Yoga: A Man's "Sport" Too

Yoga has been around for a kathousand years. According to Gessner Geyer who is the president of Brainergy, an education and healthcare consulting firm,  yoga is the "world's oldest and most perfect form of exercise." Not only does it just feel good but it reduces stress, gives you balance physically and emotionally, yoga will help you focus and enhance your cognition. Not only all that but did ya know that it will make your core strong, it improves your cardiovascular, respiratory, musculoskeletal and nervous system. It will make you stand taller, breathe easier and have a sense of body awareness like no other sport.

Men generally think it's easy.

We have this great friend that we work with. He has been a good support system to us and he makes us laugh to boot. He came into to do yoga for the first time on Monday. He wore a collared shirt like you do on casual day and informed Lisa that after class he was going to go for a run for his cardio workout. This delighted me as I watched the doors to the yoga room close and the music start while I thought to myself, "Yeah, he's not going running, but that's sure cute he thought he was."

Now there are all different kinds of classes, kids, beginners, light, power, etc... He chose the vinyasa flow with is explained as not only some great yoga but a work out too.

An hour and a half later he came out of the yoga room out of breath and ringing his shirt like you would a sponge that just fell in the bathtub. He didn't have another shirt to put on. (note to self: get some men's t-shirts in stock).

He came back yesterday and brought a friend! He told Lisa that he's quitting his gym membership and either coming here or running outside.

But not both on the same day.

What Are They?

Happiness is a warm puppy.  ~Charles M. Schultz

We like dogs at PLAY. One of the things Lisa and I love best about this whole business is that we can bring the dogs in with us a lot. We have some really cute ones. There is Daisy who is pictured above, we rescued her from a dismal environment to a place where she is surrounded by other dogs and kids and love. She is a timid little thing that lets all the kids carry her around and hold her and play with her. She is a Papillon. Papillon is French for butterfly and they are called that for their big ears. She is about the size of a big guinea pig. She is so sweet, the little butterfly guinea pig.

And Mickey. Mickey is my precious little doggie. He is an enigma to most. He looks like a puppy, but he's not. He looks like a girl, but he's not. He looks like a dog, but he's...

I take Micker with me a lot of places. He prances along happily beside me as strangers stop to pet him because he's so cute. He's got a sweet little face and is the friendliest little guy. And then inevitably they will say, "What kind of dog is he?" I hate this question. The answer is, when I bought him I got papers saying he is 100% Pomeranian. So I say, "Well, we know he's part Pomeranian," (that's what I say because he doesn't resemble one much at all. This is what I get from that. "Really? (with a head tilt and scrunched up eyes as they mentally try to match what they know of a Pomeranian to my Micker)  He doesn't look like a Pomeranian at all. He is just the cutest little thing though." Then I feel dumb. I  brought the paper into the studio so when people ask I just hand it to them and try to change the subject. :)

So these guys are with us a lot. I didn't bring them yesterday though because we had to much going on and the weather was bad and I just thought they would be happier at home. Every child that walked through that door said, "Are the dogs here?" "Where are the dogs?" The look of disappointment was obvious when I said, "They didn't come today." Judging from the looks I got I am planning on packing up their toys and bringing them today. 

PLAYing Week Two

The countdown is over. We are officially open. It's been a whirlwind. We are settling in and slowly getting the feel of everything. The past six months seem to have gone by in a flash. It seems like just yesterday that we decided to get this whole thing rolling. We would sit at Lisa's kitchen table and go over idea after idea, we traveled back and forth to New York City over and over again to go to trade shows, to do different trainings for kids and adult yoga, and to practice in different studios to continue our learning in order to share with everyone else. We spent countless hours at the Apple store in King of Prussia where they helped us with every aspect of our business, we drove all over the state picking furniture, looking at floors, deciding on all the little details of what this place would look like. I am a visual person, I had an idea in my mind, I couldn't stop until I saw it come to life. Lisa kept me on track. She wrote our business plan, worked with our contractor, researched marketing, and kept me focused when I would get distracted. That was pretty much a full time job in itself.
Now I am sitting in our store area and she is in the yoga room teaching a class, I have three dogs lying around my feet, two boys playing in and out of here, my daughter wandering around every once in a while from her dance school, and Jack Johnson singing to me and only me. It's slightly hard to believe it's all real.
We have a million ideas. Tons of things we want to do, to teach, to learn, and to share with the community. It seems like everyday we meet someone that we feel like we were meant to know.
There are kinks in our little operation too, you know. You. You know that. Like for instance we haven't quite figured our whole soft wear system yet. The company is awesome though. Mindbody. We call them all the time with some of the stupidest questions they have probably ever heard. They are so nice and so polite and so helpful. We're getting there. And of course the printer not working is an issue. I have to keep running home to print things out. That's not really all that efficient.  Maybe tomorrow it will magically work. I'm going to go ahead and put that out there. I think I have been to negative about my wonderful printer. I am going to think positive thoughts and count it working tomorrow.
Come PLAY.

We're Open!

Our first Birthday party at PLAY. 

Lisa and some cheeldren hula hooping.

T Minus One And Counting

Our official open date is 5-10-10. Tomorrow night we are having our first birthday party for a little girl that did girl scout yoga with us and loved the whole dog and pony show (that's a hint). So we need to be ready to roll by 6 pm Friday night. Wow. The whirlwind of this  could be overwhelming if we let ourselves dwell on it to long.
We decided to go forth with this venture the day Lisa lost the school board election. I think it was November 5th. That would put us to exactly sixth months ago to the day. The amount of things besides opening a business that have happened in that six months is staggering. I would list them but it's to much and who needs to record that for all of eternity? Who? Not me. I'll tell you that much.
 I will tell you that yesterday our web site was completely down. Not on purpose. It didn't look good there for a couple hours. Lisa and I tried to keep a sense of humor about it and sat in the car on the way to get it fixed trying to figure out the probability of people just guessing what our schedule was, and if we really even existed. So that was fun. Fortunately that will not come to pass because we the Apple guys (who we love) were able to get it back up and running. After we hugged them in the middle of the mall I took Lisa on a surprise field trip. Really just for fun. I thought it would cheer us up. Now she has Daisy.  That happened on 5-5-10. I find that auspicious. Guess what Daisy is? I gave you a hint.
Come see us.
It's almost time for us to PLAY.