PERFECT HEARTS YOGA

After a tough past year, 2021 is proving to be an exciting one for Perfect Hearts Yoga. Belinda Llewellyn is thrilled to announce her business has relocated from its former location in a garage behind The Juice Truck on First Avenue to its new larger home on Bayview Street.

“We love the new space with its big bright views. The studio is larger and we now have a bathroom! We used to have to use The Juice Truck’s facilities, which we couldn't even use after COVID-19 hit,” Belinda says.

She admits it was emotional letting go of the First Avenue studio that people had grown attached to, but the new second-floor location that overlooks the village, the mountains, and also offers a waterfront view quickly won her over. Renovations have transformed the studio into a light, airy space with a new touch of retro chic.

Belinda says with a laugh, ~ This is a wonderful new perspective and ambience from our previous alley vista.”

Perfect Hearts was heavily impacted by the pandemic; it had to close for seven months last year.

Belinda comments, ‘When we were allowed to open again in July before the second wave of COVID-19, like many businesses with which we sympathize, we were only able to admit less than fifty percent of our regular attendance per class. At the same time, some people were understandably nervous to attend classes. It was a very difficult time for the studio. We gave online classes a shot, but they didn’t take off.”

With the opening of the new studio, we are now focussing on in-person classes, which we have all been missing so much.

Belinda is accustomed to dealing with adversity. In 2007 she was hit by a car, which sent her flying across two lanes into oncoming traffic. She landed on her face resulting in lost teeth and a shattered ankle. She spent the better part of two months on the couch followed by a few extra months wobbling about. Before the accident, she had been a chef’s apprentice but when she tried returning to work she found it was too much for her ankles to handle. With time on her hands, she took up yoga.

She explains, “Yoga helped me with my posttraumatic stress disorder which I suffered from as a result of the accident. It also helped me regain my strength. I fell in love with yoga.”

She was a graphic designer for 15 years but got tired of the nine-to-five lifestyle and sitting in front of a computer every day. Looking for a change, she took her yoga training in January 2009 while continuing at her job.

When her parents decided to build a house in Belize she went along to assist them and ended up staying for a year. It was during this time she opened her first yoga studio.

After returning to Canada she heard through the grapevine that a Steveston yoga studio was for sale and seized the opportunity to purchase it. Perfect Hearts Yoga’s first location opened in January 2012.

“There are many different styles of yoga, some of which are better suited for a particular season in our lives. There are many benefits to a regular yoga practice. It promotes a healthier lifestyle with both the physical side of things and the emotional. Also, most people in a regular practice start to make healthier diet choices,” Belinda says.

Perfect Hearts offers almost every style including Flow, Gentle Hatha, Hatha, Kundalini, Restorative, and Yin yoga.

Students can practice the lengthy poses of Yin yoga to soothe the body's connective tissues, participate in energizing flow classes, or opt for a calming candlelit Hatha class. Instructors cater to all experience levels and will guide students through modifications to allow them to ease up on a pose or allow them to go deeper.

Perfect Hearts was voted Best Yoga Studio in the Richmond News’ 2020 Best of Richmond.

She and her staff look forward to welcoming new and returning students to the Bayview Street location. New members are eligible to purchase an eight-week pass for $99.

Belinda feels extremely grateful for her loyal clients and her team of eight teachers. She remarks, “All have different things to offer and we are lucky to have them.”

She concludes, “Getting back to yoga in the studio can help many people who are experiencing stress return to a routine that they were used to before the pandemic. Our clients are very grateful that we have pushed through despite the forced closures and difficulties.”

Perfect Hearts Yoga 3800 Bayview Street, #201 Richmond, BC V7E 4R7 Telephone 778-984-9642 www.perfectheartsyoga.com