Flow Space Yoga & Arts, originally a Gainesville railroad depot, is now home to an eclectic and vibrant community of facilitators, student clientele, and volunteers (the “Flow Fam”). Multiple times a day, participants enjoy hour-long wellness journeys that unify movement and mindfulness facilitation with live music, aromatherapy, and innovative ideas.
Flow Space Yoga & Arts was founded in 2016 by dreamers Humm Hill and Maggie Rucker, two born and-raised Gainesville local ladies. Brought together by a shared passion for mindfulness, the arts, and community, their combined creative prowess exploded into what is now a thriving and unique Gainesville staple.
Their extraordinary brick building, originally a railroad station, is now home to their eclectic and vibrant community of facilitators, student clientele, and volunteers (the “Flow Fam”). Entering into the space, an air of festivity envelops the senses. Multiple times a day, participants enjoy hour-long wellness journeys that unify movement and mindfulness facilitation with live music, DJs, aromatherapy, and innovative ideas.
“We kept traveling outside of our hometown to garner memorable life experiences at music festivals and inspiring destinations,” says Rucker. “One day we realized together that it would be our greatest joy to create a space in our hometown that matches the vibrations of the magic we are finding when we travel.” Since the birth of Flow Space, The Flow Fam has grown the studio’s branches into an authentic-feeling local establishment that they’re both proud of.
Each one of its hired movement facilitators is an artist of breath, movement medicine, and conscious practices in their own right. Stemming from different experience backgrounds, Flow’s staff members are hand chosen for their gifts of knowledgeability, creativity, disposition, and passion. The Musician Sound Wizards are masterful at improvising in accord with the ebb and flow of a movement class while acutely reading the energy in the room. Cellists, handpan players, guitarists, and a smattering of DJs have expressed how endearing and refreshing it is to play sweet melodies under these rare circumstances.
A primary intention throughout Flow’s daily journeys is the induction of a meaningful “Flow State.” Flow State is a term used by scientists and psychologists to represent a mode of peak physiological human performance and by yogis to represent a state of complete mind and body connection. Flow State can be achieved by many means, and Flow’s daily offerings vary from floor and aerial yoga to acrobatics, primal movements, and workshops in order to appeal to a dynamic group of eager students.
As young “changemakers,” Humm and Maggie earnestly strive to enrich the Gainesville community by creating an innovative culture that unifies and supports performance, visual, and wellness arts with the kind of social values they’d like to see more of in the world: inclusivity, sustainability, alternate modes of celebration, and radical self-expression.
