At the new Dayaalu Center on Wyatt Way, a stream trickles around three sides of the building.

When the lower windows of the main studio are open, the water washes in and over students sitting in the natural light that filters through the room’s floor-to-ceiling windows.

Six months ago, Dayaalu opened its doors for the first time. It has since proven true to its word.

It is a place for community and a hub for a whole range of healing practices.

“I feel like we are a birthing vessel for a seed that is really going to help shift consciousness around healing and around living,” said Sue Steindorf, the founder of the nonprofit and co-op yoga center.

“To take some of the shame around healing and realize it’s a privilege to heal. It’s not something to be embarrassed about.”

Visitors may walk in for a beginners pilates class but leave with a newfound confidence to give meridian-based tapping a try, a stress dissolving practice based on acupressure.

With a variety of wellness practices in one space, Dayaalu acts as a trustworthy travel guide to new ways of caring for and fortifying the body, mind and spirit.

The center offers almost 30 classes that range from yoga for teens to restorative-based practices like community meditation and posture workshops.

It also contains a treatment and therapy cabin with an infrared sauna; a Sukhi Kitchen which provides affordable gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan meals on-the-go; and retreats for traditional and alternative practitioners alike.

“Food is such a huge part of healing and wellness that we wanted to make it easy for people to get healthy food,” Steindorf said.

Chef Nancy Travis has been serving vegetarian meals for 20 years. At the Sukhi Kitchen she offers simple food made from fresh, local ingredients.

Here, students can drop in for their weekly class, and leave with a lunch in hand so they can continue a clean, healthy path outside of the center. Non-students are also invited to come in just for the food if they choose.

In the same way, depending on the day of the week, visitors to the center can drop in for a half-hour community meditation either from 12:30 to 1 p.m. or 1:30 to 2 p.m.

The center is an open house during this hour for anyone interested in taking a time out from work or daily life.

“Just to have a quiet place to sit,” Steindorf explained. “Again, it’s just to encourage people to take care of themselves and to give themselves a pause.”

The meaning behind the name is one way of explaining what rests at the heart of Dayaalu.

“Dayaa” means compassion in sanskrit, and “lu” is its verb ending.

“Dayaalu” translates: to offer compassion.

Another way of looking at it, is the name begins with “day” and ends with “lu,” Latin for light.

As Steindorf said, the people and practices at the center are the “aa” that connects the two.

Light-to-light, for Steindorf and Dayaalu’s patrons, the center is a place to share knowledge, good intentions and fellowship. Compassionate action is the underlying theme of it all.

Like most things good, Dayaalu began with a series of ideas.

Steindorf wasn’t always interested in yoga. Its restorative qualities were realized later in life.

She had been with the Bainbridge Island School District for more than 13 years as a physical therapist working with students with disabilities.

She worked with some of these students long enough to see them go from age 3 to their teens.

But over the years, it became apparent that there was nothing for these students to do in the community to continue their therapy outside school. No matter the work she and they did, they were socially isolated. Many became depressed and overweight.

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