Heart Full

Pure Yoga, possibly the largest yoga studio in New York City, had a reputation even before it opened. Housing 6 studios, 80 classes a week of every imaginable kind of yoga, it’s an emporium not unlike Equinox, the zen central for work-out-aholics.

Its’ simple beauty is breathtaking. The well placed wood works, creamy colors, and babbling water fixtures, evoke calmness and balance. It’s not just classes offered here, clients can drink tea and graze peacefully in a central lounge, that is more than 10x the size of my two bedroom. They’re also personally assessed by experienced yogis who help them create a customized development plan. When it finally is time to go to class, mats are laid out with geometric precision, a puffy towel and cork block greet each practitioner. It’s 5-star luxury for a reasonable (Manhattan) membership price $140 /mo and $95 activation fee…. Activation fee, I hadn’t heard that in years, not since I signed up for Equinox.

I was torn, on the one side the uniformity of it all struck me as sterile. The studios were numbered (e.g. studio 1, 2. etc,..), the mats, towels, and blocks laid out for each class are all the same. And since the mats are already there, you may as well leave your personal, colorful one, at home. Each studio more or less resemble each other, and the likeness to Equinox doesn’t stop at aesthetics, some of the instructors teach at both locations. And maybe I’m just whining too much, but since Pure is built downward, sun salutations just don’t seem to have the same effect when you’re 20 leagues below.

I remained unimpressed after taking my first class, hot flow yoga. It was a good class, offering detoxification, while working with the heat to find depth. But at less than a 100 degrees (or maybe just) it was more like “heated” or “hot lite”. Then I took my second class, and it changed me. HE changed me.

Throughout my practice, there are some poses (read binding) that I accept I can’t do. My trunk is long, my limbs are short, this makes easier binds within reach, but more complicated ones, impossible. When we do more advanced binding in class, I give it a go, feel the disappointment and move on. I planned on doing the same when he moved us into a standing bind. But as he surveyed the class, I felt his eyes clap on me, the awkward-worst-variant-one. OH NO! My heart sank deeper when I saw he was making his way over to me! I usually welcome adjustments, but not in binds, and not while standing on one leg. But yoga, teaches us to shine the light, and face our fears, so I swallowed and decided to give in even as my body fought. The dance was a sad and sweaty teeter-totter. At several points I was sure I was going to fall, and his reassurance of “I’m with you”, was not assuaging the panic. But he gave me the deepest adjustment I’ve ever had, and after my body stopped fighting and just relaxed, I found myself in the pose I’d assumed I could never do. “Transcend your reality“, he had said, and for the first time, it didn’t sound hallow.

In spite of my break through, I’m still not convinced of his unorthodox methods. I saw some scary looking adjustments, where students were going deeper, but their alignment (to me) looked poor, including sickling feet and splaying of the knees to get to half lotus. My second class at Pure, was similar to the first, good, but not — I’ll-be-coming-to-the-UES great. So although, I’m turning Pure Yoga down, I will definitely investigate transcending my reality again.