Heart Full

Voted by Citysearch as the best yoga studio in New York City since 2005, Sonic Yoga. I’ve been studying this yoga studio for some time, it offers an incredibly competitive membership price, including such tempting offers as 3 months unlimited for $180, well reviewed workshops, and a couple NYY teachers all at Sonic, it was almost too good to be true.

I arrived early, believing I’d have a harder time finding it than I did, but Google Maps can fix even the most hopelessly directionally challenged. I took in the small boutique, spacious couches, and soft water fall, I liked it. As I settled into the couch I noticed that the door to the studio was glass, how novel. I had begun to believe observing yoga classes was discouraged, (and the jury is still out) I was given a glimpse to an impressive space. Clean, long wooden planks, with soft natural light touching all corners. I liked the curtain motif at the front of the room, but secretly believe…Laughing Lotus has perfected the curtain art.

As time for my class approached, I had the luxury of watching the incoming students. And as they grew in number so did my anxiety. There was only one other girl there who didn’t seem to know anyone, and was questioned assertively on her yoga experience, “could it be that advanced?”, I wondered, “…this wasn’t an ashram … could it be so different  from the other yoga studios I’d been to”? It was. I looked around, and increasingly noticed all the other students knew each other, and not just a little bit, but well. I hadn’t seen this level of familiarity since my teenage years and-20-lbs-younger dancer days. These girls had spent a lot of time together, a retreat?

It wasn’t just the students either, but also the teacher. She spoke to them with such easy familiarity, it became painfully clear that I was odd man out. And just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, it did. She reveals we’ll be doing partner yoga … later. Great. Middle school no-lunch-table-to-sit-at memories taunted me, “just wait” they said, “when the time comes, no one will be your partner”. Nice.
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Yogaworks, possibly the most famous national yoga chain. Yet it doesn’t suffer the pejorative connotations of a chain, it is still is seen as offering some pretty good yoga. And i can see why. In many ways practicing at Yogaworks was familiar. The teacher offered a balance between mediation, dharma (parables / story-telling), and asana. She shared personal details with surprising candor, and underlying vulnerbility. Her focus on alignment was intelligent, and enlightening. She was familiar.

I wondered if the familiarity was due to the Ishta influence in her’s and Kristin’s teaching. Possibly. But I appreciated that she realized hips and feet in Warrior I and Warrior II don’t readily align. It was refreshing to not be awkwardly flowing between these poses, compensating or compromising alignment in order to “flow”, and feeling guilty about it.

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Ipanema Beach, Rio de Janiero – June 2008

It would be tough to imagine anything more beautiful than the beach landscape of Rio. Until I saw her people. My cellulite screamed in agony. For several caipirinha induced hours I believed that this place inspired Eden. Wishful thinking. This is not the cradle for all human kind, just supermodels. And it’s easy to see why. The beaches virtually all 6+ km of it are teeming with activity, and not the sun-bathing kind, but futbol, volleyball, and jogging. Starbucks doesn’t exist here, it’s door to door juice bars, McDonalds is sasquatch rare, and no one smokes. Top it off with a healthy tan, good-looking genes, and you have your average Brazilian.

So it’s easy to see why I slithered into my first Brazilian yoga class. The fact that the only yoga class I could find within a healthy – NYer walking radius of my hotel was in a gym was no comfort. My mind had me mat to mat with Adriana Lima, or any other Victoria Secret Model (since they all seem to come from Brazil nowadays). It would never matter how stable I was in crow or tree, all of my poses would be marked by dimply, pudgy and squat.

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By now, Laughing Lotus is a venerable Yoga Studio on the New York scene, and just about every drop I’ve heard about this place, has been glowing. But I was dubious, especially when I was blinded by the colors, almost the minute I entered. “Ah”, said my inner voice, “bohemian charm”, much like Kula Yoga . But the studios are almost nothing alike, and I am sheepishly ashamed at having been so judgmental.

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