Goodbye to our lovely shala (and an update from me)
Hi everyone,
It's been a while!
As many of you already know, I haven't been teaching at the shala for the last 9 months. I had a terrible episode of sciatica in December, which has led to some fairly dramatic lifestyle changes for me.
Initially, I couldn't practise or teach yoga because I was in so much pain. I couldn't sit down for almost two months, which meant that I also couldn't play in the orchestra. So I was left with a lot of pain, stress, and worry, and, as I wasn't able to work, I had no income. It was pretty brutal.
I was approached about taking on a full-time job on the management team of the National Symphony Orchestra on a six-month contract, and I started that at the end of January. That left no time for any teaching even as I was starting to recover so Suzanne has kept everything going at the shala.
My moon day newsletters have fallen by the wayside. Honestly, it's very hard to find inspiration to write about yoga when you're not practising, so that's the main reason really. Ideas for things to write about almost always came to me while I was practising, so that particular well has been a bit dry for a while now. I know a lot of you miss the moon day news, so maybe I should start to write again. Let me know what you think.
Just this week, I started a new permanent role as orchestra manager at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and so I'm really on a different path than I was this time last year. I feel fortunate to have been able to switch to a different career in such a short space of time, and I have to say, I'm enjoying the stability of having my first actual job at the age of 43!
I hope you don't think it's too self-indulgent to just write about myself, but lots of people have been asking me where the moon day news has gone, and I wanted to explain!
It's been a big change, both for me and for Suzanne and our daughters, but change is good, even when it's forced on you.
And, speaking of change...
We're closing our lovely shala at the end of the month and moving to another shala.
We moved into our current shala in October 2018. We had outgrown our little shala on Baggot St. and it was bursting at the seems with students every day. We found the new place, did it up (which was a saga in itself) and started teaching in the lovely spacious, light filled space. Things were going great.
And then...
Covid-19
Close your doors.
Don't see anyone.
Don't breathe on anyone.
And, for God's sake, don't be touching anyone!
Ashtanga yoga shalas across the world were closed for longer than most other businesses. Financially, it was absolutely crippling for us. We had an unsympathetic landlord and a five-year lease. Our other career, performing live music, also went to zero overnight. We taught online, but most of the income from that went to the landlord, and we burnt through all of our savings.
When we were finally able to open our doors again (after around 70 weeks of being closed, I think), we were allowed to have 8 students in the room, where we used to fit 33. A huge proportion of our regular students had left, either having fallen out of the habit of regular practice over the course of such a long period, or they moved away or started new jobs, or just worked from home instead of near the shala.
Unfortunately, with Dublin city centre suffering from the work-from-home culture, and with wide availability of cheap yoga classes online (something which was almost non-existent before the pandemic), having a big shala in the city went from being a dream-come-true to a rope-around-our-necks.
Our five-year lease is up next month. We've managed to get out without racking up debt, which is very fortunate.
We're moving back to a place that we left nine years ago. It's a home-from-home kind of place which will be very nurturing, I think, and holds some good memories for us (not least of all, us finding out that Suzanne was pregnant with our first child, having done a pregnancy test there after class one morning).
So we'll see you all there. It's not far from our current shala. It's about half the size, and that's a good thing. Suzanne will keep teaching, but the timetable will change a little bit.
We'll need you all to collect any mats you have at the current shala before we leave on October 1st and I'll pester you with a few emails about that between now and then.
For now, we're looking ahead, not back, and we're happy to get out of a lease that was causing us a lot of stress.
Change is good!
Sending love to you all.
John
Oscailt
Our last class at the current shala will be on Sunday, the 1st of October.
We'll donate or dump any yoga mats that are left at the shala after this class.
From Monday, October the 2nd, we're moving to Oscailt, located at number 8 Pembroke Road, Dublin 4.
The yoga room is downstairs.
Our timetable will be mostly the same, with two exceptions:
Sunday morning class will be from 8:00 to 9:45 (doors open at 7:45)
Evening classes will be on Mondays and Thursdays from 6pm to 8pm.
Directions:
Come out the door of our current shala and turn left
Go to the crossroads and turn right
Keep walking down Baggot Street until you cross the canal at Baggot Street bridge (about 5 minutes?)
You will pass Searson's pub and Miller's Pizza on your left
Oscailt is in a row of Georgian houses just past both of those on the left. It's number 8.