Heart Full

New York Yoga

It was love at first drop-in. I had seen the signs in my old UES neighborhood — plastered over what use to be telephone booths but today are advertising stalls. And after months of wondering, and a bad break up, I decided to try it out. My previous yoga experience was at NYSC, and had been brief and painful. After some grueling stretches, the instructor demonstrated “crow” and challenged us to “go for it”. My spirit was willing, but my keyboard trained wrists nearly snapped at the thought. I was sure she was joking. She wasn’t. I didn’t come come back.

But at New York Yoga, I felt welcomed the minute I crept through the door. The receptionist (Melissa) greeted me with a warm smiled, that felt sincere. The instructor (Molly) wasn’t the fitness instructor I was expecting. She was more like a friend, who understood. I came back the next day, and the day after, I was hooked. At first, it was the movement that captured my imagination, but as my practice developed, I found myself returning for the wisdom and the community.

New York Yoga, became like a second home to me, and to this day, I don’t think I’ve ever experienced quite the same level of welcome or warmth from any yoga studio. All that said, their pricing does raise brows (mine included). At $23 a drop in class, and $149 / month it’s expensive even for NY. As little as 2 years ago, there was a dearth of good yoga studios on the UES, but at this point yoga has arrived in a -at-every-corner-duane-reade kind of way, and it’s difficult to justify the pricing.

Still, having moved downtown and tried out numerous other studios, I still miss it, and the teachers that started me down the yogic path.