Dear Aspen + TBP Family Beyond,
We Challenge You to meet our Annual Fall Yoga Challenge with a HELL YES!
We Challenge You to come together in some of the darkest months of the year in our town and show up for each other, yourself, your ski conditioning, your mental health and your commitment to being the best you possible and surrounding yourself with other like-minded individuals who are doing the same.
We Challenge You to build the Shakti family one breath at a time and to tap into one of the most powerful and uplifting aspects of our Aspen life – our community!
Every Fall for the past 5 years our home studio, Aspen Shakti, has hosted an infamous yoga challenge that prized those who completed the challenge successfully with a full year long membership to the studio. Of course the year membership was the initial lure, however when taking a closer look we realized very quickly that the actual lure was something different and far less tangible. In fact it was the coming together of nearly every local in town to be together everyday, to breathe together, to support one another, and to accomplish a goal together, the side effects being a stronger, leaner body and clearer stronger more positive mindset, that was the true magic of the challenge.
If you’ve ever lived a full year in Aspen, CO, you will know from experience that the ‘off-seasons’ can be very challenging. The extreme nature of this amazing town that provides some of the highest highs ( skiing, hiking, biking, nightlife, music festivals to name a few), also hosts some very lonely, quiet, dark and intense lows from time to time. The roller-coaster of energy, of nature in her splendor and her pauses between seasons, can take a toll on the mental health of anyone who chooses to stay all year long.
When we first offered the Fall Challenge in Oct 2017, mostly as a creative attempt to drive revenue in the shower months, we anticipated / hoped that 30 students would participate. It was to our total surprise that we had over 95 students register that first year and up to 75 students in many classes. Palpable enthusiasm and joy burst through the doors from the day it began and the camaraderie on the streets that was noticed by all in fact helped to drive more and more participation. The Shakti was literally the most alive it had been since we opened and we knew we were onto something.
Clearly there was a craving to come together and to feel a true sense of belonging that would then fuel future challenges and ultimately fuel our entire community to be better, clearer, stronger and more connected versions of themselves.
It seems the more connected we are through email, smart phones, and social media, the more disconnected we become on a personal, human level – and ultimately everything suffers, most importantly our mental health. The magic of a challenge is that it provides a goal within a finite amount of time and therefore the participants can see themselves accomplishing it successfully. You do it with a friend and you’re 30X more likely to come out successful. One of the key factors to the growing success of our challenge over the years has been that you have to bring a friend to take a class to support you while doing their challenge in order to complete the challenge successfully. We found that the energy was so positive and contagious, dare I say infectious, that 9 times out of 10 the friends would then sign up for the whole challenge and then it took on a life it’s own – our community literally grew our community. The challenge, the spark, the community, the fire!
All that being said, this post is here to encourage you to experience for yourself the power having a battalion of support behind you as you endeavor to commit to something outside of your box, like 30 yoga classes in 30 days, or in this case, doing yoga at the same time everyday for 14 days in a row (with a friend of course).
This season as we take our Aspen off-season pause from summer to winter, do something amazing for your mind, body and spirit, and see what’s it’s like to turn up your health game, to strengthen your mind and body and to improve your flexibility and agility, and literally awaken your shakti, with 100 others doing the same.
Come contribute your energy and receive from everyone else and notice how participating in a challenge with community can literally change your whole life, or at the very least transform your ski season ahead. We can’t wait to see you in person or online!! Good Luck!!
With love and gratitude and lots of sparkle,
Jayne