Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Komar.
Joe, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My vision and passion for opening Urban Exhale is directly connected to my experience and path as a student of yoga. Since I began the practice I have received many insights and gifts which have allowed me to explore the deeper meaning and purpose of my life.
Through an internal investigation, many questions, incredible teachers, amazing friends and family to reflect upon I have been fully supported and guided to stay true to my dream of opening a space where we could share the practice in the most meaningful and honest way. I have learned so much through the unforeseen anecdotal experiences of life and can see the positive perspective of them all as they have allowed me to nurture, connect and relate to the physical practice of yoga asana, meditation and mindfulness.
I seek to explore and to deepen my practice and breathe each time I arrive on my mat and in that, find the beauty, context and peace that can be translated and shared with my students. The evolution, growth, and path of each student is special and unique and it is exciting to guide a practice where each experience has never happened and will never happen again.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Finding our home was 6 years in the making with many ups and downs along the way while I was teaching yoga full time in Los Angeles. We sought a location that would connect with our community, friends and family which my wife and I developed over the years. Finding a space at an affordable price with parking that could accommodate fitness use was the greatest challenge.
We looked at over 50 properties in person and eventually found our space with our commercial real estate broker at Camacho Commercial, Seve Woods. Seve understood our vision and found us space before it went on the market. We were the first fitness use to submit an LOI on the space and that allowed us to come to terms on a dream location that is centrally located to the entire city.
Please tell us about Urban Exhale Hot Yoga.
Our space feels like the most incredible yoga studio in your own backyard. We’ve had many students echo these words as they literally come from their homes behind the space. You will feel the true sense and offering of a practice and build a deeper connection to your breath when you walk through our doors. Our message is simple, breath and sweat and the rest shall be revealed. Rather than developing a trend or attaching a dogmatic approach to the practice, we believe in the quality of connecting and relating versus distracting and separating from our fellow students, instructors and studios.
We have designed and built a space to support a powerful and calming community focused on the student experience including spa-like amenities, free parking, lush interiors and finishes, a boutique studio design, curated by my wife Stacey Scowly, created to match the function and flow of a yoga student, eco-conscious construction including green materials and occupancy sensor lighting, two hot yoga studios with one of a kind engineered ventilation, monitoring and climate control systems to create a safe and consistent environment for our students, paper-free student experience, that is an architectural masterpiece by Andrew Obermeyer and OX architecture.
Urban Exhale is motivated to offer quality group hot yoga classes that prioritize breath awareness and also dynamic and intuitively connected one-on-one sessions, workshops, and small group experiences.
We value the importance of the teacher and student relationship and honor each instructor as the artist they are while supporting their passion to practice and share the practice. All of the teachers we hire are grounded in their own ever-evolving path as a student of yoga. From this perspective, our instructors are free to guide their authentic self in order to connect and relate the practice of yoga to their students as genuinely and raw and meaningful as possible. Students love that they get to see who their instructors really are versus someone that is being told what to do and what to say.
Our studio, staff and instructors also value quality over quantity and while understanding the many options that students have for practicing yoga, we have developed a team and community that is empowered to see and connect to every student that walks through the door. Our classes and facilities are sized appropriately to honor personal space and to retain our students for many years to come.
All Urban Exhale instructors are supported and encouraged to explore their practice and to observe their students, guide mindful and accessible group classes to all levels and to teach from their most authentic self on a daily basis.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Spending time in nature and playing on the river at our summer cottage outside of Chicago.
Pricing:
- All new students – First 30 Days for $60
- Unlimited monthly memberships from $120 per month
- A single drop-in classes $22
- Private hot yoga sessions for $150/hr
Contact Info:
- Address: 728 N La Brea Los Angeles, CA 90038
- Website: www.urbanexhaleyoga.com
- Phone: 323-592-3209
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @urbanexhaleyoga
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/urbanexhaleyoga/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/urbanexhaleyoga
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/urban-exhale-yoga-los-angeles
Image Credit:
Anthony Barcelo @mrbarcelo, Vanessa Viola @vanessaviolaphotos
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