Anti-Racism at Hometown Sweat

I know you’re eager for Hometown Sweat to re-open.

I am too.

I know how much our hot room means to you, how after even just one hot yoga or hot Pilates class you instantly feel better. Grounded. Healed.

I know that when you spend 90 minutes on your mat, sweating and struggling, breathing, and stretching, you get closer to your best self filled with patience and compassion for not only you but also for those around you.

Closing the studio to slow the spread of COVID-19 has been the most challenging and stressful experience of business ownership.

And yet, the bigger picture will be missed if we don’t also accept that closing was totally and completely 100% necessary, especially right now.

For more than COVID.

We’ve been given this unavoidable opportunity to examine every aspect of our lives to make sure we’re living in the highest and best image of ourselves; to make sure we’re actively participating in creating and changing the world in which we want to live.

Literally stepping out of Hometown Sweat for three and half months and examining its structure, priorities, and values during this shut down has made me face the truth that racism doesn’t end at the doorway to the studio.

It continues unless we’re actively dismantling it and providing equitable opportunities for Black people and people of color to feel welcome and to thrive in every way.

At Hometown Sweat, our entire vision is that human beings everywhere have the power and ability to transform their lives through sweating, physical activity, and positive mindset.

Human beings.

Human beings everywhere.

We are committed to turning up the dial on the intensity to our racial equity approach at Hometown Sweat.

Here are some specific actions we’re taking right now as well as some plans we have for the future:

• Training on diversity, inclusion, and social justice, specifically in the yoga industry
• A “Courageous Conversation” offering to you – the Hometown Sweat student community – led by a social justice educator (more details coming soon)
• In the works: a library here at the studio of anti-racist books and resources
• Taking an anti-racist approach to the decisions we make, the causes we support, and the space we curate
• Seeking and hiring business and yoga coaching, consulting, and continuing education from Black educators, yogis, and entrepreneurs

About a year ago, my husband introduced me to the podcast ‘1619’, and if you haven’t already, I encourage you to listen to it here. Learning this history, this United States history, is urgent. Please, listen to it now.

‘1619’ opened my eyes to how institutionalized and prevalent racism truly is. Today. Here. In 2020.

If this feels uncomfortable, remember that discomfort lives at the cusp of transformation; growth and change do not exist without discomfort.

You yogis know that full well.

The name Hometown Sweat combines a beautiful balance of ‘welcoming’ and ‘intensity.’ Even our logo with its rounded letters mixed with the obvious drop of sweat conveys the Hometown community’s grit and resilience with our unwavering support.

Now more than ever, our Black students and community have that unwavering support. We’re working and learning to bring the same focus and intensity of the hot room into continuously uncovering ways we can show up better as practitioners of anti-racism.

For our white friends and yogis, if you’re reading this feeling a little stuck or even guilty, remember this: guilt is a feeling, not an action. It doesn’t do anything to create change.

Instead of feeling guilty, check out:

• Natick is United
• Dr. Monea T. Abdul-Majeed
• Boston Knapsack Anti-Racism Group

Remember, if you stay up until midnight bingeing on a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ‘The Tonight Dough,’ do you spend the whole next day feeling guilty about it? Heck no. You sweat your butt off in the hot room because action creates change.