By Vita Duva
RED BANK – Ready to stretch, relax, release and even fly? A borough yoga studio – with a twist – is waiting for you.
Open Heart Yoga, a nonprofit yoga studio, has opened a new location in Red Bank at the Anderson/Sickles Building located at 200 Monmouth St. July marks the organization’s first full month in its new space on the third floor.
“The power of intentions and visualization is evident with the exciting news of our move,” Mary Ansell, founder of Open Heart Yoga, told The Two River Times. “Downtown Red Bank has always been in my weekly loop. Years before Chris Cole and Metrovation transformed the Anderson/Sickles Building, I always imagined a yoga studio in an old brick structure with great character and energy. I was drawn to the West Side of Red Bank for those exact reasons.”
Ansell, who first formed Open Heart Yoga over seven years ago, combined her love of being a public school teacher with her passion for yoga and became certified as an instructor so she could travel to schools, parks, warehouses and even people’s homes to teach the physical, mental and spiritual practice. Ansell wanted to bring yoga to as many as she could which led to the unique structure for Open Heart Yoga.
“Creating a nonprofit was my intention from the start, and going through the process only helped to further develop my patience and grit,” Ansell said of her venture.
By routinely practicing yoga, she found a heightened enrichment to every aspect of her life, but always remained mindful of the fact that yoga and its nourishing benefits were not as easily accessible to those less fortunate than herself. Whether those reasons were due to financial constraints or a variety of other variables, Open Heart Yoga’s community partners now help to provide its yogis with some of those missing links – resources for grief, recovery, food insecurity and even domestic violence, just to name a few.
Open Heart Yoga’s 10 community partners include 180 Turning Lives Around, Bloom Again, The Beauty Foundation, The Basie, JBJ Soul Foundation, Lunch Break, Parker Family Health Center, Tigger Stavola Foundation, Stephy’s Place and Visiting Nurse Association Health Group (VNAHG). With the help of paying students and donors, the studio is able to provide free yoga classes to both the volunteers and those who utilize the services of the organizations.
According to Open Heart Yoga’s website, the studio aims to enrich and unite its community by providing greater access to yoga and mindfulness while creating a more diverse and inclusive environment in which to practice. With each single, weekly, monthly or yearly yoga package purchased by Open Heart Yoga students, the same amount is given to a volunteer or recipient of a local charity or nonprofit organization. All donations are tax deductible and any yoga package purchased by a student is 50-percent tax deductible.
“We need students to come practice with us, to enable our nonprofit to thrive because without our paying students and donors, we would not be able to give free yoga to others,” said Ansell.
In April, Open Heart Yoga’s brick-and-mortar studio celebrated its three-year anniversary.
“We enjoyed three years at our first studio on Shrewsbury Avenue and survived COVID shutdowns with virtual yoga offerings and our nature series, as well as beach yoga, Yoga at the Grove and Yoga on Broad Street,” Ansell explained.
“Virtual yoga enabled nurses from VNAGH to practice with us from a number of states and also enabled our students to come to their mat with us while on business trips and vacations.”
Furthering the studio’s recent expansion, Open Heart Yoga now has the means to provide more offerings for the mind and body. In addition to the studio’s current class schedule, which already boasts a variety of vinyasa, yin, meditation and breathwork, the organization now provides aerial yoga. And having just installed radiant heaters, hot yoga classes will be available this fall.
“Yoga is great for every age, and every body,” Ansell said. “There is no one body for yoga – it can be accessible for everyone.”
For more information, visit openheartyoganj.org.
The article originally appeared in the July 28 – August 3, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.
