In Love
We’ve all had first loves, and we’ve probably all been someone’s first love. We remember the dewy rush of discovery, the I-just-can’t-quit-you phase. I remember it distinctly. After my first class at New York Yoga, I was hooked. So hooked, I went every day for about a week — skipping meals so I could afford the $20 drop-in classes. Sounds crazy huh? Someone finally pointed out class packs to me, and my whole world changed.
Three years later, I’m still in love and I hope to continue to be for many more years. In fact I wanted to share the love, leading me to my teacher training program in 2008. I wanted to learn enough about teaching yoga, that I’d be able to impart yoga’s wisdom on close friends and family. But I didn’t quite succeed. The truth is, yoga needs to be practiced regularly, if not daily, and that’s not something anyone will do unless they’re IN LOVE. One of my colleagues at my day job (after discovering I’m into yoga), wanted to learn more about it. He asked me in complete seriousness why the classes he had seen were so long, “an hour and half” he said shaking his head, “who DOES that?”. “Well” I shyly offered, “some classes are longer. And even then it doesn’t feel like enough”. Blank stare.
Finally, after two years of on-and-off again my aunt finally did fall in love with yoga. And I knew it the minute we got out of class. “That was SO exciting Marie!!! I just can’t wait to go back!” She couldn’t stop talking about it or sit still throughout dinner, the unmistakable yoga high. She now goes as often as she can — practicing daily and often hitting up the studio 3-4x a week, putting me to shame. Yet, I couldn’t be happier. Another friend had a similar experience. It was “liberating” he said. He shamelessly sweats into 3-4 towels a class, and it’s not Bikram/Hot yoga. Just Vinyasa.
This got me thinking about studios and their vibe. Because despite all of yoga’s “we accept everyone” mantra, it’s just not true. Try walking into Jivamukti with a cheeseburger and you’ll soon find out. Many yoga studios tend to be culty, if not high-school cliquey. Take one of my favorite studios, Laughing Lotus. My aunt had been to several of their basics class and never fell in love. Not because the classes weren’t great. But the studio made her feel awkward. She often felt like she was the only real beginner in their basics classes, and the teachers despite being incredibly friendly were at times aloof. I had gone to Laughing Lotus for most of 2009, some months I even went 3-4 times a week, and while I was always greeted with a smile, they never remembered my name, or acknowledged that I was familiar. Almost every time, I went back, I had to spell out “Hernandez”. It was awkward.
So are some studios better at making us fall in love then others? I think so. My aunt fell in love at Yoga Vida, and a part of me knew she would and that’s why I took her there. It reminded of my own experiences at NYY. She felt welcomed into their judgement free environment and after seeing us only twice, they remembered BOTH our names. So here is my short list on studios I’ve found to be good for beginners. Please suggest / submit your own favorite beginning studio:
New York Yoga
Yoga Vida
Om
Yoga to the People
