Amaryllis Elaine Hager
2/19/12
Mid-term Yoga Project
CSOCS 3452 Yoga: Theory, Culture and Practice
Laura Douglass
Bow Street Yoga
Bow Street Yoga Studio is located in Union Square in Somerville, MA, on the first floor of one of the historic homes on Bow Street. When I walked into the studio, there were a bunch of people leaving because a class had just finished. There were several women (and some men) all who looked to be in their twenties and early thirties. I began taking off my layers and hanging up my coat. When the herd of people thinned out, I went up to the register to pay, and was happily greeted by a very warm woman. “Amaryllis—what a beautiful name! I’m Theresa, by the way”, she said as she extended her hand. After I paid for the class, she asked me if I had any injuries or anything she-(Theresa was my yoga teacher for the night) should know about. I said I didn’t think so, and she made it very clear that this was a class always open to questions, concerns, and modifications. This, alone, made me feel comfortable upon entering the room. Theresa followed me in the room, and told me to grab 2 blocks, a blanket, a tennis ball, a strap, and my mat and find a place on the floor. The class was very small; there were seven women including me, and everyone in the class was older than I was. There were a few women in their twenties, some in their thirties and two women who were middle-aged. Many women in this class had injuries and seemed to be just getting back on their feet. Some may have been at Yoga for the first few times and needed a safe place for beginners.
The Yoga class, itself, was a pleasurable one that fit my personal needs very well. The class that I attended was called “Vinyasa for beginners”, and it is described on the website as a slower paced, more meditative format of Vinyasa Yoga, where the teacher spends more time teaching how to do the positions correctly, in order to get the most benefit. Their Vinyasa classes are depicted as “A style of yoga linking movement with breath. Vinyasa classes flow through a series of postures (asanas), choreographed to the rhythm of your breath, each movement matching an inhale or an exhale” (Bow Street Yoga: Classes/Rates). The class was very slow-paced. Theresa focused a lot on the hips, opening up the ligaments around the hips and breathing into the poses. Poses were held for a substantial amount of time, and through breath work, the pose allows for the body to gently open. Compared with many other Vinyasa Yoga classes I have attended, I think that breath work and opening is something that this class and teacher did particularly well. I felt that every time we moved to a new position, the teacher would remind the students to have an awareness of breath, and to move with a breath-based intention. This yoga class was also much slower-paced than any other class I have ever attended, allowing me to breathe into the pose and relax into a more meditative state, which deepened the experience for me. After trying faster-paced classes of Vinyasa Yoga, such as “power yoga” at other studios, I have found that my body benefits more from sinking into a pose and focusing on my breath, rather than rushing through a series of asanas. I enjoyed my experience at this Yoga studio because it fit my personal needs. My hips felt so open and free, and I wasn’t even in pain the next day, like I usually am.
The different types of Yoga offered at this venue are vinyasa, restorative, and yin Yoga. It is important to have an understanding of the origin of the practice in order to better undertand the practice of Yoga, itself. Vinyasa yoga is rooted in Hatha Yoga, and has a long history. A Hatha Yogi who lived at the turn of the nineteenth century, Sri Ramamohan Brahmachari, lived in a cave at the foot of Mount Kailas (in the Himilayas). Sri Ramamohan Brahmachari was known as one of a handful of true Hatha Yogis at the time, and he was sought out by an influential teacher and Yogi, named Sri Tirumala Krishnamacharya. Krishnamacharya spent seven years with Brahmachari, learning asanas and pranayama and studying Hatha Yoga. Many years later, the Maharaja of Mysore (a friend and practitioner of Krishnamacharya) gave him a place to teach Yoga (the gymnastics hall at the palace), and it was there that he developed Vinyasa Yoga. Krishnamacharya taught many students at this school and one of them, Iyengar, played a significant role in bringing Yoga to the West (Giubarelli). Since then, Yoga has changed tremendously, and culture has played a huge impact on these changes.
Restorative Yoga is a specific type of Hatha Yoga that has been Westernized and verified in order to benefit all bodies of different abilities. Restorative Yoga has the intention of gently opening the body. This opening can be done in several ways: props can be utilized to support the body, poses can be held for longer periods of time to allow the body to sink into the pose, images can be used to help the mind identify with the opening of the body, and meditation, relaxation and “letting go” techniques can be used to help the body to open up and heal. In Restorative Yoga, the Yogi may hold a pose (possibly using a prop to support different parts of the body) for a long period of time, and really relax into the pose in order to open up the body. This type of yoga can be very healing and is used to relieve stress and tension in the body. At Bow Street Yoga, this class focuses on stillness both in body and mind, with the aid of blocks, bolsters, blankets, and straps. These props are used to allow the muscles and connective tissue to relax and open, which can then allow the body to release toxins, improve the immune system and to let any injuries heal (Bow Street Yoga: Classes/Rates).
Yin Yoga is an integrated blend of the practice of Vinyasa yoga under the premise of the Chinese meridian system (the same system worked through acupuncture/acupressure). At Bow Street Yoga, the asanas or postures are held for several minutes to allow the muscles to relax and to create tension in the deep connective tissue. At this studio, their Yin Yoga class has a focus on the hips and legs. According to Bow Street Yoga’s website, Yin yoga is “a great way to balance out a more active ‘yang’ practice”.
Before going to Bow Street Yoga, I conducted a lot of research on the studio, itself. It was evident that there was a lack of information on the website pertaining to the history, the founder of the studio, and how the studio rooted itself and took hold. I took the questions that were not answered on the website or anywhere else on the website, and brought them with me in order to have some prompted questions that I wanted to ask the teacher after the class in an informal “interview”. When the class was over, I gathered my things and went to talk with the teacher to get a little more information about the studio. When I asked Theresa if she knew who founded Bow Street Yoga, she responded “I did”, with a smile. I couldn’t have had a better experience than getting to talk with the owner, herself! Theresa said that she founded Bow Street Yoga Studio on October third, 2009, which was about three years ago. “I wanted to create a really down to earth and approachable studio for Yogis of all different levels and backgrounds”, said Theresa. When I asked her about what makes this studio different from all the others, she replied, “I know how intimidating a fast-paced Yoga class can be, and I wanted to open a place where beginners would feel welcome, comfortable and supported”. Theresa explained, also, that there are a lot of Yoga studios around Boston with a lot of good instructors, but sometimes a good instructor of a fast-paced Yoga class can be a poor “teacher” if the student is new to Yoga. Theresa felt passionate about teaching the poses the correct way, because so often people do not learn the poses correctly and they not only lack the benefits of the pose, but can damage their bodies. She definitely made an impact on me as being both down to earth and approachable!
It is crucial to look at Yoga through a cultural lens; Yoga culture is incredibly diverse depending on where in the world it is practiced, what its roots originated, the teacher’s training, experience and style, the setting/location, the population that the Yoga studio serves/ the kind of people that the studio attracts, the cultural discourse about what type of yoga is appropriate or accepted, and a multitude of other factors. Yoga can range from the stereotype of the extreme lifestyle of primarily older men in India who devote their lives to this practice of Yoga, (which includes an intense practice of meditation, cleansing, celibacy, dieting/fasting, etc.) to the stereotype of the woman on the cover of “Yoga Journal” Magazine; a thin, white, middle class woman in her mid-twenties who practices Yoga to maintain her shape and to relax her body and mind (in a way, to “pamper” her, if you will).
I recognize that Bow Street Yoga studio is on the latter side of the spectrum, and is a very Americanized form of Vinyasa yoga. There are a lot of cultural “beliefs” within this bracket of Westernized Yoga. One of the messages sent out to our culture is that you must be a skinny, flexible, white, middle class, youthful woman in order to do yoga. If you look at the cover of “Yoga Journal”, one of the most popular Yoga magazines in America, the women on the cover always depicts this exact type of female. Another message is that you have to have all the best Yoga accessories; Yoga mats, Yoga clothes, Yoga water bottles, Yoga electrolyte-replacement water supplement powder, yoga handbags with the “Om” symbols on it, etc. According to Michelis, “In recent years, yoga and meditation have become mass market pursuits in the west” (2008, back cover), which is exactly what has happened. American culture is so based around mass marketing and profit gain, that even practices that were originally so simple and low-maintenance are now incredibly marketed and unnecessarily complicated with our culture’s never-ending “need for things”. Mishra explained that Pierre Bernard was one of the first of many charlatans who popularized yoga (or at least its physical training aspect, hatha yoga), in the United States. As Bernard would put it, “the purpose of yoga is to prepare us from getting cheated, to enable us to make better bargains, and to get what we go after!” (Mishra, 2010, 873.) Ironically, Yoga was initially created, in simplest terms, to connect one with the “all”, and to distance ourselves from the separation of human body and unity consciousness.
Despite American culture’s tendency to over-market Yoga, the practice of Yoga in American culture has benefitted so many people. To focus in on my particular venue, Bow Street Yoga has benefitted many individuals; even if these individuals are the stereotypical white, upper-middle class, healthy females. Just because there is a particular culture associated with this demographic (as aforementioned), doesn’t mean that they are not in need of Yoga. Bow Street Yoga is a studio that “hope[s] to be considered “home” for yogis of all levels in [the] area” (Bow Street Yoga). The studio claims that their “experienced teachers are committed to sharing their love and knowledge for yoga in a safe environment—providing opportunities for students to deepen their practice and explore their bodies” (Bow Street Yoga). They have also benefitted so many people through being such an approachable place. There are a lot of students that come to this Yoga studio because it is a safe environment for beginners that need a slower pace, for people who have had injuries and need a little more TLC from the teacher, and for people who need a more intimate setting. These people may not be going to yoga studios, otherwise, and therefore would not be receiving the amazing benefits of Yoga in their lives.
With their motto, “open body, quiet mind” (as shown on the homepage of Bow Street Yoga’s website), it is evident that the intention is not only to exercise, work, and open the body, but there is also an aspect of “quieting the mind”; putting emphasis on the body-mind connection. Also on the homepage of their website, in large letters, there are the words, “Out of the mud, the lotus grows”. This stuck out to me because I have always loved the concept that the lotus; a beautiful flower that symbolizes wisdom in Eastern culture, grows out of the thick, dirty mud. Hawn put it very simply, “The lotus is the most beautiful flower, whose petals open one by one. But it will only grow in the mud. In order to grow and gain wisdom, first you must have the mud—the obstacles of life and its suffering” (2006, p. 25). This really stuck out to me in terms of having a personal connection with Bow Street Yoga.
References
Giubarelli, M. (n.d.). History of Vinyasa Yoga by Mark Giubarelli. Yoga Videos, Cards and Yoga Teacher Training Tools. Retrieved February 19, 2012, from <http://www.yogacards.com/vinyasa_yoga/history-of-vinyasa-yoga.html>.
Hawn, G. & Holden, W. (2006). A Lotus Grows in the Mud. New York, NY: Berkley Books.
Michelis, Elizabeth. (2008). A Hisory of Modern Yoga: Patanjali and Western Esotericism. Continuum. Back Cover.
Mishra, P. (2010). The Great Oom: The Improbable Birth of Yoga in America. Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, 33(4), 873.
No comments:
Post a Comment