“Wellness” has become a buzzword often used to sell products. But a new local nonprofit takes wellness seriously, with the goal not only of better mental and physical health, but also of increased meaningful connection.
The Community Yoga Center, located at 1819 E. Broadway Ave., Maryville, opened this month, with a grand opening celebration set for Saturday, Jan. 31. The center offers donation-based classes in a wide range of yoga styles, with plenty of other offerings.
“We’re trying to provide a lot of forms of wellness,” said Heather Lyn Schneller, the center’s co-founder and co-president. “My goal with this was to think about every dynamic and every range of person who thinks that yoga is not accessible to them.”
Examples include classes especially for seniors, “Restorative” programs focused on relaxation, and “Yoga for Every Body,” designed to accommodate bodies of all sizes and flexibility levels. “Recovery Room Yoga” is designed especially for people working through addiction recovery.
“If you go to a Hot Yoga studio, they may have some different types of movement, but it’s all going to be Hot Yoga,” Schneller explained. “That’s beautiful, and if that’s what you’re looking for, it’s perfect for you. But there are a lot of people out there who can benefit from yoga who aren’t going to find what they need, what works for them, with a more limited approach.”
Schneller’s passion about this project is contagious. “We are here for you, for the community. We want to bring wellness, in many forms, to the community.”
Now, more than ever, the health benefits of yoga are needed. In stressful times, Schneller hopes that the Center can make positive change in people’s lives.
“I’m always telling my students, ‘It’s OK to sit still. The world can revolve about you for a few minutes.’ We sometimes feel that we have to keep going and keep moving and keep working,” she said. This pressure to constantly hustle and the temptation to constantly worry can feel inescapable.
“We don’t have to do that,” Schneller said. “You don’t have to feel like that. We don’t have to keep going and doing, and the world will be OK. I promise the world will keep right on spinning if you take some time for yourself, for your own wellness.”
As part of its approach to accessible wellness, the Center offers other types of groups and classes, such as drum circles, sound baths and even weekly shag parties. “For only $5, you can come and dance Carolina shag for a few hours,” Schneller said. “How great is that?”
She is open to other types of classes and programs. She holds a black belt in tae kwon do, and would love to offer women’s self-defense classes. She’d love to offer tai chi or qi gong. “If you teach wellness activities, we want to to talk to you!” she said.
Examples might include a class in making beef tallow products, or blending teas. The center also exhibits and sells works by local artists.
The front half of the business is Holistic Health Center that houses wellness practitioners, whose fees support the donation-based model of the Yoga Center, reducing the financial barriers for classes and groups. Those practitioners, who are listed on the center’s website, include acupuncture, reflexology, ayuvedic nutrition, meditation, breath work, reiki and more.
“We’re not just a yoga center. We are all part of this collective to bring wellness to the center,” Schneller explained.
“The goal is to have the Community Yoga Center be completely supported,” she added. That support includes individual donations, grants and business donations. Employers can make a single lump donation, which would pay for access for their entire staff. For an additional sum, employees’ partners and spouses would be included.
“We’re asking the local businesses to support us so we can provide this service to the community,” Schneller said.
Donations to the Community Yoga Center are tax-free. Schneller and her team worked to obtain 501(c)(3) status. They are happy to talk to potential volunteers to help write grants, as well.
The grand opening on Jan. 31 runs from 9 a.m. until noon. The celebration will include samples of many of the services the center provides, such as guided meditations and talks by some of the instructors and practitioners. They will serve light refreshments and give out door prizes that cover holistic wellness sessions with the center’s practitioners, worth a total of several thousand dollars, and those who arrive earlier and stay longer will have the opportunity to win more of the sessions. Attendees must be present to win.
The event’s goal is the same as the center’s goal: To open space for wellness and connection in the community. “Yoga means union,” Schneller said. “It’s not just about connecting you with a higher power, it’s about connection you with other people. That’s what ‘namaste’ means, after all.”
Schneller discovered yoga at age 17. Having been in and out homelessness through her youth and on her own from age 15, she recalled that “my first thing was finding safety in myself, and in God. I needed something constant, that wasn’t going to leave.” A friend’s mother taught her yoga nidra, and “I felt so held in that space. I wanted to make others feel held.
“That’s sort of been my lifelong journey.” She went on explore many forms of wellness, studying philosophy, health, theology, medicine of many traditions, and more. “I wanted to find the tools to heal everybody I met.”
The center feels like the achievement of many of those goals, she said. It came together in less than a year, cementing Scheller’s and her colleagues’ hope that this was meant to be. Now, they are running a busy schedule and fine-tuning their approach and message during the month-long soft opening.
The bottom line is the same as Schneller’s starting point: Wellness and accessibility. “We are holding space for people to feel welcome,” she said. “We have people who are new to yoga, even people who are new to the area, who come here and say, ‘I’m home.’”
