January 28, 2025

Dear Circle Yoga Community,

Here in the early weeks of 2025, we’re reflecting on what Circle Yoga Cooperative means to our community and how it can best support us all in the days and years ahead.

Right now, many members of our community may be feeling scared, vulnerable, angry, anxious, or just overwhelmed. Some of us may be affected by executive actions targeting immigrants or the LGBTQ+ community, others are impacted by changes to the federal workforce, and still others may be reeling as we watch the direct attacks on initiatives and programs designed to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. With so much happening all at once, it can be easy to feel powerless.

Mindfulness means acknowledging such feelings as they arise within us. Compassion requires us to acknowledge and be present for these feelings in our community.

How can we at Circle Yoga lean into our yoga and mindfulness practices to help each other through these times of great uncertainty? How can we embody our values and our interconnectedness in this moment? How can we best stand with one another in support? And how do we engage with our practices and each other in ways that help us work toward collective healing and societal change?

The beauty of CYC being a cooperative is that it embodies interdependence—it’s not just about the wellbeing of the individual but also the collective. When we come together around shared practices and values, we can find support and strength, water seeds of hope and courage in each other, imagine new paths forward, and, ultimately, have a greater impact together.

This letter to the community grew out of conversations between members of the CYC Board of Directors and the CYC Racial Equity Team. At the end of the letter, we’ll invite you to share your response. Whether you’re a long-time Circle Yoga student, teacher, or staff member, or you’re relatively new to the community, we want to hear from you.

Since our founding in 2003, Circle Yoga has been rooted in yoga and mindfulness practices. We are part of numerous lineages of people—reaching back for centuries—who have carved out space to explore liberatory practices. Whether to reduce suffering, engage in a journey of self-discovery, get closer to a divine spirit, or learn how to live in relationship with others, most of these practices were born from people who were in search of greater freedom, understanding, and connection.

In 2025, we remain committed to yoga and mindfulness practices and the many ways they can support us in taking care of ourselves and each other, getting clear about the realities of our personal and collective situations, and taking action in the world in ways that reflect our mission and values. Some of the areas we’ll focus on particularly in 2025 and in years to come include:

Prioritizing equity and inclusion

Patterns of excluding and discriminating against groups of people are not new in our country. Even so, recent orders and policy proposals directed against immigrants and trans people, for example, can feel shocking and dysregulating. As programs designed to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion at the federal level are being eliminated, we are doubling down on our efforts to be a welcoming community for all at Circle Yoga. As expressed in our Equity Statement, “we persist in our goal of creating a yoga community where all can find connection, ease, and belonging,” and we are committed to being “an inclusive community that embraces all the identities our students embody.”

In 2025, we will continue to create spaces for learning and dialogue on issues of equity and inclusion. Look for more book club discussions as well as opportunities to learn from guest teachers and activists who are examples of how yoga and mindfulness can inform and inspire us to get involved in social change efforts. (We’re grateful for the example set by Making-Visible, a project of our sister organization, Opening Heart Mindfulness Community.) In these spaces, we’ll continue to encourage open, honest communication and foster a culture of listening and support.

In both yoga and mindfulness, there are rich traditions of philosophy and ethics that call us to act with integrity, compassion, and wisdom in the face of injustice. Kaira Jewel Lingo, a dharma teacher from the Plum Village Zen tradition, says there are two things we need to cultivate to be able to meet the challenges of this moment: fierce compassion and equanimity. As she explains, “Fierce compassion means seeing the suffering of our times clearly, and being willing to take a stand, to act to relieve that suffering however we can. Equanimity is the spaciousness, the perspective to have our action come from a place of deep wisdom rather than reactivity.” If you are looking for opportunities to cultivate fierce compassion and equanimity in yourself, I hope you’ll join us.

Making yoga and mindfulness practices accessible

We continue to be committed to making our classes and offerings financially accessible with Reduced Rate pricing, partial scholarships, and payment plans through Circle Yoga Connects. Since we introduced sliding scale fees nearly three years ago, Circle Yoga students have chosen the Pay It Forward Rate 447 times when registering for a session of classes, which has supported 350 Reduced Rate session registrations. On top of that, in 2023 and 2024, Circle Yoga students and friends contributed more than $20,000 to support the studio’s scholarship fund as well as regular community outreach classes at The Children’s Inn at NIH, Stepping Stones Shelter, and McGee Public Library in Silver Spring. This support is an amazing reflection of how CYC community members value interdependence and are invested in making these practices accessible.

We don’t know yet the extent to which current changes happening at the federal level will impact people living and working in the DC area. Please know that, if your financial circumstances change, we will make sure that your practice at the studio is still available for you.

Building community

Building relationships—and enjoying each other—is one of the many benefits of being part of CYC. In addition to the friendships and communities of support that develop naturally in our interactions before and after classes, we’re committed to offering more opportunities to connect through activities outside of class in 2025. We had a great time with our Mamma Mia! Night sing-a-long earlier this month, and we’re excited to offer more fun community events like this. We’re looking forward to another community hike in Rock Creek Park in March, and we’re making plans for another co-op member potluck in the spring. Look for details about these and other fun opportunities to connect others at (and near) the studio.

Taking good care of ourselves with rest, relaxation and mindfulness

In the last few months, we’ve seen a noticeable boost in attendance in sound baths and classes like Restorative Yoga and Sound Healing, Sunday Slowdown, Yin Yoga, and mindfulness offerings, including Annie’s new Enjoy Life As It Is Using Mindfulness class. More CYC students are finding refuge and solace in these practices. They spend an hour or more immersing themselves in subtle practices focused on rest, relaxation, and/or mindfulness, which can be a balm for the nervous system and the soul. We’ll continue to include these classes on our weekly schedule, and we’re committed to offering workshops and events to share more practices that can help us rest deeply, breathe more easily, and cope with stress, uncertainty, and difficult emotions. Stay tuned for updates.

Most importantly, our hope is that Circle Yoga feels like home—a space where you feel seen and celebrated for exactly who you are. Whether you come to Circle Yoga  for strength and flexibility, peace and relaxation, personal growth, connection and community, or simply as time to escape, we are happy you’re here. We know that people find connection, comfort, and meaning differently. So, if community hikes or book club discussions or sing-a-longs aren’t for you, that’s perfectly okay. We want you to engage in your own way.

We hope you’ll use the form below to share your thoughts or feelings in response to this letter. Let us know about your experience as part of the Circle Yoga community. Share your ideas for other ways we might connect, support, or engage with each other. We’d love to hear from you, and you can choose to identify yourself, or not.

Thank you for helping us create a space that feels like nowhere else. We’re nearly 22 years into this journey at Circle Yoga. Here's to another year of growing together, supporting each other, and continuing to make this place one that feels just right, right now, for all who are a part of our Circle Yoga community.

With deep gratitude,

The Circle Yoga Board of Directors

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