YogaSole offers a place to pause

In Sunset Park, community often takes shape in familiar places: neighborhood restaurants where staff know customers by name, parks where families gather after school or local businesses where conversations stretch longer than transactions. At 132 32nd St., YogaSole offers another type of gathering space, one centered less on urgency and more on slowing down.

Before attending a class at YogaSole Sunset Park, I was unsure what to expect.

Yoga often carries a reputation shaped by social media images of difficult poses, expensive memberships and the assumption that everyone in the room already knows what they are doing. I expected an environment where beginners might quietly feel out of place.

Instead, I found something quieter and more ordinary.

When I arrived, the atmosphere did not feel competitive or exclusive. People settled in naturally, conversations happened casually, and the environment felt calm without feeling overly formal. Nothing about the room suggested perfection was expected. If anything, the feeling was the opposite: simply showing up seemed enough.

Sunset Park is a hardworking, community-centered neighborhood. Families juggle jobs, child care, school schedules and long commutes. Conversations about wellness can sometimes feel disconnected from daily realities, framed around luxury, expensive memberships or lifestyles many people simply do not have time for.

That disconnect is part of what drew director and owner Sunee LaClaire to Sunset Park.

“I bought the business and opened the location in Sunset Park because it was needed,” LaClaire said. Her goal was to create an environment where people felt safe, welcomed and connected to others around them.

“I wanted a strong community space for people to go to, meet new people from the community, and let out frustrations together,” she said.

Listening to LaClaire speak, the language she used repeatedly was not about workouts or fitness goals. Instead, she spoke about people, community, safety, comfort and emotional well-being.

“It’s more than yoga and pilates,” she said. “It’s a beautiful community that comes together.”

That emphasis on connection matters in a neighborhood where rising costs and pressures on working families can make community spaces harder to sustain.

LaClaire’s own relationship with YogaSole reflects that personal investment.

“YogaSole is my whole life,” she said. “I started as a student and then became a volunteer and eventually worked my way up and bought the studio so I can continue to have a safe space and give that to other people as well.”

Her journey from student to owner shapes how she approaches the studio. Rather than assuming everyone enters already comfortable or experienced, she said much of the studio’s approach is built around accessibility and flexibility.

“Yoga is known to have a certain reputation,” LaClaire said. “It doesn’t always feel accessible to everyone.”

Because of that, instructors encourage modifications based on people’s comfort levels, physical abilities and experience.

“We always are able to modify movements based on what a person can do physically,” she explained. “We help people do whatever feels right to them.”

That focus on accessibility became easier to understand while attending class. As someone unfamiliar with yoga spaces, I expected moments when I would feel behind or unsure of myself. Instead, there seemed to be little pressure to perform or keep pace with others. The atmosphere felt patient. No one appeared concerned with who was the most flexible or experienced.

Wellness spaces can feel intimidating to newcomers, with pressure to know the language or already fit a certain image. Here, the environment felt less concerned with ability and more focused on participation.

LaClaire said creating that environment is intentional.

“I like to make it feel accessible to everyone and make sure everything is explained and modified to everyone’s needs so everyone feels completely comfortable in a safe space,” she said.

Her advice for anyone hesitant to try yoga reflects that same philosophy.

“Whatever you think you know about yoga,” she said, “take it out of your mind and go into yoga with a widened perspective.”

Longtime client Renanit Leevy was also looking for connection when she joined.

“I’ve been practicing yoga for 20 years,” Leevy said. “I wanted to find a good community space.”

When asked what makes YogaSole feel different from other wellness spaces, her answer was immediate.

“It’s very warm and welcoming,” she said.

Leevy added that she feels represented and comfortable there, something that can make a meaningful difference in spaces where people may otherwise feel out of place. The impact, she said, extends into everyday life.

“It helps me have structure in my life and be able to leave feeling relaxed and stress free,” she said.

For Leevy, community itself has become part of wellness.

Christine Zulkosky, another YogaSole community member, said the studio has helped her connect with neighbors.

“Sunset Park is such a vibrant community, and I love that YogaSole has enabled me to meet and share space with so many of my neighbors,” Zulkosky said. “I've tried a number of different yoga studios, and none have been as community-focused as YogaSole.”

YogaSole also offers meditation, Pilates, restorative yoga and sound-bath experiences. During sound baths, participants lie on mats while listening to instruments and sounds intended to encourage relaxation.

LaClaire described sound baths as “a heavily meditated environment” where people can “go off into their own little oasis of relaxation.”

LaClaire framed those offerings less as wellness trends than as ways to give people “a space to come back to themselves.”

The emphasis throughout was less on transformation than on giving people room to breathe.

For some, wellness may mean boutique memberships or luxury experiences. For others, it may simply mean finding an hour when life feels quieter. In Sunset Park, where schedules are demanding and community ties matter, spaces like YogaSole appear to serve another purpose: helping people pause.

During my visit, what lingered afterward was not a particular pose or exercise. It was the feeling of being in a room where no one seemed concerned with judgment.

The atmosphere felt calm without feeling performative. There was no pressure to already know everything and no sense that beginners were inconveniencing the room. Instead, the experience felt patient—something increasingly rare in busy neighborhoods where people often feel expected to move faster, know more or keep up.

LaClaire hopes that feeling continues to grow.

“I really want the community to expand,” she said, pointing to ideas such as outdoor classes, partnerships with nonprofits and involvement in community gardens.

When asked what she hopes people feel after leaving, her answer was simple.

“Calm, happy, hopeful, strong, and resilient.”

Whether people arrive looking for yoga, stress relief or simply something new, YogaSole seems to be offering something many neighborhoods quietly need: a place where people can pause, reconnect and leave feeling a little lighter than when they arrived.