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?