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?

Studio Updates

Much to my dismay, I recently found out that East West Yoga closed its doors on June 27th. The book store, cafe and art gallery are still in full swing so stop by and check them out! On a happier note, The Open Center is making its way into a new and bigger location. According to their website, classes are still being held at the old location 0n 83 Spring Street until July 25th. After that it is recommended to call the center for more info on move dates.

Take a deep breath and Exhale

Exhale Spa

980 Madison Ave

New York, NY 10075

212.249.3000

www.exhalespa.com

I will be the first to admit that traffic was a big deterrent to my practice in LA. If a studio wasn’t right in my neighborhood, it took at least 20 minutes to get there. Add onto that another 10 minutes so you get there early, plus the hour to hour and a half for the class plus the 20-minute drive home. All in all it was a production that often took a good 2 ½ hours out of the day.

When a studio was all the way across town- forget it! Between carving out that chunk of time to finding a class in the perfect time slot that would allow me to (fingers crossed) avoid “rush hour” traffic, the post yoga bliss often didn’t last beyond the doorway. Because of this, I sadly didn’t get to experience many great studios in LA, one being Exhale in Venice.

Enter the NYC subway system. Ahhhh. Even if I want to go from all the way downtown to all the way uptown, it’s usually a max of 45 minutes. No traffic jams keeping me on the freeway for an hour and a half. So, the other day I hopped on the 6 and in 25 minutes made my way to the Upper East Side location of Exhale Spa.

I walked into their second floor location and found the front desk bustling with activity. It seems they were getting ready for the grand opening party at their new location in the Gansevoort Hotel. One of the girls at the front desk signed me in and showed me back to the studio, pointed out the changing rooms and left me to my pre-yoga rituals.

After a few minutes of debating what was the front of the class, I laid out my mat and began to stretch my notoriously tight hamstrings. Eventually the instructor, Anna, made her way into the studio bringing with her a smiling face and cheery disposition. We were a mixed bag of practitioners. We were all female, but ranged in level and age, even including a couple teens who were newer to the practice. It always makes me happy to see kids experimenting with the practice of yoga.

It was a level 2 class, but because of the student make-up, we stuck to a standard class of sun salutations and standing poses working a lot with flowing from Warrior I to Warrior II and adding on from there. It was a nicely paced flow with a couple breaks in child’s pose to keep us from getting too sweaty.

As we moved from standing to seated poses, we took a moment to work our abs with Navasana (boat pose) and then moved on to some cooling and quieting forward folds. As I sat with my eyes closed in Paschimottanasana, trying to breath into the backs of my legs to soften the stretch, I realized the maybe, just maybe, because of the my more regular practice my hamstrings actually were starting to give just the teeniest bit!

As I walked outside I was greeted with the sunshine and a virtually perfect New York summer day. I decided to meander my way through Central Park and carried with me not only my yoga mat, but also a sense of feeling completely blessed.

Produce Your Yoga

OM Factory

265 W. 37^th Street, 17^th Floor

New York, NY 10018

212.616.8661

http://www.omfactorynyc.com/

One of the studios Eric at East West Yoga had suggested I try was OM Factory. I had been interested in checking it out so I planned to go there after work one Thursday. Unfortunately for me, I was under the false impression that it was near Union Square (wishful thinking maybe?). At the last minute, I realized that it was actually in Midtown West and had to scramble to make sure I could get there on time from far north on the Upper East Side.

In the end there was nothing to worry about and I was embarrassingly early. Seeing as I don’t often frequent Midtown, I didn’t know where to go to kill some time so I just decided to head upstairs early. They are on the 17^th floor of a high rise building on the corner of 8^th Avenue and 37^th Street. They have large banners on the scaffolding that surrounds the building so it’s very easy to find.

The elevator opens on the 17^th floor to face the front desk and a small lobby and retail area. To the right of the elevator is a fun lime-green bench that snakes around the oddly shaped corners of the lobby. I was oddly drawn to that bench.

As I filled out my paperwork, I chatted with the guy at the front desk who was really friendly. Sadly, I don’t remember his name. He told me how he had found his home at the studio not long ago after having relocated himself.

After perusing the retail area, I grabbed a free magazine and headed into the asana room to relax for a bit. It was a muggy day and as I walked in I surveyed the room for a prime spot. Seeing as I was the only one in there, I moved myself around several times before deciding on a location. I settled near the far wall underneath the windows as I thought the circulation might help cool me down. I later realized that these windows were actually closed so it really did me no good.

Emily, the instructor and director of OM Factory, walked in a couple minutes after I had situated myself and after saying hello, she began warming up on her mat. The rest of the students slowly trickled in and there were at least 10 of us by the time class began. Emily divulged that we would be doing a fairly sweaty and vigorous class, but to stay with her if we could as she promised us some delicious, long forward folds at the end of class.

As promised, we quickly moved through our Sun Salutations and Standing Poses working our way up to Handstand prep pose at the wall. We ended with several twists and forward folds, some of our own choosing, and then floated off into a decent length Savasana.

After practice, I got to talking with Emily about their classes. I noticed the schedule was fairly heavy on Vinyasa Flow classes with a few other styles peppered in like Restorative and Prenatal. She explained that since they are located in a non-residential area of Midtown, they are working to update their schedule to keep their classes creative and imaginative and entice students to come later in the evenings and weekends.

They’ve created a style called Yoga Fight Club, which is a combination of Yoga, Kickboxing and Martial Arts. They also have a couple of Acro Yoga classes on the schedule and are in the process of building a new asana room specifically for Anti-Gravity yoga classes. I had to agree that there was nothing mass-produced or "factory-like" about these classes. I’m not sure if Yoga Fight Club is my thing, but being a past gymnast and cheerleader, Acro and Anti-Gravity yoga sounds right up my alley!

The Best of East and West

East West Yoga

78 Fifth Ave

New York, NY

212.243.5995

http://www.eastwestnyc.com/

Union Square in New York City is one of those not-so-touristy mecas where locals go for one stop shopping. It has everything from a Lululemon to a pet store and the city’s only Trader Joe’s (although I hear they’re opening one on the Upper West Side). It’s also home to the biggest Greenmarket in the city that runs all day on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Seeing as there is so much to do in this little area, it only makes sense that yoga studios would want to find a home there as well.

One of these studios is East West Yoga about a block off of Union Square. The whole East West Enterprise consists of a bookstore, café, art gallery, yoga classes and special events. One day as I perused their website I decided to check out their yoga class schedule. They have a smaller schedule consisting of around 30 classes and I noticed they didn’t have any classes that started before noon on the weekdays. Seeing as I suddenly have a penchant for being a night person, noon sounded like the perfect time to take a class. I headed over there on a Wednesday feeling a bit sluggish. According to their schedule there were two classes that started at noon. One was a Vinyasa flow class and the other was a Gentle Hatha class. As I rode the train over, I continuously wavered between the two trying to decide which one I wanted to take.

Their website stated that they were located above the East West bookstore and indicated if you had any problems figuring out how to get to the studio you should stop into the bookstore and ask. Knowing my sometimes difficulties in finding places, I decided to give myself plenty of time to figure everything out. Standing on the corner of 5^th Ave and 14^th Street, I had a little trouble locating the address as there isn’t a lot of signage, but once I walked across the street, the entrance was obvious and I easily made me way upstairs.

Since I was early, I was the first student there. I walked up to the desk and began chatting with the receptionist as I filled out my paperwork. (FYI, even though they have a coupon in the Yoga Passbook, they don’t actually accept them. Apparently they’ve asked numerous times to be removed from the book, but each year they still magically appear in there.) She indicated that they had had a recent schedule change and that there was only one Wednesday noon class for the summer. Decision made! After she explained where everything was, I made my pre-yoga bathroom stop and then headed into the room. Right outside the room I noticed a sign that discussed the art gallery room rental.

Upon entering the room I immediately understood what the sign was talking about. I was greeted by a colorful exhibit of paintings that chronicled the life of a family, from boy meets girl to copulation, birth and the happy family stage. They were artistically amazing, but I have to admit I was a little taken aback by the birthing image and found it hard to concentrate on anything else for the first couple of minutes. I soon began conversing with another student who was a Kundalini yoga teacher, and she was able to distract me from focusing on the artwork.

We were a small group of 5 students and as our teacher, Eric, began class he addressed the recent change in the schedule by indicating his class would be more of a slow flow practice then the faster Vinyasa flow that was indicated on the schedule. Perfect!

It was a typical flow class consisting of sun salutations, standing poses a couple of backbends and a closing shoulder stand. Eric knew that the 5 of us varied in experience level and made sure to offer multiple pose modifications so we could guide our own practice. For as low as my energy level had been before class, I surprised myself by opting to take several of the more advanced variations. By the time I settled into Savasana I was a happy camper. The class had been just enough movement to make me feel energized without taxing my already tired body.

After class I asked Eric his suggestions on other studios in the city that I should add to my list. He was very kind and offered up plenty of places so my already long list has now grown even longer! One of these days when I’m at the Greenmarket, I’ll have to meander back over and check out the bookstore and café and maybe pick up some metal singing bowls that I’ve been interested in learning how to play.

Are you Open?

The Open Center

83 Spring Street

New York, NY 10012

212.219.9635

www.opencenter.org

Every time I see my landlady she tells me I have to check out the Open Center. I looked at their website and was impressed by the array of classes they hold, not just yoga classes, but meditation, writing, nutrition, etc. They have a lengthy list of visiting teachers that include such greats as Alan Finger of ISHTA yoga and Julia Cameron, writer of “The Artist Way”. Seeing all of these great names and teachers, I was a little intimidated to check it out and I’ll admit, I put it off for a few weeks. But, the other day, I was feeling a little less afraid and a little more open to the experience so I jumped at the chance before my fears held me back again.

Their only drop-in yoga class is on Wednesdays at 12:30, so around noon, I meandered my way over. I walked in and saw a plethora of fliers advertising upcoming classes. There is also a quaint bookstore to your right and as you walk down the hall the ground floor opens up to an area housing several reception desks. I spoke to a friendly woman at the first desk who directed me over to another desk where I could sign in. I quickly realized they didn’t take credit cards (I believe that only pertains to the drop-in yoga class) and had to run out to the nearby bank to get some cash.

Take two. With cash in hand, I re-entered the center and quickly filled out my new student registration cards, meanwhile discussing with the staff the many languages you can set your Facebook page to. (I enjoyed Pirate for a while, but it soon got too confusing to figure out).

I decided to take the stairs to the third floor instead of the elevator. I made my way up a grand wooden staircase and stopped on the third floor landing. I was a little confused as the stairs to the fourth floor were roped off, so I knew I couldn’t go any further, but I was afraid to enter as the only door to the third floor looked like it led into an office. Finally I knocked and a woman inside pointed to a second door inside the office that led to the yoga room.

Once inside, the teacher, Maureen, soon came up to me and introduced herself and pulled down a few props for me as I set up my yoga mat. The room was long and narrow and Maureen set herself up in the middle along one of the longer walls. The setup made it more intimate as we were only two rows deep, facing her from the front and both sides.

We started out slowly, doing some breathing and seated arm stretches as Maureen discussed the concept of yoga and its benefits to digestion. The class participants varied in age and physical abilities so it was very much an all levels class, and leaned towards a more gentle, slow moving practice. After our stretches we began a standing warm up including flowing half salutations. We transitioned into several standing poses with long, rejuvenating holds. It was a very laid back class and the students who needed to come out of the longer holds early, felt completely comfortable doing so.

After doing some backbends, our class wound down with a Shoulder Stand (the first one I’ve done in a group class since coming to NYC) and some reclined twists. We finished with a nice long Savasana.

As we were wrapping up, I approached Maureen and began to talk to her about the Open Center and their programs. She mentioned that they are planning a move to 30^th and Madison. They’ve been working on it for a while so if you’re scheduled to attend a class or program, make sure to call and check in to verify which location they’re at. I am a little sad to see them go as they’re currently in a great neighborhood and building, however in keeping with the name, I want to keep myself Open to the opportunities their new, larger location will afford them!

Bridge Your Practice

Golden Bridge Yoga

253 Centre Street

New York, NY 10013

www.goldenbridgeyoganyc.com

212.343.8191

Normally I am happy and content with my Hatha yoga practice, but every once in awhile I just feel like I need something different, something to shake things up. I was having one of those days the other day so I decided to go check out Golden Bridge yoga studio and take a Kundalini class (thanks to my Yoga Passbook, free of charge). I have been to classes at the Los Angeles location several times and their space is amazing, so I was excited to experience the studio here.

I had been having one of those busy, where-did-the-time-go kind of days, so by Hari’s class at 6pm, I was ready for some chanting and relaxation. Hari is the head Kundalini teacher here in NYC. The founder of Golden Bridge, Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, holds down the fort in LA, but she comes to New York fairly often.

The studio is in a converted three story townhouse, which according to their website, used to be a church. The first floor is home to a retail area featuring Satya Jewelry. There are also several changing rooms and a quaint seating area with freshly brewed tea. To get to the studio space you walk up a staircase along the side of the townhouse. My class was up the first flight and I assume the second studio was above us up the second flight.

The room faces out towards Centre Street and contains a beautiful fireplace, possibly leftover from its time as a residence. Behind the curtains at the back of the room is a hidden nook containing a small kitchen used for cooking workshops.

The class, as they always seem to be in this city no matter what time they’re held, was full. We started out with the standard Kundalini chant and some warm up exercises, such as breath of fire and seated spinal rolls and twists. For anyone who has never experienced Kundalini, it is very different from Hatha in that Hatha tends to work at your body physically from the outside in, whereas Kundalini tackles you energetically from the inside out. What I mean by that is that Kundalini yoga is practiced in sets that focus on a specific goal. The exercises in the sets link breath and movement performed at a rapid pace to either help you release/burn out unnecessary energies or build up necessary ones. (As a much needed disclaimer, this description is based on my very limited experience with the Kundalini yoga practice.)

I don’t know about you, but for me, it always seems that out of the numerous class options I have in a day, I often seem to end up at the one class that does exactly what I need. This day was no exception. Once we did our warm up exercises, Hari explained that we were going to do a set created to help us release fears. So, I prepared to acknowledge my fears and hopefully let them go. One of the first things she had us do was lie down on our backs and pretend to snore. I actually found this extremely difficult and of course a little bit funny, but who can’t use a bit of a laugh before facing their fears?

We moved through several different exercises, many which included chanting of various mantras. One of the reasons I was particularly excited about this class was because it included some meditation at the end. Lately, I have felt like I could really benefit from a regular meditation practice, but have been struggling to do it on my own. Hari had us sit in Sukasana, easy pose, with our elbows into our sides, forearms floating over our legs and our fingertips touching. She commented that it was actually a very comfortable way to sit. I noticed that my arms did feel surprisingly at ease, but I still had my doubts about maintaining the pose for any length of time. We proceeded to do a breath meditation with her chanting as we held the pause at the end of the exhale. According to her calculations, by the end of the meditation we were only taking 3 breaths a minute. Wow!

As always in Kundalini, we finished class singing, “May the Longtime Sun” and she played my favorite variation by Snatam Kaur.

After I left, I realized that I didn’t get a chance to check out the jewelry. Since I have another free class left on my pass (although if I didn’t, the second class is free for new students) I plan to check it out, along with one of their Hatha classes on my next visit. Maybe I’ll even get to sample some homemade cheesecake from Eileen’s Cheesecake. A few doors down from Golden Bridge, the store never seems to be open when I’m around, but the desserts look delicious!!

It's All in the Name

Laughing Lotus

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

New York, NY 10011

www.laughinglotus.com

212.414.2903

As much as I love the thought of checking out a multitude of different studios, it didn’t take me long to realize that this was quickly becoming a pretty expensive venture. When I was playing around online one day, I saw a reference to something called the Yoga Passbook that supposedly was a coupon book filled with free classes to hundreds of studios in the New York City area. I was intrigued. Could such a treasure really exist? And if so, was it legitimate? Lo and behold, I quickly found it through the American Health and Fitness website and after Googling some reviews I found that it was indeed legitimate! They even have fitness passbooks for Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.

 

Once it arrived, I flipped through and was excited to see a pass for Laughing Lotus studio. I had wanted to check this place out ever since I found out I was moving to NYC. Something about the name and fun sounding classes like Flower Hour and Lounging Lotus just called to me. I decided to go to a Happy Hour class (because who doesn’t love happy hour?) with Betsy.

 

I usually like to walk to class and check out the area, but since it was a rainy day I took the train to Sixth Ave and it was a short walk from there (also just as convenient from Union Square). I entered the building and waited for the elevator with several other yogis. Unfortunately, the elevator decided to skip the 3^rd floor and take us to the next floor where another passenger was getting off. He commented that the elevator was a bit finicky and he was just hoping it didn’t get stuck as it had happened to him before. When the elevator doors opened on the 4^th floor we all quickly disembarked and decided it was a safer bet to walk back down a flight instead of chance it with the possessed elevator. As I walked towards the studio, I made a mental note to always take the stairs from now on. 

 

The smell of incense guided me towards the studio and when I opened the door I was hit with a blast of hot air. I’m starting to understand why hot yoga is so popular in NYC. All the studios seem to run on the warm side anyways, so it’s just going with the natural tendency of the studio. As far as I knew Laughing Lotus was a vinyasa flow based studio, not necessarily hot yoga, but I immediately knew I was guaranteed to break a good sweat.

 

As we entered the “Love” studio, I admired the brightly painted walls and an amazing glass chandelier that looked like a lotus flower growing out of the ceiling. I found my preferred spot along a sidewall and sat down to enjoy the music that was pumping out of the sound system.

 

According to Betsy the theme for the month was meditation so we took some time to talk about being victorious over the mind and all of its mental chatter. We then set about focusing on the breath and tuned in with three OM’s (I have yet to go to a class in NYC that doesn’t open and close with OM’s).

 

The hour seemed to fly by as we flowed our way through sun salutations, plenty of warriors, lunges and twists and even a child’s pose here and there. She also threw in some playful poses like Bird of Paradise and Crow (Bakasana). Before I knew it, the music was slowing down and we were settling into Savasansa.

 

After I gathered my stuff and checked out the books, clothes and other goodies for sale in the lobby, I walked down the stairs, waved good-bye to Betsy and a fellow student I’d been chatting with and walked into the rain appreciating the cooling effect and the fact that it would hide how sweaty I’d gotten in class. 

These are the people in your neighborhood

Yoga High

19 Clinton St, Suite 205

New York, NY 10012

www.yogahighnyc.com

212.792.5776

 

I’ve been trying to teach my dog the intricacies of walking on the streets of NYC. He’s afraid of walking over anything that isn’t sidewalk (no subway grates, manhole covers, basically half of what comprises NYC sidewalks) When he sees something he doesn’t want to walk over, he reacts by sitting down in the middle of the sidewalk and refusing to walk. No matter how many times I try to explain to him that we can’t just randomly decide to stop, he doesn’t seem to get it.

 

Seeing as I spend a lot of time standing around on these “walks” around my neighborhood, I often notice people carrying around yoga mats. I always debate stopping them to ask where they’re going or where they just came from. Instead, I opted for the less intrusive method and began doing research online to find some studios in my area.

 

I decided on a studio called Yoga High NYC, a relatively new studio on the LES. Still feeling a little bit out of practice from my lack of yoga classes over the last month, I picked a level 2 class with Mel Russo, one of the co-owners. After looking at the studio schedule in further detail, I realized that the majority of their classes are level 2.

 

I found the studio easily as there was a sandwich board on the sidewalk announcing the studio entrance. I walked in right after Mel so I just followed her to the second floor studio. If she hadn’t been there it still would have been easy to find as there are signs pointing you in the right direction at every turn.

 

The lobby is small but cozy and includes a retail area and mat storage, which many of the students utilize. There is just one studio, but it has beautiful, large arched windows, one of the things I love best about New York City architecture. I don’t believe there is air conditioning in the room so if you’re like me and you don’t enjoy being too hot in yoga class; snag a space in one of the two corners with fans. I unknowingly placed myself next to one of these fans and was entirely grateful halfway through class.

 

The class was so full we were rearranging mats to make room for the last few students who arrived, which surprised me for a mid-week 10am class. We started with a short meditation in which Mel acknowledged the recent passing of K. Pattabhi Jois. As we began to warm up she allowed a few minutes for free expression and we moved in our own variations of cat/cow and downdog. As we warmed up, she mentioned that the focus of the month was on reconnecting and as such the pose of the month was navasana (boat pose). She further added that she was choosing to incorporate 108 sit-ups into her classes this month, but quickly reassured us that she would break them up.

 

The class, and as I later found out, the studio in general, is vinyasa flow based and we certainly did our fair share of vinyasas, broken up every once in a while with 27 sit-ups of varying styles then followed by some sort of cooling posture to allow a couple minutes of rest. The culmination of the class came when we used all of our core strengthening work to practice our handstands. Mel challenged us to really connect with our core and use it to help us kick up without relying so much on the wall to catch and support us.

 

We ended class with a few backbends and some forward folds of our choice before settling into a seemingly short Savasana, although in my world Savasana is almost never long enough.

 

After class, there were numerous conversations happening around me and I was easily caught up and welcomed into them despite not actually knowing anyone. I walked out of the studio with another student and since we were heading the same way we struck up a conversation as she had heard about my recent move from LA and had lived there herself in the past.

 

Once we went our separate ways, I saw a healthy convenience store called E&S Wholesome Foods on the corner of Essex and Stanton and I decided to go check it out. They carried the regular corner store staples, but also had an impressive selection of boxed teas, snacks like nuts and trail mix and Kombucha (something I still can’t decide if my taste buds are for or against). I also noticed a brand of quinoa I purchased at Whole Foods last weekend. I didn’t think to check how much it was though. They also had a menu of tasty sounding smoothies, salads and sandwiches, but what intrigued me was their breakfast selections like pancakes and egg white sandwiches, alas, since it was almost lunchtime, I left empty-handed, vowing to try it out next time…

Stick with what you know

YogaWorks

138 Fifth Ave, 4th Floor

New York, NY 10011

www.yogaworks.com

212.647.9642

Having recently moved from LA to NYC, I’ve spent the last couple of weeks drowning in a sea of boxes and cluttered surfaces. Now that things are starting to calm, I decided I’d let my practice languish for long enough and it was time to get back on the mat.

           

I’ve been eagerly researching studios since I found out I was moving here. I was very curious to see what the differences are between yoga on the east and west coasts. Seeing as my home studio in Los Angeles was YogaWorks, I figured it was only fitting to start my journey in NYC where I left off in LA so I chose to visit the Downtown location and take a YogaWorks Flow 2/3 class from Jenny Aurthur. Every time I have a lapse in my practice (which I’ll admit is more often than I’d like), I worry about jumping back in at the 2/3 level. I’m always concerned that I won’t have enough strength and stamina to make it through the class without coming out of all the more advanced poses early. 99% of the time I am completely fine, but the mental chatter that accompanies me to class on these days is so loud it could drown out the NYC street noise. This day was no different than the others and as I walked over to the studio I tried to focus on being present with where I was each step I took. I took comfort in realizing that this was actually quite easy, and necessary because if I wasn’t present I was likely to run into oncoming pedestrian traffic, or worse actual traffic.

 

After finding the entrance to the building hidden amongst a lot of construction, I was buzzed in and took the elevator up to the 4^th floor where the doors opened into the lobby facing the reception desk. As I signed in, the girls at the desk began discussing their excitement about a visiting teacher from LA. I immediately felt a little more at ease.

 

There were two studios on opposite sides of the lobby, both had dark wood floors and skylights and windows to add lots of natural light. Apparently I hadn’t gotten the memo about showing up right as the class was scheduled to start because I spent about 15 minutes prior to class with just one other guy (who upon talking to him I found out was a visiting student from LA!)

 

The class filled in right as it was starting at 9:30 and we began sitting in a supported Sukasana (easy cross-legged pose) and soon were tuning in with 3 OMs. My concerns about struggling through multiple sun salutations and vigorous vinyasas were still present but quickly dissipated when, to my surprise, I realized we were still sitting on our mats 20 minutes into class. 

I was even more surprised that we didn’t do a single sun salutation the entire class. This was definitely not the kind of flow that I was expecting, but since this was my first class back, I was okay with that. During the second half of the class we worked on some sequences linking balancing poses (tree to warrior 3 to half moon, etc) and suddenly the class started earning its level 2/3 status. Even though we were working hard, Jenny kept the mood playful so that we didn’t take ourselves too seriously, which can be tough to do when working on balancing poses.

We finished the class by somersaulting ourselves into a nice long supported legs-up-the-wall.

I noticed after class that the bathrooms/changing areas are pretty small and there was a bit of a wait to get in. No one seemed to mind, as they all knew each other and happily passed the time catching up.

After class I went around the corner to check out City Bakery, a cafeteria-style eatery on 18^th St. They had a plethora of baked goods, but trying not to undo all the good I had just done, I wanted to find something a little lighter. I went to the back to check out the lunch options, but wasn’t thrilled with the offerings. They had a few sides, some fruit and yogurt and some oatmeal. I ended up with some fruit and yogurt that was tasty, but according to the weigh scale that told me the cost of my purchase, it wasn’t as “light” as I was hoping for…