I Survived Bikram!

Bikram Yoga Manhattan

150 W. 30th Street (near 7th Ave)

www.bikramyogamanhattan.com

After years of fear about walking into a 100 degree yoga room and being forced to spend a whole hour and a half there, I did it! And it wasn't nearly as dramatic as I expected it to be. I spent all morning downing water so that I was sufficiently hydrated. When I walked into the asana room, it was hot, but not unbearable.

I visited the newly relocated Bikram Yoga Manhattan studio near Penn Station. The studio was smaller than I expected, but cozy and serene. It had the standard mirrored walls and carpeting. I have often heard horror stories of the smell in Bikram studios due to the perspiration soaking into the carpet. I found my room to smell perfectly fine, but wondered if that would be the case several months down the road.

As we started class my instructor, Amanda, suggested we all take a drink of water as our first water break didn't come until 25 minutes into the class. Uh-oh, water break? You mean we can't just drink whenever?

I had spent some time before class looking over the 26-posture series and knew that it began with some simple standing poses, moved to advanced standing poses and ended with seated and lying poses.

As we moved through the sequence I struggled to decide how I felt about the practice. Despite the heat, my body did not enjoy the intense backbending or the instruction to "push, push, push" deeper. I also didn't agree with the idea that "the whole point of stretching is to pull." What happened to the whole idea of just being where you are?

As the class began to wind down, I could feel the detoxifying effects, almost as though my body was a little bit lighter. (After losing 3-4 lbs of water weight, it probably was). I could see the draw for those who like the cleansing or appreciate the warmth it provides in the cold winter months.

Personally, I can't see doing the same 26 poses every day. Maybe it's a product of my generation and growing up with too many options, but I think I would get bored. I like the idea that there are endless ways to sequence the postures. For me, yoga is a lifelong journey that includes not only asana, but pranayama, meditation, the yamas and the niyamas.

So if Bikram is meant to be practiced on a regular basis, is it wrong to pop into a class here or there?

Practice Like the Masters

Yoga Sutra NYC

501 5^th Ave, 2^nd Floor

New York, NY 10017

212.490.1443

www.yogasutranyc.com

I ventured over to Yoga Sutra NYC because I was intrigued by a 45 minute class on the schedule called, Lunch Yoga: In the Tradition of T.K.V. Desikachar. "The Heart of Yoga", written by Desikachar was my favorite book from teacher training and I was excited to see what I could learn about his style of yoga. The studio also has Ashtanga, Vinyasa and Iyengar classes, but those will have to wait for another day.

While I sat in the sunny yellow Iyengar room waiting for class to begin, I noticed a white board resting along the front wall with Yoga Sutra verse 3.35 written on it and a stick figure drawn in the shape of the pose Pincha Mayurasana (Forearm Balance). Assuming it had something to do with their teacher training students, I took a moment to be thankful it had nothing to do with me, as I consider Pincha to be my nemesis pose.

Our instructor, Guta, entered the room with her short, spiky haircut, a warm smile and a harmonious voice and she instructed us to began with our eyes closed listening to our breath. We assumed a mudra with our hands resting one on top of the other over our heart.

Guta told us that the heart is thought to be the center of the breath. She then pointed to the white board and explained Sutra 3:35 says, "When you listen to the heart or the breath center, you will come to know the mind." She then melodically chanted the words to the sutra, Hrdaye Citta Samvit. As we joined along for the last two rounds, I began to wonder if her inclusion of the Sutra written on the white board also meant we would be including the pose as well.

After our chant, we came to stand in Tadasana and took a moment to cultivate our Ujjaii breath. In the true practice of Desikachar yoga, we focused heavily throughout the class on the awareness between our movement and our breath.

We moved through several different flowing sequences. In what reminded me of an Iyengar class, we stopped between each one to watch Guta demonstrate our next sequence before moving on. Guta challenged us to ensure that our breath was longer than the movement and she guided the pace by continually calling out the inhales and exhales. This was much harder than I would have expected and I often found myself holding my breath and would have to remind myself to add in breaths when I found her pace too slow for me to breathe comfortably. Unlike Iyengar, we were left on our own to figure out any alignment adjustments that needed to be made.

As a final preparation for Pincha, we moved onto our backs for a few minutes of abdominal work. I could understand how each of the poses were helping to prepare us for Pincha Mayurasana, but I felt my Ujjai breath was only serving to heat up my internal temperature, while the poses and slow pace weren't giving my muscles quite as much heat and opening as I would have liked in preparation for this particular pose.

As we moved our mats to the wall to set up for the inversion, I felt a little apprehensive. Pincha Mayurasana became my nemesis during teacher training when, in my enthusiasm, I pushed myself too hard and created an injury that sometimes comes back to haunt me. After demonstrating, Guta walked around the room helping each of us as we practiced kicking up with one leg and then the other. From there she encouraged us to try jumping with both legs together. I focused carefully on maintaining the proper arm positioning, but my core just wasn't up for the challenge and arms quickly became fatigued so I took the liberty of several child’s poses to help protect myself.

Guta mentioned that our short 45-minute class time was almost up, but that she generally likes to go over a few minutes. After determining that everyone could stay, we brought our mats back to the center of the room and took several cooling and quieting forward folds, still moving dynamically.

To close class we settled onto our backs for several minutes of a simple pranayama sequence before we relaxed into Savasana where my arms felt like jello, but I was finally able to truly appreciate the newfound depth to my breath.

Yoga for Optimal Living

Exhale Spa- Upper West Side

980 Madison Ave, 2^nd Floor

New York, NY 10075

212.249.3000

www.exhalespa.com

I recently returned to get my second free Yoga Passbook class at Exhale Spa, again at the Upper West Side location. Again, I was the first student to arrive and I arranged myself to sit facing the Buddha-head resting on the shelf along the center of the front wall.

Our instructor, Nixa DeBellis soon walked in, and was a true picture of summer with her blonde hair, flowing white yoga pants and purple tank top. As we waited for class to begin she casually began chatting with the 4 of us (all females) about the construction worker catcalling phenomenon that is the plight of New York City women everywhere. She mentioned that on a recent gorgeous summer day she had been told by one of said construction workers that she was the most beautiful thing he’d seen all day. She laughed as she recalled, “the only thing I could think was, have you not looked up at the sky today?” This was the first indication of Nixa’s playful spirit and true appreciation of the joys in life.

As we moved to begin class, she set her iPod to play a jazz version of what sounded a lot like the Nutcracker. I thought it was a slightly odd choice, but seeing as this is my first winter back on the east coast and the weather is beginning to get that fall chill, it served to slightly excite me about the upcoming holiday season.

We started in supported bridge using the yoga block and Nixa added the first of many twists on a traditional pose by having us bring one foot at a time back along side our block, pressing the top of our foot into the floor in a Virasana-type leg variation. Seeing as it was the first pose of the class and I was not warmed up, I didn’t want to over-exert myself by going too deeply into the backbend and thus couldn’t quite get the leg positioned as comfortably as I would have liked. As I struggled to breath evenly into my slightly contorted toes, Nixa introduced the idea of optimization in our practice. She explained that we must constantly reevaluate what is most effective for us from pose to pose, practice to practice and year to year.

We started to quickly build heat with a tricky transition that consisted of a twisting high lunge to twisting crescent and then alternating straightening and bending our front leg as we synchronized our arm movements and our breath. During several rounds of this unique sequence, Nixa expanded on the idea of optimization to include our lives off the mat, namely our relationships and our jobs.

Our final challenging standing sequence had us moving from standing split to Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana and then gracefully stepping back to the twisting crescent pose we had visited at the beginning of class. By this time, we were more than ready to find our way down to the mat for some less vigorous asana and cooled down with Salabhasana, Vishnu’s pose and finally an inversion of our choice.

As we floated into a deliciously long Savasana, Nixa reminded us to reevaluate our optimum for that moment to find the deepest relaxation possible. Resting in Savasana, I was truly inspired by the idea of “optimal living”, as I know it is not often something I accomplish. Since that class, the idea has continued to reside at the forefront of my mind and I often find myself asking if I am truly living in my optimal state in that moment.

What is your definition of optimal living? How do you accomplish that?

Fingers, Fun and Flying

Laughing Lotus

59 W. 19^th St. 3^rd Floor

New York, NY 10011

212.414.2903

www.laughinglotus.com

On a recent Friday, I sat in the bright and cheerful rooms at Laughing Lotus waiting for Alison Cramer’s class to start. The mood was festive with the excitement of the weekend about to begin and I was ready to get my yoga on and start the weekend off right.

Students were greeting one another and chatting happily when Alison brought everyone into the present moment by changing the song to the unexpected 90’s hit “No Diggity” by Blackstreet. Many of us looked at each other smiling and several students started singing along and moving their heads to the beat. Yep, it was definitely Friday.

As the song came to an end, Alison shut the music down and authoritatively started class beginning the Kundalini chant, Sa-Ta-Na-Ma. As we chanted, we began a mudra touching our thumb to one of our four fingers for each syllable, starting with the pointer finger and moving across. I had a bit of trouble transitioning so quickly from the partyish-mood of Blackstreet to the seriousness of the chant and found myself wanting to giggle when I would envision my dancing peers just a few minutes back.

After 5 minutes of chanting, we moved into downward facing dog. Alison told us that the mudra we had just completed was meant to energize our hands and we should keep feeling that energy as we actively pressed our hands into the Earth. I had never really thought of mudras serving to energize the hands, but at that moment it made perfect sense, mudras are yoga poses for your fingers.

We soon came to stand facing the massive sunlit windows and the hip-hop music began again as we initiated our sun salutations. Alison reminded us that we always start practice by saluting the sun and I took a moment to appreciate that the true purpose of Surya Namaskara is not just to build heat in my body, but also to honor the warmth and life giving force of the sun.

We moved through several standing pose sequences with Alison encouraging us to chant our mantra during the more challenging holds. To culminate our heat building standing poses, Alison stabilized us with Eagle Pose. Soon after, we moved into a low lunge and she brought back the idea of the eagle as we interlaced our thumbs and reached our fingers towards the sky. She told us that, “our hands are like the wings of our body and we should let them fly”. I had never been to a yoga class where I thought so much about my hands.

Before I knew it, we were starting the cooling portion of the class with a twisted reclined pigeon (a new and interesting variation for me), that elicited a collective, blissful exhale from the class at large. As we turned onto our backs for Urdhva Danurasana, Alison once again caught us off guard (aka, brought us back to the present) by switching up the music genre, this time to oldies.

We wound down the class with some forward folds, where I took a moment to appreciate the depth of my Paschimottanasana, and a long-held boat, including 9 rounds of Sa-Ta-Na-Ma to keep us focused in the challenge. By this time I had long moved past my urge to giggle and was able to appreciate the use of mantra in our practice.

For our final pose, we took a much-needed cooling shoulder stand and then moved into Savasana where I truly felt light enough to fly, or at least attempt it.

Repeat Offender

I have to admit, I have recently been guilty of taking classes at studios I've previously visited, instead of going to explore new ones. While at the start of my journey it seemed like a great idea to always go out and try new places, I quickly realized this was not always going to be feasible. Between schedule conflicts, specific assignments and personal desire, I find myself more often than not, going to a place I have already been.

Initially I felt myself a bit of a failure for already returning to studios so early in my exploring and thus going against the self-imposed rules I had established for my blog posting. Then I took a moment to stop judging myself and see if I could find a positive side. I realized that while I may return to the same studios, I rarely return to the same teacher so besides possibly being in a familiar room, the class is entirely new to me.

More importantly I came to see that this is simply the natural path of my practice, which in turn effects the progression of this blog. I can make whatever rules I'd like for my blog and for my life in general, but everything changes. In order to live to my optimum potential, (something I've been thinking a lot about lately due to a recent yoga class, but more on that later) I need to be malleable enough to morph with the changes as they come and be aware and open to the opportunities these changes bring.

So after struggling to see the future path along which my blog would take, I've discovered that it isn't going to be a straight line from point A to point B, but more of a meandering, abstract line with no distinct beginning and no forseeable end.

With that in mind, stay tuned for some visits to some old favorites, some introductions to some new friends and a newly expanded definition of what defines a yoga class....

Quiet Fierceness

The Fierce Club

269 Elizabeth Street

New York, NY 10012

212.334.6900

www.thefierceclub.com

After a couple weeks of being away to see family and having visitors come to town, I spent several days recovering and decided I finally needed to get back into my groove. I then spent another couple days deciding the best way to do that and eventually settled on the kick-your-butt-into-gear method with a yoga class at The Fierce Club. I had walked by this studio almost everyday since my arrival in NYC and had avoided it out of fear (for obvious reasons).

I made my way to the studio and withstood the drizzle sans umbrella (just the beginning of Fierce Allison). I arrived 15 minutes early thinking this would give me plenty of time to introduce myself to the instructor before others arrived. I was mistaken and there were already several people ahead of me. I filled out the new student form (refreshingly short) and paid my $10 for my first class. (Bonus: after your first class you have the option to pay $25 for a week of unlimited classes).

I settled onto the concrete floor and prepared myself for some serious asana by doing some warm up stretches as I watched the corridor-like room fill in with 20+ yogis. Sadie, the co-owner of the studio, creator of Core Vinyasa Yoga and a fiery redhead, sat herself in the midst of us and asked for requests. Someone immediately said “Face Yoga”.

We began sitting in Sukasana and Sadie discussed the topic of the day, which was Love. Sadie took a individualized stance and advised us to learn to love ourselves for who we are and surround ourselves with those that we feel safe showing our true selves to, be it angry, silly or contemplative. Although I've heard this message many times before, Sadie had a way of saying it that made you want to listen. We opted to start our yoga class showing others the silly side of us as we massaged our cheeks, scrunched up our facial muscles, stuck out our tongues and roared aloud in a few rounds of lions breath.

As we moved into our vinyasas and began to build internal heat, Sadie encouraged us to release the things that were holding us back. We increased the work in our legs with lots of Utkatasanas, lunges and other bent-leg poses like Warrior and Parsvakonasana. Towards the end of one of these sequences, Sadie moved us into Parivrtta Parsvakonasana and held us there guiding our breath and our thoughts with the idea that, “You stay in the discomfort for longer than you’d like because of the freedom that comes with the release. It’s the same with relationships, sometimes you have to be in an uncomfortable place.”

She soon had us attempting jumpbacks from crow and even had us play with jumping from down dog into crow. Before I knew it, 45 minutes had gone by and we were moving into pigeon to begin our cool down. As we entered into our Savasana, Sadie brought us back to our theme reminding us of the importance of believing in and honoring ourselves even if it means scaring away those individuals in our lives that can’t handle it.

Sitting quietly in Sukasana, we closed our practice with an OM that resonated with the inner strength of 25 fierce yogis.

Play in the Park

Bryant Park Yoga

Sponsored by Lululemon

Upper Terrace

212.768.4242

www.lululemon.com

http://www.bryantpark.org/calendar/week.php

Oddly enough, I have never taken a yoga class outside. (I’ve had the chance to teach one, but never experience one myself.) Despite having lived in California for 5 years, I missed the opportunity to take advantage of yoga classes on the beach or in the park. Moving to New York in the peak of springtime, I vowed to take advantage of some of the yoga in the park options before they became winter wonderlands once again.

With all the rain we’ve had, many of the classes have been cancelled so I finally got my first opportunity last Tuesday with a Lululemon sponsored FREE yoga class in Bryant Park. Anything offered for free in NYC makes me giddy like a 5-year old. Studios throughout the city volunteer teachers to instruct the classes and for this particular Tuesday it was Mel Russo, one of my favorite teachers from Yoga High NYC on the LES, giving me yet another reason to be excited.

With a hop in my step (as much as I could muster for a morning yoga class) I made my way to the subway and up to Bryant Park. The park itself backs up to the New York Public Library and our class was to take place on the Upper Terrace overlooking the lawn. On Thursday evenings, Lululemon hosts another yoga class that takes place on the lawn, but for Tuesdays the lawn is closed due to Monday evening movies in the park. (Note to self, attend movie in the park one of these days.)

I was early, as always, so I took a moment to check out my surroundings. There are lots of chairs and tables surrounding all four sides of the park. There is also a bar and grill and a small location of ‘wichcraft, a sandwich place that I fell in love with in Vegas. I took advantage of the free Wi-Fi and sent a couple emails before heading over.

As I walked up the terrace stairs, I was impressed with the setup. Separated into three sections were groups of mats lined up about 8 across and 5 rows deep. Each mat had a blanket-like pad underneath it to give a little more cushion and keep the mat clean. I had brought my own mat so they told me to feel free to roll up one of theirs and put mine down.

After I signed the waiver form, I went about the important task of choosing my spot. I settled on a front row seat in the middle section. I had a perfect view of the park in front of me surrounded by the towering skyscrapers of Midtown including the new LEED certified Bank of America building.

I had a few minutes to stretch out and enjoy the day before Mel showed up. When she did, she took a moment to smile at a few familiar faces and then commenced class. We took a moment to deepen our breath and signal the start of our practice with an OM. I figured since it was such a large, varied group of individuals, we would stick with a standard flow and I got just what I expected. Mel worked us through several sun salutations and with the sun continuing to rise in the sky, it wasn’t long before we were soon being heated from the inside and out. We flowed into and out of lunges, Warrior I and II, Reverse Warrior, Extended Side Angle and Triangle pose. As I moved through the poses, I noticed the other practitioners around me and took a breath to appreciate the energy that comes with doing yoga in a group.

In what felt like only a few minutes, we were cooling ourselves with a balancing tree pose. I don’t know why, but I was really excited about the chance to do tree pose while being surrounded by the trees and I think I would have been disappointed if we hadn’t done it. Soon after, we were on our backs doing a final reclined twist before moving into Savasana.

As I hugged Mel and thanked her after class, I decided I was enjoying my day too much to head home just yet. I made my way over towards the carousel and took a seat. I was in such a good mood and I wanted to share my experience. I pulled out my cell phone and saw that I had missed a call from my mom so I took the opportunity to call her back. What better person to share with?