By Brittany Tiplady
@yellowbird888

Living in Vancouver, it’s almost mandatory to tell people that you practice yoga on the regular. But how many of us don’t enjoy balancing in crow pose as much as we let on?

Well, Anita Cheung has found the secret to making yoga fun.

The Social Yoga is a nomadic studio, that brings community, interaction and innovation into the yoga practice. Paired with clever branding, and yummy rewards, each series aims to cater to the every-yogi.

“It is so different from any other yoga experience that you could have,” said Cheung.

“I have lots of beginners, I also have lots of people who have done yoga before, but they maybe didn’t like the studio vibe. It’s nice to be able to know that people trust the company, and like what we are doing, and are coming back again, and again, and again”

In the fall, the Social Yoga offered The Sundae Morning series at the Earnest Ice Cream on Fraser Street. After one hour of socializing and games, followed by one hour of flow yoga, the morning concluded with a pint, a scoop (or double scoop), of Earnest Ice Cream, taking “Sunday Fun-day” to a whole other level.

Currently sold out workshops include the Botanical Series  held at Balance Botanicals on Main.

“In this series, we paired with a naturopath. So, we do yoga for the first bit and then after people get to make their own teas and tonics and learn about natural healing and herbs,” said Cheung.

“We also had acupuncture and yoga. People had little mini needles in them, and we had a different health focus each week, and the yoga postures complimented that.”

After battling a love/hate relationship, Cheung found balance in practising yoga her way.

“I moved away in my early twenties for school and it all kind of hit me at the same time. I was going through some mental health stuff and yoga and meditation completely just overhauled my life and I learned to approach it in a totally different way,” she said.

“For me it wasn’t in a spiritual way, like chanting OM, or mala beads, but I learned how it could apply to my day to day life in a realistic way for me. That’s my yoga journey and it constantly changes, and my practice changes, but so does everybody’s.”

What’s available now? Amongst others, the Conscious Collective Series is running this month on Sunday, Dec. 6, 13 and 20, from 9 a.m.  to 11 a.m. The morning teams up with the lululemon lab and their Conscious Collective vision for the holidays.

And what to look out for?

“There is intention to expand,” said Cheung.

“We are looking to getting more into meditation, and offering meditation, practices that people can look forward to. The plan is to have a Social Yoga pop-up meditation studio on Robson sometime this holiday season.”

Brittany Tiplady is a part-time poet, and a full-time goat cheese enthusiast. She loves the indoors, fast wifi, collecting maps, and a generous glass of red wine.