Today we’d like to introduce you to William Brashear.
Hi William, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Although yoga classes and events were happening in and around the TriState, when Cincinnati Yoga School opened in 1999 it was the first actual venue in the region totally dedicated to holding yoga classes and events 7 days a week. From it, “It’s Yoga” in Clifton Heights became our first branch, although the owners of CYS at the time decided to split, leaving Daine Utaski at the helm of CYS and Indu Bhardwaj at the helm of It’s Yoga. By then there were a few other studios as well and, shortly after 2004, when Diane decided to hand the reins of CYS over to me, their was an explosion of new yoga studios throughout the area. Also at this time CYS was about to financially go under, so we moved from the overpriced shopping center in Blue Ash that we started at to the upstairs of a beautiful Masonic Temple in Pleasant Ridge. Since then we have seen yoga studios come and go, and a huge number of them wiped out during the pandemic, but the thing that always kept us afloat was our unique Yoga Teacher Trainings and our own particularly style and brand of Thai Yoga Massage, called Acu Thai. Putting these two arts together has made for a magical understanding and approach to everything we do. For example, most of our teachers are also trained in Acu Thai, and which implies that our teachers can not only give amazing adjustments, but they can also speak to what meridians are being activated by the postures they teach. Furthermore, the meridians (which most people are familiar with through Chinese acupuncture or acupressure) are related to a surprisingly little known (at least in the west) science that Ayurveda refers to as the Panch Maha Bhuta, or Five Great Elements, which are the basis of yoga (and TCM) as holistic healing modalities. Now what that means is more than mouthful, as well as a monthful, of discussion and training but, in short, every challenge one has (mental, physical, emotional) can be better understood and treated when you realize what element the challenge corresponds to. For example, if someone has “excessive fire” they might struggle with being easily aggravated, ulcers, and/or burnout. For this, the prescription would be water element practices, such as things that are flowing, cooling and calming. For, as everyone knows, water controls fire. And everyone can think of things that are calming and cooling, as well. But if you work with one of our Elemental Yoga Therapists, or Acu Thai Massage Therapists, we can help you take that a lot deeper, Furthermore, we can address the meridians through Acu Thai with acupressure and stretching, and we can also teach you how to address those meridians on your own through designing a personalized yoga practice for you that activates the water meridians in your body. For example, when you do a forward bend it opens the meridians of your body that relate to the water element (as opposed to back bends that activate ones fire meridians). But sometimes people need more fire, or more or less earth (grounding), or more or less Air (control), or Space (courage). I refer to it as acupuncture without the needles, but all of our teachers have some degree of knowledge about the meridians and the elements which really set us apart. Furthermore, we have trained others from around the world in both Acu Thai and Elemental Yoga Therapy (which we refer to as Vishwa Ayurveda). Nowadays, however, our training mostly happens in a new yoga shala that we have opened in Bali, Indonesia: The Lotus Yoga Shala. However, we also have a training (coming up this Fall) that we haven’t done in a few years, but are excited to bring it back. It takes one on an experiential tour of the elements across south India, which we call the Vishwa Yoga Journey. For example, we start this yoga teacher training at a beach in Goa to study the water element, then we go to Hampi to enter and experience the earth element within many ancient stone temples, then to Pyramid Valley (pyre/fire) to meditate inside of a giant pyramid, and so on. Also, in the near future we hope to hold yoga retreats in Coron, an island of the Philippines with some of the most pristine water and some of the last remaining brilliantly colorful corral. This is one of many ways we practice Vishwa or Universal Yoga; which is not just about teaching universal yoga practices, but also providing opportunities for our students to yoke (yogh) with the beauty and wisdom throughout the world.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We have always striven to keep yoga accessible to the general public, or to anyone who truly wants to learn regardless of financial means. Therefore, we have always kept our prices much cheaper than most other studios. In fact, you wouldn’t believe how often we hear from our students that our prices are actually too low. And, believe it or not, I have often found myself defending our low prices. From time to time I even hear myself preaching to others about just charging a fair price. For, as I see it in so many things -nearly everything really- it is a normal practice to not charge a fair and honest price but rather to strive to find ways to charge the absolute most that one can get. I don’t think anyone should do this, but especially those who really want to bring yoga to the world. If they are in it for the money or like the idea of having “a following” or both, then they are in it for the wrong reasons. It is truly antithetical to the aims of yoga. However, we know many yoga and yogic venues do keep their integrity in line with their intentions, and we certainly understand how it can be hard for many of them to stay afloat. In fact, when it comes to yoga classes, we only make enough money to pay the rent, utilities and our teachers. Sometimes we might have $100 to $300 left over, but often we find ourselves that much in the red as well. Hence, we have never tried to rely on yoga classes to make a living. But again, it does pay rent. In other words, our yoga classes hold the door open, so to speak, for our Acu Thai massage therapy services. Furthermore, anyone who comes for classes knows where they can get both Acu Thai and yoga therapy, so we don’t really have to advertise. This is how we make a living, but still, everyone is surprised how cheap we are even for these services. However, I wouldn’t say “cheap”, I would just say it is a fair and balanced price. And balance is another word for yoga, and another word for harmony, and harmony attracts the life force, it fosters health. On the other hand, imbalance is disharmony. Like bad karma, it brings one down. It’s remarkable to me how so many in the world cannot see that gouging others just results in their own demise, even though they may have millions in the bank.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Hopefully it is seen already that the way we approach yoga is different, but there is so much that is yoga but not called “yoga”. For example, we all have heard of Nirvana and probably understand it to be a yogic goal, but few realize that it is not yoga postures or special meditations that get you there. Now I am not speaking as one who claims to have reached Nirvana, but I do know what a certain holy book, often considered the Bible of yoga, says about attaining Nirvana, The book is called the Bhagavad-Gita and it is Krishna who clearly states within it the path. I won’t give you the whole quote, but he lists many, many virtues we should strive to attain (virtues not yoga postures) such as freedom from greed, gentleness, modesty, forgiveness, fortitude, absence of pride, and many more, and then concludes: “these are the qualities of those endowed with divine virtues… Divine qualities lead to Nirvana.” ~ In India, many gurus have used the phrase “the art of living” and although they may have some physical yogic regimen as well as pranayama (breathing techniques) and meditations, any guru worth his or her salt will teach living a good and virtuous life, which would include service to others and dedication to the Divine. Those postures and meditations and breathing techniques are there to help us keep our virtue, our integrity, and to help us to serve others. but the postures, the meditations, the breathing techniques are not ends in themselves; which is where so many in the west or who are new to yoga totally miss the boat on the intentions of yoga. It has been changing though. Yoga has been around in the west long enough now that people are starting to wonder if there is something more to it than good health and achieving transcendental states of mind; and at CYS we hope we have played a significant role in teaching that yoga is a path of cultivating virtue and that the postures and meditations -as much as we do them, day after day- are still secondary to the actual goal of improving individual and societal integrity.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
If one can keep and build upon their integrity and use it as a force for service and good in the world then that is the ultimate criteria for success. Wealth or Fame, Poverty or Imprisonment have no bearing on true success. I don’t know how well I keep my integrity, whether its the yoga studio or personal life, but I am very clear that it is the only thing that matters and so, hopefully, it is always playing a role in guiding my next steps.
Pricing:
- Unlimited Yoga Classes $49/month
- Unlimited Classes / Family Plan $69
- Unlimited Classes / Students & School Teachers $29
- 2 Hour, full body, Acu Thai -Ayurvedic Yoga Massage $111
- Yoga Teacher Training / Acu Thai Massage Training: We have many options, including payment plans with 0% financing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cincyoga.com
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