At the beginning of this year, I joined Torch Yoga Studio in Norfolk. A few friends raised their eyebrows. One hundred and nineteen dollars a month? For yoga?

Yeah. And it might be the best money I spend all month. Let me explain.

I needed an hour where my brain could shut off

I’m a software developer. My brain never stops. There’s always a problem to solve, a feature to ship, a decision to make. The mental load is relentless.

Hot yoga at Torch is the one hour of my day where none of that exists. The room is 95 degrees. You’re holding a pose. Your entire world shrinks down to your breath and your balance. There is no room in your head for anything else, and that’s the point.

I didn’t realize how badly I needed that until I had it.

It challenges me without wrecking me

I’ve done contact sports and triathlons. I’ve done the “go hard at the gym” thing. And I’d be sore for days, sometimes skipping the rest of the week because my body was recovering. That math never worked out. One intense session followed by four days on the couch isn’t a routine.

Hot yoga is different. It’s genuinely hard. You will shake. You will sweat through your shirt in the first ten minutes. But you walk out feeling better than when you walked in, and you can come back tomorrow. That’s the unlock: a physical challenge you can actually sustain.

The instructors handle everything so I can just show up

This is the part that gets overlooked. When I walk into Torch, I don’t have to think about anything. The instructors have designed the flow. They’ve curated the music. The towels are ready. The room is set. Every detail is taken care of by people who really know what they’re doing.

All I have to do is show up and follow along.

That sounds simple, but it’s rare. Think about how many things in your life require you to be the planner, the decision-maker, the person holding it all together. Torch takes all of that off your plate for an hour. The instructors aren’t just leading poses. They’re creating an experience where you can let go of being in charge.

It enriches my life in ways I didn’t expect

I sleep better. I’m more patient with my kids. I make better decisions at work because I’m not running on fumes. I’ve met good people in the studio. I look forward to going, which is something I could never say about the gym.

The $119 isn’t a cost. It’s an investment in everything else I do.

It changed how I think about paying for expertise

Here’s the thing that surprised me. Torch actually changed my perspective on what’s worth paying for.

Before joining, I would have told you I could just do yoga at home with a YouTube video. Technically true. But I never did. And even when I tried, I spent half the time picking a video, adjusting the volume, and wondering if I was doing the poses right. I was still the planner. Still the decision-maker. Still carrying the mental load, just in a different room.

Torch works because I handed all of that over to people who are better at it than me.

That idea stuck with me. It’s actually the same reason I’m building DinnerSolved.ai. I kept asking myself: what are the other parts of life where we carry all the mental load, do all the planning, make all the decisions, and never get a break from it?

Dinner. Every single night.

So I’m building Martine, an AI personal chef who handles meal planning, recipes, and grocery lists the way the Torch instructors handle a yoga flow. You just show up. He takes care of the rest. Same idea: hand the mental load to someone (or something) that’s built for it, and get your time and energy back.

I wouldn’t have thought about it that way if Torch hadn’t shown me what it feels like to let go.

The real question isn’t “is it worth $119?”

The real question is: what would you do with an extra hour of peace every day? What decisions would you make better? How would you show up differently for the people around you?

For me, Torch answered that question. If you’re in Norfolk and you’ve been curious, just go. Your first class will tell you everything you need to know.

Tim is the founder of Solved Labs LLC and a member of Torch Yoga Studio in Norfolk, VA.

Why I Happily Pay $119 a Month for Hot Yoga