“I just love yoga and the people who come with it,” said Total Being Yoga owner Mian Rex as she prepared to open her doors to the Mint Hill Community two years ago. “The one thing I think everybody’s really scared about is not knowing the poses, and it’s not about that. It really is the community feel.”
Community: it was the word of night at Pour 64 the evening of Sunday, March 10, as instructors, clients and other members of the Mint Hill community gathered to celebrate TBY’s second anniversary.
It’s the first word on people’s lips when asked what they love about Total Being Yoga. “The community,” says Tammy, who has been teaching at TBY for just over a year. “It’s really awesome to see people getting to know one another, people that maybe wouldn’t have met without yoga, and starting to be with each other outside of the yoga class. It’s just such an open environment. Everyone’s welcome.”
“I love the community that Mian has created here,” agrees Emily, who taught a free Slow Flow Yoga class at 4:00 as part of the Two-Year Celebration. “She’s done an excellent job. I’ve worked at a lot of studios, and this studio is by far just the best studio I’ve worked at. The students can feel it. It’s noticeable in our classes.”
The instructors’ sentiments are echoed by the studio’s clients. “It’s just so much more personal,” says Sarah, a long-time yogi who has been coming to TBY for over a year. “I’ve gone to many other places, and it’s just got a good ambience. It’s got a good feeling to it.”
“Doing it with a group of people, it makes you push yourself further than if you’re doing it yourself” says George, who just joined TBY in November. “I have friends that have told me I should do yoga for years and years and years, and I’ve just never given it a shot. It’s helped me lower my blood pressure, get better sleep, and feel better.”
Sunday’s all-day celebration included two free morning classes in addition to the 4:00 “Slow Flow:” “Balance Power 75” at 9:00 am and “Long, Slow, Deep” at 11:00 am. The evening celebration at Pour 64 included live music, a food truck, and a “Wine Pull” fundraiser for Blue Ridge Boxer Rescue.
The importance of community was evident in each aspect of Sunday’s celebration. The “Wine Pull,” for example, was a fundraiser for the Blue Ridge Boxer Rescue, a cause near and dear to Tammy’s heart. Tammy adopted one of her dogs from the boxer and boxer mix rescue nine years ago and has been volunteering with the charity for over six years.
100% of the $240.00 collected through the “Wine Pull” will go toward Blue Ridge Boxer Rescue, helping with spaying and neutering costs and other medical expenses for the adoptable dogs. Serving the needs of the community – especially those that are important to her instructors – has always been important to Rex. “We just wanted to do whatever we can,” says Rex. “A lot of the instructors do charities, and so I wanted to make sure we got Tammy in there and did something for her.”
The event also spoke to the important business partnerships Rex has formed over the past two years. “It’s like family here in this building, all of us here together. I pretty much live at their place,” she says, gesturing to Vintner’s Hill owner Chris Coy, who donated all the wine for the Boxer Rescue fundraiser. “We’re all small business owners. We want each other to succeed.”
As TBY enters its third year of business, one of Rex’s goals is focusing more on the health benefits of yoga. “We’re going to go around and start hopefully talking to a lot of [medical] facilities just to educate the doctors on why the power of the mat is so great,” says Rex, who thinks more doctors would recommend yoga to their patients if they knew more about it. “It’s not always about inversion, it’s not all hot yoga.”
On March 23, TBY will host the second series of “What’s Up Down There,” an educational event on reproductive and pelvic floor health presented by Novant Midwife Marie Watson. “The first one was a huge hit,” says Rex definitively. “One woman finally got a mammogram and found out she had stage one cancer. I ended up going finally after four years, and I ended up having to have a hysterectomy. I was one of those women who just thought pain was normal, you know? And it’s kind of taboo to talk about, embarrassing. We hope that series two will inspire other women to take better care of themselves and take time out,” continues Rex.
Ultimately, Sunday’s celebration was about more than celebrating two years in business. “It’s family, coming together,” says Rex, gesturing to the crowd that had already gathered shortly after 4:00. “This would never have happened had we never met each other on the mat.” Perhaps George puts it best: “It’s a cool little community in our cool little community.”
Learn more about Total Being Yoga at https://www.totalbeingyoga.com/. “What’s Up Down There?” will be held on March 23 from 1:00 – 3:00. A $10 registration fee will support Girls on the Run.
