Making Yoga Accessible to Everyone: Our Scholarship Program
By Allie Brawley & Morgan VanWinkle
Northern Life Yoga aims to make yoga accessible to all who wish to practice with us. Every year, we donate more than $2,500 in classes and memberships to our community. In our pursuit of karmic yoga as a studio, we want to give back by supporting anyone who wants to experience the benefits of yoga, but perhaps may not have the finances to support a consistent practice. Another way we believe in giving back to our community is by offering a scholarship program which provides an unlimited membership at a budget-friendly value.
“Karmic yoga, based from the Bhagavad Gita a sacred Sanskrit Hindu text, is a path to attaining perfection via selfless actions. In other words, it is philanthropy, volunteering, and embracing selflessness. It’s a means of serving your community and world.”
Our scholarship program enables you to set your monthly membership price to suit your budget. It keeps you accountable for sticking to your yoga routine since your membership is on auto-pay. You experience all the perks of a regular membership with complete anonymity as we acknowledge it as an unlimited membership. Multiple scholarships are available and we encourage anyone who may be interested to complete our simple online application. Like our other memberships, you can cancel or pause anytime.
“Balancing business expenses with giving back is important. The scholarship program started several years ago to ensure our yoga classes are not cost prohibitive for anyone who wishes to experience the benefits of yoga. Supporting a consistent practice at a budget selected by each scholarship program participant makes our yoga community as inclusive as possible. ”
For a small community studio, we are blessed with a very large space that provides an ideal peaceful environment for our practices. Fortunately, when we reopened during the pandemic, it also provided ample space for social distancing by household. Like any business, we maintain overhead costs to maintain our space including utilities and labor. Some of our industry specific expenses include our MindBody software that manages our client data, class schedules, payments, etc.; and our royalty free music subscription that allows us to live stream our classes with playlists. *The live stream or replay option is another huge benefit to being a scholarship unlimited member since you have access to our virtual platform. With our Thrive private Facebook page, you can practice yoga from anywhere either during our scheduled class times or on your own schedule.
Our philosophy has always been to remain committed to a year-round schedule of classes to support consistent practices. Many of our members are seasonal, which affects class attendance throughout the year. We remain committed to offering weekly classes and monthly workshops on a year round basis. The more members we have, the full our classes stay year round, and the more sustainable our business remains long-term.
We’re immensely grateful for our yoga community that has enabled us to celebrate 12 years of business. Being fairly secluded from any large city, we are very proud to provide this community with a beautiful, calming yoga studio. Many urban studios have drop-in prices ranging from $20 - $30 per class. They have a higher volume of membership to support more classes, and their unlimited membership can range from $99 - $125+ with a various time commitments whether that is 3 months to a year. We aim to keep our pricing simple by discounting the cost based on the level of commitment ($15 drop-in is considered a premium price for the convenience to drop in versus a $60 flexible membership on auto-pay that decreases the cost per class to $12). Our goal is to support your practice is a way that really sets you up to experience all the amazing benefits of yoga when practiced consistently.
Check out our memberships and perks of being a member HERE
The prices of our studio support our staff and ensure our studio remains sustainable. All of our instructors have full yoga teacher training certifications, which is 200 hours and the training investment ranges from $800 - $3,500. In addition, each instructor has experience in athletics, dance, meditation, healing arts activities and additional yoga trainings ranging from 50 - 300 hours. These factors all support the quality of the yoga practice you receive at Northern Life Yoga.
We all start yoga for a variety of reasons… and what keeps us coming back is the impact the practice has on us in ways we didn’t expect. You may have started yoga for the fitness and found through your yogic journey it was never just about the body, but it was about the mind too. Here is one of our favorite short stories:
The Man With The Funny Mat by John Mundahl
Once a man came to my yoga class.
The first day he walked up to me and said,
“I need exercise. Will I get that here?”
“Yes,” I said. “Yoga is exercise.”
He was blunt and direct and walked away.
I watched him spread out his yoga mat,
But I could see that the mat wouldn’t lie flat.
The edges were curled up.
The next week he came up to me and said,
“I’m sleeping better. But I don’t want to give up ice cream.”
“That’s fine,” I said.
He walked away and
I watched him spread out his yoga mat.
The edges were still curled up,
But I could see that his mat was trying to lie flat.
The next week he came but he was quiet.
He only spoke to me after class.
“What is this anyway?”
“What is what?” I asked.
“Yoga.”
“It’s what you want it to be,” I said.
He was puzzled, but curious,
And I watched him walk out the door,
Yoga mat under his arm.
The next week he came and said,
“I’m losing some of this!”
He shook his belly a bit
And laughed for the first time.
“That’s good,” I said.
He spread out his yoga mat
And I could see that the edges were starting to lie flat.
On the last day of class
He came up to me with a soft face.
“There was a beautiful sunset last night. Did you see it?”
“Yes,” I said. “I saw it.”
Then he walked away,
To a quiet corner of the classroom and spread out his yoga mat
And the edges were flat.
And his yoga mat lie flat.
This story demonstrates that no matter the reason you want or need to start yoga, when you consistently practice, you will notice increasing benefits. Some benefits may be very subtle and others apparent - perhaps things you didn’t even realize you were capable of attaining – and that is why we strive to make yoga accessible to everyone. Starting a membership keeps you accountable for your practice. It’s a monthly reminder that your mind, body, and spirit deserve wellness…and the yoga mat is an ideal place for self-care as it nourishes all of them.
Thank you for your support and dedication to our studio that enables us to continue our mission to give the healing space and supportive guidance for students to empower strength, presence and peace through yoga, fitness and healing arts.
- Allison Brawley (Founder & Instructor) and Morgan VanWinkle (Studio Manager & Instructor)