In an effort to make yoga accessible to all, Evan Scharfeld has changed the way people immerse themselves at Cultivate Yoga Space

By Kelli Comer

For many people across the world, 2020 became the year of the pivot. The fortitude to do so was especially vital for local businesses that had to reconsider their practices when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. One local yoga studio rose to the challenge in an inspiring and substantial way. Starting on January 1, 2021, Avon’s Cultivate Yoga Space shifted to a gift-culture mindset and began offering all of its yoga services to the community—for free.

Yes, you read that correctly, free.

Cultivate Yoga began in 2017 as the non-profit brainchild of Founder and Cultivator Evan Scharfeld. His mission was to help make the complete practice of yoga fully inclusive and easily accessible to anyone with a desire to explore their life’s journey through the practice.

“In 2020, the opportunity arose to transition the existing 3 Sisters yoga studio and community into a brick-and-mortar home for Cultivate Yoga,” explains Evan. “Our long-term dream was always to transition Cultivate Yoga Space into a yoga home that could help us fully realize the mission of our non-profit.”

This dream got fast-tracked largely due to the pandemic, the massive loss of incoming revenue and the realization that now was the time to make a meaningful and far-reaching change for the community.

“Within struggle there is unlimited opportunity for growth, change and evolution,” Evan notes. “With the pandemic, we were gifted an opportunity to completely step out of the groove of a more traditional business model, follow our hearts and live our mission.”

“While we are gratefully welcoming and accepting financial donations to help support our organization and our community, we want all individuals to know that they can practice with us as often as they want without ever feeling like they have an obligation to support us financially,” he comments. “This is our karmic yoga, our opportunity to give from our hearts to the community, to not be attached to the outcomes of this shift in operations and to witness where the journey takes us all as a collective.”

Evan notes that with all of the beauty and experimentation of karmic yoga aside, CYS is certainly aware that they are still operating within a framework of reality and a capitalistic economy. There are costs to operating a yoga studio and organization that they will remain responsible for and that they must cover in order to sustain this community for all. This is where they intend to gently guide the CYS community to give back—if, and only if, they truly and comfortably can. All donations are tax-deductible and go directly to support the Cultivate Yoga community and cover costs, including teacher pay, rent, utilities, software and other professional services.

“First and foremost, the more people who choose to practice with us, the larger our community will become and the more it will be filled with diverse individuals on an infinite array of unique life journeys. A larger and more diverse community means that we have a better chance of survival within this community-supported business model,” Evan explains. “The hope is that each individual will choose to give back and support the Cultivate community in any way that they can, whenever they are comfortably in a position to do so. Support can extend far beyond the financial realm and may include a bartering of services, promotions, studio maintenance, donations of goods/supplies or really anything that can help sustain the community for all of us.“

In alignment with Cultivate’s mission to make yoga accessible for all, many of the classes are considered all-levels practice—providing students with options and pose modifications within each class that can support the practice of the individual. Classes are offered in-studio, virtually on their Mindbody live streaming platform and outdoors at Cultivate Nature Space, just a short walk from the studio. Classes in-studio are typically accompanied by a specific temperature setting, reaching up to 99+ degrees in some classes.

“There is a special energy that resonates throughout CYS—some of which still echoes from the beautiful time that 3 Sisters held the space. Since the transition, I have shared much time and energy to make the space uniquely Cultivate, and somewhere that speaks to my heart, my life and my practice,” smiles Evan. “Our team of teachers (cultivators) certainly helps to define us as an organization as well, bringing an abundance of heart and soul to their teaching and our community. My only hope for each student that practices with us is that they will feel connected to their own unique personal journey in this life, will find the ability to accept where they’ve been and where they find themselves now and feel empowered to make the changes they feel that they need to better themselves and our community.”

Cultivate Yoga Space is located at 2406 Ridgeland Drive in Avon. To make a tax-deductible donation or book a class, visit CultivateYogaSpace.com or call 347-598-4480 for more information. Find them on Facebook @CultivateYogaSpace and Instagram @CultivateYogaCle. To view the schedule and book a class, visit CYS on Mindbody.