“We are over the moon about this,” says Chad Underwood of Modo Yoga about a special guest this month. “We are very honored and excited that Ted Grand is visiting us in Columbus for a unique workshop on August 25.”
Founded by Ted Grand and Jess Robertson, Modo Yoga is one of the largest yoga organizations in North America, and they have started adding Modo (or Moksha) Yoga studios in other countries, too. Grand and Robertson began Moksha Yoga in Toronto after breaking away from Bikram yoga. They realized hot yoga could be much more healing than Bikram’s program, and they wanted to include teachings about non-violence and make charity a studio focus. As environmental activists in the non-profit sector before starting a yoga organization, from the beginning they stressed a non-hierarchical structure and eco-consciousness in their studios. Also, they didn’t want to grow quickly.
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell,” says Grand often.
Located at 1042 Dublin Rd., Modo Yoga has embodied the pillars of Modo Yoga since opening in 2015. Multiple measures are in place to make Modo Yoga as energy efficient as possible, and they used recycled materials as often as possible in the build out.
“Our front desk is made from an industrial table we found onsite,” says Underwood.
Another sign of Modo’s comment to quality, not quantity, is that at Modo Yoga, unlike many other yoga studios in Columbus, all their yoga teachers 500-hour trained. Modo Yoga has steadily increased its course offerings and activities since opening, yet kept their commitment to high-quality yoga classes and good amenities for their customers.
Modo Yoga is organized around six pillars including “Be Community” which reflect the founders’ ideas about yoga changing the world and being accessible. You can see the commitment to community at Modo Yoga Columbus in their generously-sized lobby for holding conversations and their many charity activities.
“Every month we have classes at reduced rates and donation-based classes to benefit a charity,” notes Underwood.
There are also scholarships available for classes and teacher trainings. Modo is even involved in community outside the studio, such as holding yoga sessions to raise money for the historic Greenlawn Abbey.
Ted Grand will be at Modo Yoga for a special workshop on Sunday afternoon, August 25. For more information and to sign up visit columbus.modoyoga.com.