Lisa Bragaw, operator and teacher at Zen and Now Wellness Studio on Flanders Street in Niantic, teaches a yoga course, Friday, July 22, 2022. (Daniel Passapera/Special to The Day)

Owner and instructor at Zen and Now Wellness Studio in Niantic, Lisa Bragaw, teaches a early morning yoga course on Friday, July 22, 2022. (Daniel Passapera/Particular to The Working day)

Lisa Bragaw, center, operator and teacher at Zen and Now Wellness Studio on Flanders Highway in Niantic, smiles immediately after teaching a yoga course on Friday, July 22, 2022. (Daniel Passapera/Exclusive to The Working day)

Lisa Bragaw, proprietor and teacher at Zen and Now Wellness Studio on Flanders Street in Niantic, teaches a 2nd session of yoga on Friday, July 22, 2022. (Daniel Passapera/Distinctive to The Working day)

A silhouette of Lisa Bragaw, operator and teacher at Zen and Now Wellness Studio on Flanders Highway in Niantic, is viewed right after she instructs a yoga course in front of a window on Friday, July 22, 2022. (Daniel Passapera/Specific to The Day)

This post is element of a sequence that explores how southeastern Connecticut cities are allocating their American Rescue Strategy Act money.

At Zen & Now, a yoga and fitness studio in East Lyme, operator Lisa Bragaw stated she went from 34 instructors before the COVID-19 pandemic to about 18 now — but she’s making an attempt to ramp up again, and is performing more promotion than she had to do right before.

Bragaw experienced income as a pharmacist early in the pandemic, when exercise classes were being virtual on Zoom only, but said she experienced to use that work to subsidize Zen & Now.

She is grateful for the $5,000 grant she not too long ago picked up from East Lyme, primarily taking into consideration she did not qualify for a good deal of other help, these types of as a Paycheck Protection Method loan. Her lecturers are contractors, not employees.

Zen & Now is a person of several little companies across southeastern Connecticut that has acquired a grant through federal American Rescue Program Act dollars getting funneled via metropolitan areas and cities. Not all municipalities are offering ARPA bucks to smaller…