Yoga in the age of Coronavirus
Candace Hammond reports for the Provincetown Banner and interviews two of Outermost Yoga’s instructors.
Published 6.22.2020
“During this time of quarantining and practicing social distancing, we’ve all had to drastically alter our routines. We especially miss activities that help us stay healthy and calm, like yoga classes. The status of what is allowed and what isn’t is ever-evolving, given the threat of the coronavirus, but thankfully, lots of great yoga teachers have kept their students down-dogging and deep-breathing through it all via Zoom, and even outdoors.
[…]
Stefan Piscitelli who owns Outermost Yoga in Provincetown had a robust yoga business going before COVID-19. He was leasing space at the Schoolhouse Center, home of WOMR, but when the station went virtual and temporarily closed its doors during the pandemic, Outermost Yoga lost its home.
“We were in our fourth year at the Old Schoolhouse, and it was a hard hit financially when the building closed,” says Piscitelli. “We were having at least two classes a day every day, and I had six other instructors. I started it by myself in 2017, and last year took it to the next level.”
Like so many small business owners caught in this crisis, Piscitelli had to very quickly come up with a plan B. And C. Piscitelli has also launched a pie business, “Sissy Pies” as a side hustle.
“As soon as it hit, I got online and did two and a half months of teaching exclusively online,” he says.
[…]
For Emma Doyle of Wellfleet, she has welcomed the opportunity to teach remotely and sees herself continuing that way for the foreseeable future. She runs her classes via Zoom through Piscitelli’s Outermost Yoga website and also has a few private clients she works with as well via Zoom and FaceTime.
“Though I miss the feeling of community and shared experience of an in-studio class, the practice of yoga itself is so personal that the switch to online classes and home practices is an obvious move during this time,” Doyle says. “Transmission of the virus through aerosols makes me so wary of being in a room with people who are actively breathing more forcefully and steadily, so I plan on teaching online for the foreseeable future. I know it's rough for some folks to not have the routine of going to a studio, but to develop a home practice requires some level of intrinsic motivation. That internal desire is paramount to a lifelong practice already, so what better time to develop it than when we are forced to?”