Expanding in a recession and going green – impossible?
Not for Blissful Yoga in Glendale.
The yoga studio is establishing three new studios in the next year while utilizing renewable materials and sustainable designs throughout the company.
“In this economy, who knew, right?” says Carrie Clark, the operations manager and a yoga instructor at Blissful Yoga. Blissful Yoga’s owner, Rosa Rendon, says she had lots of people trying to dissuade her from expanding in the middle of a recession, but she stood her ground.
“I’m really passionate about yoga and bringing it to everyone,” Rendon says. “I truly thought, even in this economy, I truly thought if we had something really good to offer people would embrace it. I just went with my heart really.”
The grand opening for Blissful Yoga’s new studio at The Shops at Norterra is Sept. 1, but Rendon isn’t waiting until then to start yoga classes. The studio is officially open and ready to work out the body and relax the spirit the first week of August, says Rendon, who owns Blissful Yoga with her husband Moises (both pictured below).
With a new studio opening next week, Clark says Blissful Yoga owes its success to the sense of community and philanthropy and a commitment to enjoying life that the yoga studio champions.
“I’m truly excited (about) the welcoming we’ve had from our communities,” Rendon says. “We make a point of knowing everybody’s name and welcoming everyone at the door… Even though we’re growing, still our focus is knowing everybody’s name.”
Not only does Blissful Yoga give back to the community with a monthly donation-based class for various charities, but it also tries to give back to the environment by using green products and carrying out green practices.
“(Being eco-friendly) was my first priority when I started talking about building a yoga studio,” says Rendon, whose commitment to being green stems from her desire to provide a better world for the next generation.
The original Blissful Yoga studio, located at 19420 N. 59th Ave., is floor-to-ceiling green. The floors are made of renewable bamboo and the paint on the walls is low-emission paint, Clark says. “Every decision (the owners) made, they took that into consideration all the way down to the towels that are in the bathroom are recycled, (and) the paper they print their schedules on is all recycled paper,” Clark says.
The three new locations, The Shops at Norterra, Scottsdale Quarter and St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center, will also be “green,” Clark says.
The St. Joseph’s location came about when the hospital contracted them to teach yoga in a new studio built for Blissful Yoga in the hospital as an added benefit to employees, she says.
Blissful Yoga offers around 20 types of yoga for beginners to experts including prenatal yoga, Vinyasa, Yen and classes on a Yoga Wall. Most of the yoga instructors are YogaWorks trained and Yoga Alliance certified.
Rendon is excited and proud that Phoenicians are embracing what Blissful Yoga has to offe r.
Photos courtesy of Blissful Yoga. | www.blissfulyoga.net
