness — which also includes Club Pilates, Pure Barre, AKT and CycleBar — sued the Arizona governor for requiring its various brand locations in the state to close for 30 days. On July 14, an Arizona judge ruled against the company. Kate Kwon, the VP of communications at Xponential, told Entrepreneur that the lawsuit was filed because  it believed there wasn’t sufficient evidence showing that gyms contributed to the spread of the virus. “We reopened with extensive health and safety procedures in place and as you mentioned, felt the executive order was arbitrary in nature including gyms and fitness centers,” Kwon said in an email. “No data was referenced to show gyms and fitness centers were contributing to the spread of COVID19 so we simply wanted to understand how they got to the conclusion to include all fitness.”

Is it ever safe to practice yoga inside?

Ingrid Yang is a hospital physician based in San Diego who has been working on the frontlines of the pandemic. She has also been a yoga teacher for over 20 years and is the author of two books, Hatha Yoga Asanas (2012) and Adaptive Yoga (forthcoming in November 2020). As a former studio owner herself, Yang is sympathetic to studios trying to navigate the pandemic. But she also says that from a medical perspective, doing yoga classes indoors — even with mats placed six feet or more apart — is an undeniable risk. 

“It is hard to maintain strict distancing and mask adherence, even for the most educated of us, and it is simply impossible to ensure that you are creating an environment that is transmission-free,” Yang says. “If I still owned my yoga center, I would have a hard time justifying opening. People in America are welcome to make their own decisions and take on their own risk, but maybe they aren’t asking themselves the right questions: Do you have to go to that yoga class? Will your life end if you don’t go to that yoga class? Well, yours might not, but someone else’s might.”

Dr. Ingrid Yang, practicing pandemic yoga // Image credit: Colin Gazley

In enclosed spaces, even if all social distancing precautions are taken, the most dangerous factor is likely to be aerosolized transmission. Recent research suggests that tiny virus particles can hang in the air for a significant period of time, particularly in enclosed spaces.

“In yoga, the technique ‘ujjayi’ breathing is utilized, which is used to both elongate and deepen the breath,” Yang says. “So maybe you’re six feet apart, but if you’re next to someone who is asymptomatic, and they’re inevitably breathing more heavily — because their heart rate is up and they are requiring more oxygen to their muscles — they will be taking in bigger, deeper breaths that may create more aerosolized droplets. And you’re taking in longer, more elongated breaths with more volume of air, so you’re more at risk for taking in their droplets.” 

Yang does think the use of UVC lights — which Yoga 6 purports to use — in yoga studios is an interesting innovation, and promising research has been done around UV radiation’s ability to kill the virus under specific conditions. But there are simply still so many unknowns that it’s impossible to guarantee a safe experience. “Based on the research we have, the SARS‑CoV can be inactivated by UV radiation at 254 nm (UVC or 200–280 nm), with partial viral inactivation at one minute and increasing efficacy up to six minutes,” Yang says. “But research and our discoveries are changing all the time. There’s still so much we don’t know … so the continued unknown risks may not be worth the benefit for many yogis.”

The majority of studios I’ve come across during research have been asking yogis to wear masks to and from their mats, but not while they’re actually practicing. Yang acknowledges the difficulties that studios face in asking customers to wear masks throughout the class. “When you’re a business owner, the customer’s always right. Most customers say, ‘I don’t want to wear a mask while I’m exercising or practicing yoga because it’s uncomfortable.’ You can’t control someone who just takes off their mask in Shavasana to get a deep breath in.”

Kim, a Phoenix-based yoga teacher who asked to be identified by her first name, says it’s definitely been uncomfortable interacting with students who don’t want to wear masks. “It’s just been really hard to maneuver, because people would show up for classes and there will be a sign that says, ‘You have to wear a mask.’ But they come in without one like, ‘What?’ You feel like a jerk saying, ‘Sorry you need to go out and put a face covering and then you’re free to come back in.’ I had a student who left and didn’t come back. I was like, ‘Okay, well, that’s your call.’ It’s just changing everything.”

Doubt, denial and God-complexes

What Kim has found more unsettling than awkward interactions with students, however, are the underlying reasons for some students’ and studios’ resistance to COVID-19 safety precautions. “There are conspiracy theories that have been growing within the yoga community,” she says. “Like, some students and teachers think that the pandemic is a hoax — a political angle to try to get people to vote a certain way. They think that wearing a mask kind of puts you in a certain group, like you’re a Democrat, or you’re a Republican or liberal or whatever. My personal opinion is that it’s a coping mechanism, like, ‘Oh, this isn’t really happening.’ It’s a form of denial, because they would have to stop doing what they want to do. But I’m willing to bet that every studio has had cases or teachers that have come down sick. I mean, it’s like wildfire here.”

A somewhat blatant example of this was on July 4, when Radi8 and Yoga 6, two Phoenix studios that were open despite the executive order to close, posted their in-studio class schedules to their Instagram pages along with the same quote: “May we think of freedom as not the right to do what we please, but the opportunity to do what is right.” 

For her part, Thomas thinks that there are some teachers who suffer from misguided feelings of invincibility, which can feed into attitudes of denial. “I totally get that survival mode is kicking in for these studio owners,” she says. “But there is almost like a God complex that a lot of popular yoga teachers get, knowing that if they stay open, their students will come. Maybe it’s denial, but teachers have a real responsibility to educate themselves and their students.”

Leah Bosworth is the owner of Ironwood Yoga Studios in Phoenix, where Thomas teaches now. Ironwood has stayed fully virtual since the pandemic began, but Bosworth says she is aware of some local studios that buy into these conspiracy-type perspectives. She thinks much of it comes from a place of fear and difficulty imagining another way of doing things.

“I think people are attached to the idea that they started with, and understandably so,” she says. “I’ve heard from a few studio owner friends that ‘this just wasn’t what I signed up for.’ And rent is a huge thing. I have heard many upsetting stories about landlords who are not forgiving at all. Taking a brick and mortar studio online with all of your teachers is quite complex… To make [a virtual model] viable long-term it is truly like starting another business. I think for a lot of studio owners the idea of starting over is just too much, so the only path they see forward is in-person or bust.”

Finding clarity, accepting reality and embracing change

For Bosworth, the decision to keep building and perfecting her studio’s virtual offering boiled down to the fact that when she looked reality square in the face, it was the only way forward that was clear. 

“I kind of figured out really quickly that nobody really knows what’s going on,” she says. “So I had to do what I thought was right in my gut. We closed down in March and immediately, two days later, shifted to doing whatever we could online, which was Facebook Live at the time. But it took us about 20 days of nonstop scrambling to get it together. Figuring out how to do a platform and delivery and all of that stuff is an enormous undertaking.”

Leah Bosworth teaching a virtual session at Ironwood Yoga Studios // Image credit: Leah Bosworth

But Bosworth says part of the reason she was probably more open to shifting entirely online was that before she started Ironwood, she had done a lot of research into starting an online health and wellness brand. So she saw the “possibilities and creativity” of a virtual studio.

“As I was doing my research and working with my web designer, this little voice in my head kept saying, ‘Online is the future for yoga studios and gyms,’” she says. “Because nothing [about the pandemic] has actually changed. People are just opening because the economy is going to collapse if we don’t. But from a business perspective, I can’t grow my studio if there are only eight people in the room. From a safety perspective, it’s going to put my community at risk. And from a yoga perspective, I wanted to keep that clarity for everyone when everything else was uncertain. I didn’t want to go back and forth. I wanted to practice ‘ahimsa,’ not causing harm to the community. So I just thought, let’s commit to this.”

The commitment has paid off. Ironwood’s virtual attendance has stayed steady since March, and even grown some recently. “I’ve got my pricing options in place, and now I’m shifting into marketing agency,” she says. “I just invested in a bunch of video equipment. I’m trying to uplevel everything so we can compete with what’s out there. Quality has always been really important to me, and how you deliver makes a big difference in engagement for people.” 

Yang says that because this virus isn’t going away anytime soon, this perspective is likely to be the long-term winning approach. “Yoga centers have become innovative with providing online yoga classes,” she says. “That’s the best and most important way that studios can stay connected and continue to generate income. Now is the time for every yoga studio owner to become a true entrepreneur and to utilize the power of social media to maintain their revenue streams and their connection to their student base.”

Bosworth says that, of course, she is not blind to what is lost by not practicing in-person with her students. A big part of the yoga experience has traditionally been about holding space in a room with others. But ultimately, she thinks that the way yogis conceptualize community right now has to be bigger than the community of one yoga class.

“What I’ve been saying to our students and teachers — and basically to myself — is that we just have to put aside our preferences right now,” she says. “No, it’s not ideal for me to teach to a camera in an empty room. But it’s not really about us right now. It’s about the community taking care of each other in this time and being open to doing something differently. People build communities online all the time, and at the end of the day it’s about, did you practice yoga today? I’ve certainly thought of giving up, but ultimately, I’m sort of excited by this opportunity to transcend this disaster. I guess I like a good challenge. I’m weird like that.”

Related: Workplace Wellness Isn’t Just for Big Corporations. Here’s How …

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[northamptoncouplestherapy]

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's this - humans need each other. Even those of us who enjoy alone time and appreciate life's current slower-paced version will agree, being confined to a mere handful of face-to-face connections 24 hours a day, seven days a week, is not optimal.

Our prevailing human need to connect during a global crisis has launched the innovative concept of a Pod –– doing life with a select group of people (without masks and social-distancing). The Pod has undoubtedly been a saving grace for many neighborhoods and communities worldwide these past several months.

But with summer's departure and the weather growing colder, we must navigate a myriad of new (and unknown) variables, including flu season, school reopenings, and an increased need to be indoors. Collectively, these challenges have the potential to influence both our health and hearts. How do we measure the risks and gains in each potential scenario? How do we negotiate and have honest communication with friends and family concerning social distancing ––find the sweet spot between connected and safe?

For guidance on how to do the Pod-life well, we'll invite some leading couple therapy models and researchers to be our mentors. As a couples therapist who utilizes these methods regularly, I'm confident we can apply segments of these approaches to foster a viable and indispensable Pod experience. Which may be the exact antidote we need in this ever-changing world.

A Step-by-Step Guide to mastering life within the Pod

1. Create a Contract

Many people fail to explicitly discuss what constitutes the bulk of everyday relational life with friends and family. How often do we do things like getting together for coffee or texting or merely checking-in? How do we best communicate our news or accomplishments or plain-old, regular days - phone, Instagram, or in-person? And, how do we reach out for support when we're really struggling?

Stan Tatkin, a relationship guru, encourages us to get things out in the open by creating a contract or a list of agreements with the people closest to us. This approach ensures clarity, understanding, and genuineness in the exchange if we are honest about what we need and want.

The brilliant result of both making agreements with one another and keeping our end of the bargain is secure functioning ––feeling seen and known in a mutually supportive way. Secure functioning in the Pod characterizes a safe environment - a refuge - where we live as an interdependent system. From this vantage point, the Pod relationships exist within the governance of our agreements with one another.

Examples of making agreements or a contract with fellow Pod members might include:

Who we agree to spend face-to-face time with

How we commit to wearing masks with anyone other than our agreed-upon individuals

When we will distance ourselves from other Pod-members if we are feeling ill or experiencing problematic symptoms.

Beyond COVID safety and protocols, our contracts might also include how often we gather, where we do so, and what we do when that happens - Games? Gossip? Netflix-binging? We might agree to weekly potlucks (Pod-lucks!) or sharing babysitting with fellow Pod-members so that we can get a break from these days of relentless responsibilities.

Lastly, since your agreement(s) are essential, we encourage you to make it formal. Set a date to meet with your pod-to-be, grab some pens and paper, write up your contract, and have everyone sign it ––even the kids!

Getting clear and keeping agreements will begin the necessary and critical process of building trust within the Pod.

2. Build Trust

Couples therapists assess trust from the start because we know how critical it is to human relationships' sustainability and success. This sentiment also rings true for the Pod concept. Without trust, engagement and collaboration quickly disintegrate ––taking the Pod and its inhabitants down with it.

In John Gottman's Sound Relationship House, we encounter two load-bearing walls essential to a relationship's long-term stability. These walls are commitment and trust.

But how do we cultivate trust within the Pod? According to Gottman, we do this with small things often. Small and incremental steps marked by consistently showing up, keeping your word, and displaying genuine interest in other Pod-members are the ticket to ensuring trust's constructive evolution. The result of this will be a deepened sense of togetherness and collective goodwill.

Gottman terms these occasions of trust-building, sliding door moments - seemingly insignificant flashes of time, pivotal to any relationship's well-being. When we make the deliberate choice to connect, understand, and appreciate one another consistently, we encourage and champion an essential ingredient for any authentic community to thrive.

My all-time favorite job was the role of counselor at an overnight camp in magnificent Alaska (yes, it gets warm there in Summertime!). I worked at this camp for three consecutive years during my late adolescence and fell in love with the people and experiences. I was far from home and didn't see my friends or family for the entirety of my summers. But the camaraderie I encountered with my fellow camp counselors was unforgettable.

People I'd never met and would likely never see again became like family in a very brief time. We spent days together and relied on one another because we were all each other had. Being a camp counselor is fun, but it's also exhausting - working with kids all day and night and being responsible for them 24/7 is no small task. Each of us required unwavering support from our fellow counselors.

We did life together. We were there for each other on our good and bad days. Ultimately, we built trust with one another in a million little ways, and it paid off.

I remember a particularly tricky cabin of campers one summer week. These campers were cute, but they were also loud, pranky, and not good listeners - a perfect formula for counselor burnout. What got me through that week was my "camp family" who listened to me, wrote me encouraging notes, and cheered me on (and cheered with me when the parents picked up those little rascals that long-awaited Saturday morning!).

3. Sign up for vulnerability

Bréne Brown, a prominent researcher in gutsy topics like vulnerability, shame, and courage, describes an anatomy of trust that must be recognized and refined for relationships to succeed. With trust in mind, she handily breaks things down into the acronym, BRAVING.

Boundaries: we respect others boundaries and are clear about our own

Reliability: we can count on each other

Accountability: we take responsibility to make things right when things go awry

The Vault: we only communicate our own experiences and feelings and let others speak for themselves; we keep things confidential for others

Integrity: we are who we say we are; we live according to our values

Non-judgment: we honor our needs and the needs of others without judgment

Generosity: we believe that each member of the Pod is doing the best they can; we give one another the benefit of the doubt

If we value BRAVING within the Pod, we have to choose our foxhole inhabitants wisely from the start. Ask yourself if the Pod-members you're considering are BRAVE people who won't back down when Pod-life goes sideways, or someone gets sick or stops keeping their agreements. Read this list - a recipe for trust - and decide if YOU will be that person, too.

BRAVING is not a task for the faint of heart. This type of commitment requires mega buy-in and an ability to see things through when times get tough. Because let's face it, conflict will arise and when it does, we're going to want to know what to do about it.

4. Prepare for bumps in the road

The final step to getting the hang of Pod-life involves understanding the role of conflict, not eradicating or avoiding it, but to manage it in a beneficial and connective way. Brent Atkinson, the founder of the Pragmatic-Experiential Model (PEX) of couple therapy, prescribes a set of skills needed to react effectively when disagreements arise.

He divides these skills into two parts: the "Openness and Flexibility" Skills and the "Standing Up" Skills.

Within the Openness and Flexibility skills, Atkinson invites us to:

Not jump to conclusions,

Look for something in the other's viewpoint that makes sense,

Identify what needs, values, and worries might be lurking under the surface,

And, assure the person you conflict with that you are keeping a flexible and open mind while asking them to do the same.

And, when the Openness and Flexibility skills don't cut the mustard, we can utilize Atkinson's Standing Up skills, which include:

A non-judgmental stance,

Asking for more open-mindedness and flexibility,

Considering other reasons why the person is upset,

Temporarily distancing yourself,

Not making a big deal that you had to,

Trying again later,

And, if all else fails, refusing to continue "business as usual" until the other is willing to find common ground.

I've had lots of experiences with conflict within community life - both successful and disastrous. The time's conflict has been constructive, and generative has always included all parties' willingness to be open, flexible and gracious collectively. I don't think there's a way around this for authentic connection.

*****

In this COVID climate, we live out our values, and our beliefs differ from one another in a myriad of ways. Some of us haven't been inside a restaurant in over eight months or hugged our mom ––not even once. We haven't gone to a single person's house for a visit. Others have attended indoor weddings, traveled to Disneyworld, and continued life as usual.

To do the Pod-life well, we have to find like-minded people with whom we can build trust, create agreements, practice vulnerability, and effectively manage conflict for the long-haul. Because there isn't an end in sight, now might be the perfect time to consider such a venture.

Couple therapy and relationship models teach us a great deal about how to coexist within a community. Knowing how to generate trust and how to cultivate it once you have it are crucial. Taking the time to discern and create agreements will bypass stress down the road. Moreover, choosing vulnerability with one another will produce the qualities needed to face the inevitable trials and experience the sure-fire joys that life within the Pod will provide even when it's tough.

Click Here for your Discussion Guide - How to form a Pod and keep it going strong

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