Even if you’ve lived in Greenpoint for a long time, odds are high that Goodyoga has been here longer. Much to her disbelief, founder Flannery Foster opened Goodyoga twelve years ago. Now located at 114 Greenpoint Avenue, Goodyoga has officially reopened.
The Decision to Reopen
When the pandemic shut almost everything down, fitness studios and communal areas were some of the first to go. That included Goodyoga. Though Foster has spent over a decade creating businesses with her LLC, Gooddeed, she contemplated a pandemic-related career shift. But Foster quickly realized that the studio and the community she has cultivated within those four walls are too important to leave behind.
Despite having once opened a few different Goodyoga locations, this time around Foster wants to focus on one studio and one community. This location will be the official physical hub for all things Goodyoga.
After securing the space over Memorial Day weekend of 2021, Foster got to sanding and waxing the floors herself by hand, and was ready to resume classes on June 19th. Shortly after, Foster hosted a grand reopening party on July 11th in celebration of Goodyoga’s 12th anniversary!
To understand the significance of this anniversary, it’s good to take a good look at Gooddeed.
Gooddeed LLC
Flannery Foster is an impressive entrepreneur. Over the years, she’s founded multiple businesses in an effort to create safe spaces for people to practice like-minded passions such as travel, yoga, and music.
Having traveled to 101 countries to date, Foster has always sought out the opportunity to travel. In addition to the obsessive nature of exploring new places, she finds that traveling actually saves her money and allows her to explore her interest in political boundaries. Therefore, before there was Goodyoga, there was Goodpoint. “The first guesthouse in North Brooklyn,” Goodpoint was a bed and breakfast for travelers bitten by the same wanderlust bug. From there, she opened Goodyoga, Goodies, and is now writing The Goodbook.
The Philosophy
During her time abroad, Foster learned her yoga practice in India from “Krishnamacharya’s longest tenured students, Srivatsa Ramaswami, and AG, Indra and Ganesh Mohan,” before she spent time teaching in Sri Lanka. Foster notes that the closer she got to the source, the simpler the practice became. Rather than being cluttered with yoga adjacent spirituality selling points, Foster’s practice gets straight to the core of yoga. She preaches the practice of yoga as a way of life, not an attempt to access a higher power. “Yoga is a discipline – whatever you do it helps you do better. Yoga is the practice of being here now, even when now is uncomfortable.”
At Goodyoga, people have the opportunity to learn the discipline in a safe and inclusive space, within a supportive community.
It’s all about restorative therapy.
“[Come] breathe, feel good, you don’t have to be any type of way. It’s not an instagram practice, it’s not about being hip or cool, just be nice. Be kind. That’s what the community offers.”
In addition to being an entrepreneur, her work as an educator has solidified Goodyoga’s place in the neighborhood. As mentioned on her website:
“AG & Indra Mohan, Krishnamacharya’s devoted students for the last 18 years of his life, and their son, Ganesh, along with Srivatsa Ramiswami, Krishnamacharya’s longest tenured student, with whom I studied the Yoga Sutras, have been my most significant teachers. I received my 500 hour certification from YogaWorks, where I served as Teacher Training Program Advisor under the Direction OF ISHTA Yoga’s Alan Finger and Jean Koerner, Charles Maitkin, Jenny Aurthur, and many more. I hold all available Yoga Alliance certifications (E-RYT 500, RCYT*, RPYT* and YACEP* status.) and an additional certification in Breast Cancer Practices. I am certified to both practice and teach Thai Massage through ITM in Chiang Mai, Thailand.”
Classes include goodflow, goodrest, and goodness. Goodflow is a more traditional yoga flow practice; goodrest is a “half hour pillow hugging session,” and goodness is 50% flow and 50% rest.
The G200
Foster also established a G200 immersion program years ago. The yoga alliance requires an individual to have 200 hours of education in order to teach yoga, but Goodyoga requires their teachers to have 500 hours of education. The G200 is for individuals of all levels. It’s designed to teach yoga from the ground up every Sunday from 10am-6pm for twenty-seven weeks in a row, excluding holiday weekends.
In the 12 years that Goodyoga has been open, Foster has taught at least 15 of the G200 programs, and this year will be her last. That said, G200 isn’t going anywhere. Rather, Foster is just passing the baton to her incredibly capable co-educators.
Soon, Foster hopes to host a G200 trip in India. Foster is also looking forward to planning a goodtrip retreat to the Dominican Republic, and one to San Lucia. She prioritizes planning trips that are locally sourced by the companies and inhabitants of the country they are visiting.
Additional Opportunities
114 Greenpoint Ave is a place for more than just yoga. Goodyoga also hosts coworking events, accountability group meetings, and, on Sunday nights, it turns into Lupe’s Lounge.
The coworking: If you’d like to stick around before or after class, there are plenty of couches and a lovely backyard space on and in which you can do work.
The accountability groups: This time has been very hard for many people. On Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8-8:45pm, Goodyoga hosts a group therapy session led by a Goodyoga teacher who also happens to be a counselor. On Tuesdays, the focus is on pandemic PTSD (with acknowledgement that we’re not out of the woods yet). On Thursdays, the focus is on moderation. Under our collective current circumstances, it’s tempting to cope through immoderation. Whether your version of immoderation means using substances, overexercising, codependency, or overworking, this group works towards sustainability with moderation.
Lupe’s Lounge: Named after Foster’s grandmother, Lupe’s Lounge hosts musicians every Sunday as an opportunity for the community to come together for a different form of relaxation and socialization. Foster is a jazz musician herself and loves having a safe place to experience live music with good people. Events are “BYOEverything” with a limit – a 6 pack of beer per couple, 3 beers per individual, a bottle of wine per couple, etc. Proof of vaccination is required.
All teachers at Goodyoga are vaccinated and have agreed voluntarily to weekly PCR testing.
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