253 Centre Street
New York, NY 10013
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!!
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