269 Elizabeth Street
New York, NY 10012
212.334.6900
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.
