I discovered Studio 70 last summer – a friend had been attending classes and I went along with her. Safe to say I became hooked, not just for the movement, but for all the other more intangible benefits of yoga. My Sundays with Jenny or Lorraine, my Fridays and Wednesdays with Heather and Heather, the friendliness of Michelle as well as all of the yogis who go to Studio 70 for their practice, became an essential part of my weekly routine. Yoga kept me present, grateful and happy.

And then this happened. Working from home, worrying about ill parents, navigating this strange time has taken its toll on all of us – on our physical and mental health. I’ve found myself catastrophising and imagining the very worst, and also being blindly optimistic. With emotions so strong and so changeable, I don’t think I am alone in saying that I needed an anchor and, for me, online yoga has been it. 

Once I’d figured out what Zoom was, I opened up the app and there was Michelle! How wonderful! She was there – and then I took a wee cheeky scroll through and saw a few familiar faces – what a comfort this was. Our yoga community was there, we were safe and we were coming together digitally. For the most part, anyway. I am still worried about some of the faces I haven’t seen online and I am sure you are too. That’s what makes us a community. 

 I couldn’t manage the whole class. I appreciated the slower pace, the emphasis on presence and mindfulness, but on that first day, I needed to down dog, child’s pose and shavasana. As the number of online classes increased, my resilience grew, I was able to take part in more. Challenging myself with Alex’s Animal Flow and seeing Ricky again, all made this time a little more bearable. Studio 70 became a fixed mark in a churning world. 

We’ve used tea towels, belts and cords as straps; evaluated the merits of soft-back versus hard-back books as surrogate blocks (hard-back is best); tried to warrior while our cat curls up directly beneath our crotch. (By the way, so many beautiful cats out there!) Through it all we have breathed. 

Yoga encourages us to be present, live in this moment, and breathe. I’m no guru, and I certainly don’t know as much as the teachers at Studio 70, but my experience has been that breathing and staying present (in addition to staying home) is one of the most powerful tools we have in combating the emotional toll this is taking. 

This is only week 4, and I think we all understand that this will last much, much longer. It will be a while before we can scale those stone steps, face the mandala and put your left foot forward during class when everyone else has moved their right. 

However, what Michelle and Laura are doing just now is wonderful. It must have been a massive feat to co-ordinate online classes, manage yoga teachers and communicate with their members, all while looking after their own families. Thank you, Michelle and Laura, we are extremely grateful to you and all of the teachers.