Danielle Goldstein, owner of the Mindful Turtle, joined us on One Community Conversations. Keep reading to learn how she transitioned her studio to virtual classes overnight, and how yoga teachers are servicing people on the front lines.

Can you start by sharing what your what you offer at Mindful Turtle and how you got your start?

Danielle Goldstein: Typically, we offer about 30 classes a week in person in the studio, and they range from very beginner classes to people who have been practicing for 10 or 20 years. We started in 2009, so we have a pretty mature yoga community in terms of practice, but if you came to one of our classes, there would be people of all ages, shapes, sizes. That's really what makes the studio so special is because it just encompasses the entire community.

You mentioned you opened in 2009. Are you seeing parallels between the challenges then and now?

Yes, I started in 2009, right after the crash. And people were really looking for something within themselves to make them happy, rather than looking for things that they maybe would purchase like a handbag or a car or vacation, because they didn't have those assets, the funds to purchase them.

I think in a way we might be heading in that type of direction, where people are going to be looking right now to see what truly makes them happy. Because that's really what we all want is to be joyful and happy. And there are many paths to get there. But I believe now since we have the time and we're home, and it's quiet, and we're forced to slow down, people are going to be looking to see what truly makes them happy.

So with what's been going on now, how have the offerings changed for you in your practice right now?

So overnight, we went from an in-person studio to an online studio. And I'm lucky that I have a tech-savvy staff that was able to help me set up these classes on Zoom. So we didn't miss a beat, because it was quite a challenge to go from in-person to online. 

Now we're offering about 20 classes a week, online, and again, something for everybody. And the other thing that we've done is I have another studio, a smaller studio in Huntington called Balance Yoga, and now it's a joint schedule between the two studios. So the companies are coming together, which is a really nice thing. Both the teachers and the students that have heard about both studios are now coming together. 

We also know that you've been working to meet the needs of the medical community, who is on the front lines right now. Can you explain how this started and what you're doing for healthcare professionals?

Sure. So, Stacy Plaske is a dear friend, colleague, yoga teacher who I actually purchased Balance Yoga from about a year ago. She moved on from running a studio to enter the accelerated nursing program at Stony Brook University. We are always looking for ways that we can give back. Yoga is really a service that we provide. And we're always looking to bring that service and those tools to people who need them, the people who we have trouble reaching. 

So as teachers, our whole group of teachers, 20 of us we had this group text going, asking how can we help? What can we do as yoga teachers? Stacy said, let me reach out to my colleagues at Stony Brook and see if we can get yoga to the people who are on the front lines. Well, they got back to us right away. Kathy Duffy, who runs Healthier U at Stony Brook, got right back to us and asked us if we would offer it to the entire campus community.

We said, yes, great, because now we're on Zoom, we're online, we don't have a space issue, we can offer this to as many people as possible. So we opened it up to Stony Brook. And then through that, our students heard what we were doing and someone knew somebody in Huntington Hospital, they connected us with the person in Huntington Hospital. So now we're offering it to the workers at Huntington, North Shore, LIJ in New Hyde Park, and LIJ in Valley Stream. And I just got an email about St. Catherines, as well. So it's spreading and I hope that they have the time to take advantage.

How does that make you feel that you and a couple of people reached out to try to do something and it's just ballooned so quickly?

It's really heartwarming. And in conversations that I've had with my colleagues, I realized that when I closed the studio two weeks ago, I was very fearful. As many business owners are.  But once I shifted my perspective, from fear into more of a love and giving perspective, this opened up with Stony Brook and then it just kept going. So it just makes me feel like this is what we're supposed to be doing. This is our purpose in this moment.

What can the community do to support you to reach healthcare professionals?

So if someone's reading this and you work for a hospital that I didn't mention, you can reach out to us all my contact info is on the website, and we will send you information on how you can bring these yoga classes to your community of health care workers. 

In terms of the community, how you can help us is just by continuing to support us by continuing to take the Zoom classes, by keeping your memberships active, by buying a gift certificate or buying classes in advance that you'll use when we reopen. This is the way we are able to do this, because we are able to pay the yoga teachers to do Zoom classes. So as long as the community keeps supporting us, we will be able to continue to provide these classes to the healthcare providers.

Any last advice from for people who haven't practiced yoga before, or tips on sticking with home practice during this time?

I think this is a great opportunity for people who have been contemplating trying yoga, because you get to do it in the comfort of your own home without anybody watching you. So what I've noticed with the Mindful Turtle community is that people are trying different classes that they were maybe a little intimidated to try. But now since they're home, and there's no one watching them, they're trying them. So it's really kind of a nice time for a new student to try yoga.

I would look up your local yoga studio, in your community, the place where you would maybe go practice, and give it a try in the comfort of your own home and see how it goes. We've gotten a number of new students in these past two weeks. I think it's great.