Community Love

Self-love, healthy habits, and a great community around you are extremely important to support your body, mind, and spirit. In this article, I am going to talk about an experience in Brisbane that enriched my life in all aspects. It all started with a gold coin donation yoga class, which turned into a lifelong practice that makes my day every time I do it.

A few years ago, when I used to live in Fortitude Valley, I went to the Community centre in Newstead (Community Place), just a few minutes away from where my apartment was located. This place encourages the local neighbourhood to gather and engage in an exciting range of events and activities. From Yun Jung Do, “Men who meet”, art classes, QUT Vox Pop to community yoga. I decided to participate, and, besides meeting amazing people, the yoga teacher suggested I look for “Yoga with Adriene” on YouTube since the scheduled time for yoga practice they offered at the community centre didn’t suit my schedule.

I went home and enthusiastically searched ‘Yoga with Adrienne”, and to my surprise, it was the most popular yoga channel on YouTube. The content caught my eye and there were so many videos to choose from so I thought to myself ‘let’s give this a go!’ It turned out, I was right on time for the 30-day yoga challenge Adrienne does every year, where a new video is uploaded daily over 30days. This also happened to be starting on the 1st of January, so I thought what a great way to start the new year!

At first, it felt good to turn up. A few weeks after, I started noticing how much more flexible I was getting, and at the end of the challenge I noticed I had grown so much mentally and spiritually which is a feeling hard to describe, but basically, I was more present than ever, I started being kinder to myself and others and I was able to regulate my emotions better. So, I started to recommend her classes to everyone because I felt lots of benefits in only a month, I just wanted people to experience the same in their own way.

Besides her 30-days yoga challenges Adrienne does every year, she has uploaded all sorts of videos such as Yoga for Surfers, Yoga for Chefs, Yoga for Depression, Yoga for Cramps and PMS, Yoga for Anxiety, not to mention a huge collection of practices designed to ease suffering (Yoga for Suffering, Yoga for Chronic Pain) and many more.

Her videos may be free, but they are also of the highest quality. Most classes begin with “Benji” her lovely dog, and with Adrienne addressing the class in her kind-spirited way, “Hop into something comfy and let’s get started”, and “Inhale lots of love in, exhale lots of love out.”

This is the community centre’s website: https://www.facebook.com/communityplacebne/

This is Yoga with Adriene channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/yogawithadriene

I hope you enjoyed the article, and it encourages you to check out your local community centre and/or try at-home yoga.

Yours sincerely, Stef LZ