980 Madison Ave, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10075
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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?
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