For Emily Brown, her yoga studio is her escape. She’s been teaching and practicing the art now for more than a decade.  

With the daily stresses caused by the pandemic, more people are turning to her than ever before for that same escape.

“A lot of people are coming out and seeing new students who have never done yoga before and who decided they wanted to try it because they wanted to feel better,” said Brown, who co-owns Binghamton Yoga.

The emotional toll left by this pandemic has more people looking for an outlet. Brown has always turned to yoga for a release, and is encouraged more people are now following suit.

“Obviously stress makes things all uncomfortable. It makes pain exacerbated and also just leads to a really hard state of mind so yoga gives us the opportunity to try to not necessarily ignore those things but accept that they’re a part of life,” said Brown.

Brown focuses her studio on being adaptive and accessible to everyone. Many of her classes offer a slower pace which uses a chair for balance, and allows an older crowd to participate.

“It’s really intended to help every individual learn how to best support themselves, so it’s not like placing a round peg into a square hole. Everything sort of comes together nicely because it’s about feeling good for yourself,” said Brown.

Of course with more attendees comes the need for more instructors. Brown is offering a certification program to help meet the needs of the growing yoga community.

And as a small a small business, she’s thrilled to return to some normalcy.

“Being open now is a big relief. Being able to reconnect to people we haven’t seen in a year, it’s been stressful, but you take it one step at a time and you take an easy breath and hopefully you go forward and things adjust along the way,” said Brown.

Binghamton Yoga offers “drop-in” classes for $9, along with a virtual program for those not ready to come in person.