Hop E Works Community

I once knew a great and charismatic yoga teacher that taught in a local fitness center. While the yoga classes were only a part of the gym’s actual focus, they were extremely popular and well known with men and women of all ages. You had to get to class at least 10 minutes early or else there would be no space for you to move. Her classes were consistently packed every week no matter what. This teacher emphasized the whole experience of the class – not just the asanas. She created a warm atmosphere by dimming the lights, lighting candles, and playing soothing music. At the beginning of each class she would tell everyone, “Forget about everything that you have do this week, today, or tomorrow and focus on your breathing and relaxing.” She had a quiet confidence that radiated from her in a way that made students feel “I want to be more like her.” We have all known teachers like this – perhaps you are one yourself.

At one point, she left the center in pursuit of other goals. Her replacement, while amply skilled in the technical aspects of teaching yoga, lacked the charisma and magnetism of her predecessor. The studio that used to be packed every Tuesday and Thursday soon held only two or three hopefuls somehow wishing for the energy to return. Eventually, the fitness center decided to get rid of the yoga program altogether because of poor attendance.

It is important to realize that only half of a teacher’s job is teaching, the other half is inspiring students in a way that creates the best experience for them. There are times when it is okay to sacrifice more advanced technical ability in a teacher for the teacher who has personality and “magic” about her, but may not be as skilled in advanced technique. It is far more important to a new student that they feel supported and guided by a charismatic teacher, as opposed to their teacher’s ability to do amazing advanced poses.

How you can create a deeper sense of community in your studio

Lets say, for example, you want to try something new in your life such as fishing. You get to the fishing store and you don’t really know what to buy or even how to fish. All the salespeople are helping people who are experienced fishermen and don’t even glance over your way or acknowledge you. After being ignored for a while, you decide maybe fishing isn’t really for you even though you haven’t actually tried it. The store may not realize they may have lost a potentially good customer who could have become an expert at fishing. You would have continued to buy new line, poles, tackle, and other equipment from the store on a weekly basis if they had helped you.

Now imagine a different scenario. When you walked in the store someone instantly greeted you and asked if they could help you in any way. After showing you what equipment you would need for fishing and explaining how to use everything, you felt confident about trying this new activity. The salesperson made you feel like they cared about your needs, and you even had a good laugh with them. From then on you associate this good feeling with this particular store, and decide that you will continue to buy from this store because of your initial positive experience.

While the practice of yoga is a bit different from shopping for fishing gear, the experience of the customer has a lot in common. We like to do things that feel good. Part of this is the technical side, but the rest is all the other stuff that goes on around the activity. A first time customer is only trying to find what they want and to know that someone actually cares to help them. By simply making students feel welcome in your class you have already begun to create a pleasant yoga experience for them. Students will trust a teacher that is caring and patient with them because they believe that the teacher truly wants to see them do better. This trust will no doubt be passed along to their friends, who are also interested in yoga, and they may become students as well sooner or later. The more students you have the more prosperous your studio can be.

A yoga studio should always want their students to come back to classes and enjoy their time during, before, and after class. There are many ways to provide a good experience for your student. It is essential to have at least a couple of positive-energy, charismatic teachers who will draw and keep students. Remember, you can send someone to a workshop to improve their technical skill, but you can’t really teach charisma. Another key component is having friendly and warm front desk staff that can support students with any concerns that they may have. These employees are the ones that will establish a positive association and create good feelings about the overall studio and classes.

Creating warmth and community outside of classes

Another idea to create a sense of warmth and community outside of classes is by giving students an incentive to stay longer. Offer tea, coffee, cookies, etc. in a seating area where people can socialize before or after class. You may even be able to have different local stores provide these each day (for free or reduced cost) in exchange for a sign with their name on it, for putting free ads or coupons on the table next to them, or in trade for free classes.

If you don’t have a waiting/community area outside of the space where classes are taught, have a 15-minute break between classes for people to socialize. Yoga has a way of breaking down barriers and relaxing people so that they feel comfortable around fellow students. Giving them the space and time to socialize will help them to enjoy their experience of the class even more. Have front desk staff personally introduce new students to their teacher to help make them feel welcome. By creating a familiarity with other students, a new student will feel a sense of belonging with the studio and look forward to their next class.

As a studio owner, your goal is to create an environment that makes people want to come before class and stay late. It’s not just about the yoga – it’s about how people feel when they are in your studio, even what they feel when they think about it later in the day. One of the keys to a successful studio is creating an environment where the student’s experience as a whole is truly exceptional.

Actors are a rare breed of people. They are shy but bold, introverted yet welcoming, open and closed at the same time. To say that actors are emotionally conflicted is an understatement.

On stage, actors are bold, confident, self-assured. They come across a huge gulf and reach out to strangers in order to communicate an idea, a character, an emotion. Actors long to take you with them on their adventure. Yet, to know an actor is to know someone who is painfully shy, who is certain that no one remembers them, and who, themselves, never forget a face.

We train actors to project their voices and their character’s personalities. We teach them how to turn so that the audience can see them. We teach them how to interact with other characters on stage, how to get themselves and their castmates out of trouble, how to be on time… all of those things. And actors can accomplish this inside the structure of the production and inside the structure of the theatre, but rarely do they do this in their day to day lives. It does not come naturally to them.

Actors are not accustomed to being accepted by the mainstream, and it shows. The successful, genial actor will develop a ‘public character’ (as we all do, to a certain extent) in order to get by in life. The difference between actors and the rest of us is that actors are usually aware of the role they play in real life and the rest of us are not.

Actors are the sensitive kids who either stand out or feel as though they stand out from their peers… and not in a good way. They are unaccepted, easily hurt, reluctant to join in. Girls are often painfully shy, and very bright over-achievers. Boys are often in trouble for speaking out, being the class clown, and known to be hard to handle. Normally, there are only one or two per class like this, usually only one boy.

These kids try soccer, hockey, Scouts, Girl Guides, and a myriad of other organised sports or clubs, to no avail. Their natural tendencies toward shyness and an imaginary world, or toward boldness and attention-seeking don’t often meld well with those sorts of things. The child is again an outcast, or in the case of girls, has cast herself out.

So what do actors need?

They need the same thing that everyone else needs. They need what hockey-players and Girl Guides and the Church Women’s League needs.

Actors need community.

Amateur productions usually rehearse from four to six weeks in advance of opening night, some more, some less. Professional productions normally rehearse for two intense weeks. During that time, but especially during the run of the show, the cast can form close bonds, become friends, and share a common goal. They form a community. They become a team.

For someone who is not used to being a welcome addition to most teams, this is a very gratifying and emotional experience, although it is short-lived. When the show is finished, they experience a huge sense of loss; loss of friends, loss of work, and loss of self. Actors are aware that their community may only last for six or eight weeks, and many will only be cast in one show per year. It can be heartbreaking for them to realise that their sense of belonging is so fleeting.

It is important for actors to take charge of their own happiness. They really can build community around them, even if they are not working on a production. The inspiration behind this article is Tony Babcock, who is an absolute go-getter. When he is not being paid for acting, he is calling his contacts and making arrangements to get together to do scene work, to tweak some technique, to run a monologue past them.

Tony understands that he needs community, not just to keep himself working, but to keep himself happy.

Community health nursing synthesis the body of knowledge from the public health sciences and professional nursing theories for the purpose of improving the health of the entire community. Community health nursing practice therefore promotes and preserves the health of the population. The community is not an easily or consistently defined entity. It is a nebulous, complex concept. Thus a community in its broadest sense will be defined as a group of people living in an environment that has the ability to meet their life goals and needs.

The entry into the community is usually made possible by the chief medical officer through the issuance of letters to community leaders for easy acceptability and accessibility. Critical to the dynamics of a community are its patterns of communication, leadership and decision making and this occurs as a result of interaction between community members and the larger society. The different components of this community include people, environment and health care delivery system and together they determine the physical, social, mental states of wellness of the people.

For the people component there is:

a. Demographics such as population distribution, mobility, density and census data;
b. Biological aspects will include health and disease status, province/state of origin, nationality, age, sex, mortality.
c. Acquired aspects are twofold, social which takes into account occupation, activities, marital status, education, religion and cultural which include position, roles value, customs, norms, taboos.

For the environmental component there is:

a. Physical aspect which include natural resources, landscape, climate, terrain, relief, boundaries and limits;
b. Biological and chemical aspects such as animal reservoirs, toxic substances, food supply, standard of food control, water source, staple food, vector control, living arrangement, sewage disposal, water supply and refuse disposal;
c. Social aspects involve industry and economics, communication, transportation, recreation/recreational facilities and religion.

For the health care delivery system component, there is:

a. The organizational aspect involving government and private sectors, systems, linkages and
b. Resources which involve health personnel, health centers, clinics and hospitals, funds, services.

Through the complete understanding of these different components, then can health promotion, disease prevention and rehabilitative measures be implemented. Promoting health of the people and their welfare can be done through health education to both individuals and families. During these education sessions, various aspects of diseases, their prevention can be given as well as ways of rehabilitation when calamity strikes.

Community health problems will then be arrived at through two ways:

a. As perceived by the community and then
b. As perceived by the community health nurse.

A community diagnosis will then be reached, which can range from one to several. Recommendations can then be made to the appropriate people concerned.

In conclusion, the community health nurse, in doing this assessment, must strive to work as a team with the community involved and he/she must be able to achieve if not all, some of the eight components of primary health care, such as immunization against infectious diseases, an adequate supply of safe water, education concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them.