Heart Full

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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