Your New Year’s resolutions don’t fail because you’re lazy.

They fail because most yoga studios, fitness studios, and gyms are designed in a way that makes it very easy for you to disappear… and no one bats an eye.

Unlimited passes sound supportive and flexible. And on paper, they are.

But what they really create is silence.

No one notices if you don’t show up. No one saves your spot. No one asks where you went. And when life gets busy, or your body feels off, or you miss a week, it’s easier to quietly walk away than to come back. You’ve paid your membership. The lights stay on. Everyone carries on.

And here’s the part that feels a little uncomfortable to say out loud: most places are quietly relying on that.

If everyone showed up all the time, most studios wouldn’t be able to handle that kind of volume. So people dropping off isn’t a flaw in the system. It’s baked into it.

People already expect that they’re gonna drop off those resolutions. And that expectation quickly becomes permission.

Then add fear to the mix, and things get even harder. People are scared of hurting themselves. People are waiting to be flexible enough. There’s a whole lot of waiting.

And nobody loves to look like a beginner, especially in a room where it seems like everyone else knows exactly what they’re doing.

I know that feeling well.

• I wasn’t athletic growing up.
• I didn’t enjoy gym class.
• I almost flunked out of ninth grade physical education class.

When I first started taking fitness and yoga classes, I didn’t walk up to the teacher and confidently say, “Hey, I’m new here, what should I do?”

I wish.

Instead, I would plant myself on my mat and do a lot of not-so-sly side glancing. Copying whatever my neighbour was doing. Hoping no one noticed that I had absolutely no flippin’ clue what was going on and felt wildly out of place.

That experience is a huge part of why I’m so passionate about teaching beginners. I know what it feels like to feel behind before you even start. And I know that fitness doesn’t have to be complicated, intimidating, or designed to kick your ass in order to be effective.

When it comes to those New Year’s resolutions, the issue isn’t motivation.

It’s structure.

One of the reasons I run my classes as a 12-week series is because I want people to know that their spot is being saved. Twelve weeks has a clear starting point and a clear end point. That matters more than most people realize. When the container is clear, the nervous system can settle. Suddenly, this doesn’t feel like an endless obligation. It feels doable. When expectations are defined, people stop waiting to be “ready” and start showing up as they are.

Personalization matters more than intensity. Meeting people where they are instead of trying to force them into pretzel-like poses they’re not ready for is how confidence builds. I make the exercises feel more doable. I use props to make classes feel more doable.

Props aren’t a crutch. They’re information.

They give your body support while it learns, and they give you a way to notice progress as your reliance on them naturally changes over time.

And the wins people experience here aren’t abstract.

Someone once told me they were able to roll out of bed for the first time in thirty years without peeing themselves. Someone else shared that after taking Yoga for Core + Pelvic Health classes, they finally understood what their pelvic floor physiotherapist had been telling them all along. It made sense because I broke it down in simple, digestible language.

No fancy medical jargon. Though yes, I understand that stuff too, and I genuinely love collaborating with pelvic floor physios and other medical professionals. They have skills that fall far outside my scope of practice, like internal exams, and together we can figure out exactly what you need.

That kind of progress doesn’t come from pushing harder. It comes from feeling safe enough to stay.

That’s also why Karma Week exists, where you get to choose what you pay. Not to create urgency. Not to pressure you into committing. But to let you experience what the space actually feels like. To remove pressure. To give you information instead of a deadline.

If you’re curious, you’re allowed to just gather information.

You can read about 12-week Personalized Small Group Yoga

You can read about Karma Week.

You can sit with it.

And if you feel unsure, nervous, or like you “should” be ready by now but aren’t, you can email me at mail@bodymindfitness.ca

And remember, there’s nothing wrong with being a beginner.