Katie McCarthy
Professor
Douglass
CSOCS 3452 Yoga:
Theory, Culture, and Practice
10 October 2012
Twisting at Karma Yoga Studio
Karma
Yoga Studio is located in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA. Having walked past it several times, I
was very intrigued to see what it looked like from the inside. The cozy café area was very inviting,
and I was tempted to sit down and have a cup of tea. But on September 25 I was there to try a new kind of yoga practice. I chose to take an “Anusara-inspired”
yoga class because I hadn’t heard of it before, and from the description on the
website, it seemed relaxing and calming.
When
I walked into Karma Yoga Studio, I wasn’t sure where to go. I was looking for some sort of front
desk area, but all I saw was the café.
The man at the café asked what I wanted to have from the café and I told
him I was actually here for yoga.
It turned out that the café was also the front desk. I stood there filling out the necessary
paperwork and feeling a little out of place. Other people signed in while I filled the forms out and they
all seemed to know where they were going.
Two men signed in while I stood at the front desk and I began to worry
that I was going to a physical, power-yoga class instead of the relaxing “stepping
into grace” yoga class that the website promised. I had to remind myself, though, that I did not know exactly
what I had signed up for because I didn’t look into what Anusara yoga consisted
of before going.
I
took the staircase down to the lower level and found the studio space. The building was very calming and
inviting. The simple architecture
and layout created an atmosphere fit for slowing down the pace of daily life. I wanted to slowly shift into this
calming state, but I had a feeling of rushing to get all the props and get a
spot on the floor. The instructor
asked if I had been here before and I said no, so she told me what I needed for
the practice. I needed a mat, a
block, a roller, and a blanket. I
wasn’t sure what a roller was, but I was sent into the closet to find
everything anyway. People were
already rolling their backs on their rollers while I was setting up which made
me anxious. I started rolling on
my back and my ponytail got caught underneath the roller, pulling my head
back. I couldn’t help but think to
myself that this was going to be a rough hour and fifteen minutes.
The room was full, with around twelve
people in the space. Three of the
people were men, the rest women.
Almost everyone in the class seemed to be 35 years old or older, with
the exception of myself, my friend, and another girl. Many of the people in the class looked like they came
straight from work, which made sense to me because the Karma Yoga Studio is
located in the heart of Harvard Square in Cambridge. The yoga instructor was a petite blonde woman who greeted
everyone at the entrance to the studio.
Before I knew it, we were starting the session.
In
the beginning, the instructor mentioned that we would be doing a lot of
twisting because the autumnal equinox had just passed a few days prior. Throughout the practice, she
occasionally went back to this twisting theme in the poses we did. I wanted to know more about why twisting
and autumn were related, but she stopped there. After doing some online browsing, I found out that themes in
yoga are common, especially in relation to nature (Strover, S., 2012). Because autumn is the season between
summer and winter, there are a lot of shifts that occur in nature and in the
body. I really liked the idea of
having a theme to yoga. I felt
like it gave the practice a purpose.
Just like with meditation, I feel like I am more likely to go deeper
when there is a theme or reason for doing it.
Even
though there was a theme during this yoga practice, I still found myself struggling
to really get into the session. Because
she only occasionally went back to the autumn-twisting theme, I would lose
sight of it and get caught up in my body shaking from holding a pose, or I
would start wondering if I was doing the right thing because I didn’t hear what
she said. I liked the dark
lighting in the room, but it was so dark that I felt like I couldn’t see the
instructor if I wasn’t sure what she meant when she was describing a pose. Even the room threw me off a bit. The space itself was long and narrow,
which was fine at first, but the only places left to choose on the floor were
in the center of the studio. In a
new, unfamiliar place, I usually like staying near the edge or in the back, but
I didn’t have much of a choice.
There were people on either side of me and behind me, which made me feel
uncomfortable and in the spotlight, despite the dark lighting.
The
practice itself was very physical.
I was thankful that the instructor provided variations to the poses
because I was not mentally prepared to work myself very hard on a physical
level. I realized then that Anusara
yoga must not be what I imagined it would be. At one point near the end of the practice the instructor
even said, “alright now let’s do some abs.” She then led us in a short abdominal workout routine. I was surprised when we started doing
actual crunches because, although we were twisting while we were exercising, it
didn’t feel like yoga. Throughout
the session there were some complicated poses that I had never tried
before. I was expecting a fairly
simple session because the schedule said that this class was for all levels,
not for more intermediate levels.
One
part of the session I really liked was when we chanted “om” at the beginning
and at the end. The instructor
took out this large instrument that looked like some sort of accordion and
played it while we chanted a few rounds of “om.” The sound that came out of the instrument filled the room
and I felt like I was no longer in that studio space in Cambridge but somewhere
underwater or in some sort of sacred cave. This was my favorite part of the session because something
inside me stirred and awakened.
The poses gave energy to my body but it was the simplicity of sitting while
the instructor played the instrument that energized my spirit.
Once
the session was over, everyone got up quickly and started putting their props
away. I also had to put my things
away quickly because I had somewhere to be, but I didn’t want to rush out of
it. I wanted to sit a little while
longer and really take in my experience: what I liked about it, what I didn’t. But seeing everyone pack up and leave
brought me back to reality and to the next place I had to be. Reflecting back, I wish I had looked
into the type of yoga that Anusara was.
I was looking to try something more meditative and gentle, and Anusara-inspired
yoga is a type of hatha yoga.
Overall, though, I had a positive experience. I really enjoyed the instrument that the instructor played
and I liked the fact that she had a theme to her session. I liked that the instructor encouraged
doing any variations to any of the poses and the physical space was very
inviting.
Afterwards,
I did some research on Karma Yoga Studio.
I had difficulty finding a lot of information on its history of the
studio because the website focuses mainly on the classes offered. The founder of Karma Yoga Studio is
Jesse Winder, who opened the Cambridge studio in 2002 (“Karma Yoga Teachers,”
n.d.). According to his biography,
Jesse’s passion is in tying the eastern traditions with the western science (“Karma
Yoga Teachers,” n.d.). This makes
sense because the studio is fully equipped with a gym with machines along with
the studios for yoga. The studio
offers a wide range of classes, from gentle meditative practices to physical
exercise classes. They provide
nia, bollywood dance, and even a type of yoga created by the founder of Karma
Yoga Studio called “Physioyoga” which combines traditional yoga practices with
modern sport medicine (“Karma Yoga Teachers,” n.d.).
Karma
Yoga Studio has three locations: Harvard Square, Allston, and the South End in
Boston. They describe themselves
as an “independent holistic fitness studio” (“Karma Yoga Studio,” n.d.). Karma Yoga Studio has four core
values. They believe that “choice,
personal attention, and a beautiful, healing environment are essential to the
health and well-being of all” (“Karma Yoga Studio,” n.d.), they are committed
to “the belief that compassion and non-violence are the indispensable
components of progressive and social change” (“Karma Yoga Studio,” n.d.), they
work to “create a better world” (“Karma Yoga Studio,” n.d.) through various
support systems, and they dream to help people transform their bodies, clear
and refresh their minds, and enlighten their spirits (“Karma Yoga Studio,”
n.d.).
I
left the yoga session without a clear impression of what anusara-inspired yoga
was. It felt similar to the kind
of yoga that we do in class: chanting “om,” doing a series of poses, focusing
on breath, and ending with a short meditation. The only clear difference I noticed was the use of props in
the anusara-inspired yoga class. I
wondered for a while if I even went to the class I intended on going to or if I
went into the wrong class. The
instructor never announced that it was an anusara-inspired class, and nothing
about the class seemed to stick out as anything particularly special in my
opinion.
Once
I did some research on anusara-inspired yoga, though, I realized that I had gone
to the correct class. Anusara
yoga, founded in 1997 by John Friend, is a type of hatha yoga derived from
Iyengar yoga (“About Anusara,” 2009).
The term “Anusara” has a few translations, including “flowing with grace”
(“About Anusara,” 2009). The methodology
of Anusara yoga states that each class has a theme (“Methodology,” 2009), and
in this case the theme was centered on the autumnal equinox. Anusara yoga begins in a place where
everyone is inherently good, and those who practice it look for the goodness in
everything (“Methodology,” 2009). Anusara-inspired
yoga differs from Anusara yoga in that the instructors are not certified in
Anusara yoga but have had extensive training in Anusara yoga.
Looking
back, I wish I had done some more research before committing to this type of
yoga. I enjoyed it, but I was
looking for a much different experience than a hatha yoga practice. Going into the session with the
expectation that it would be meditative and more inwardly focused left me with
a sense of disappointment in the end. If I had the chance to go to another Anusara-inspired
yoga class, I would arrive earlier so I could ground myself before beginning
the practice and choose a place on the floor that felt more comfortable and
less exposed. I would know what to
expect, which might help me be more present during the class. Going out and trying this different
kind of yoga has inspired me to continue to try other types of yoga in the
future.
References
“About
anusara yoga.” (2009). Retrieved from
http://www.anusara.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68&Itemid=77.
“Karma
yoga studio.” (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.karmayogastudio.com.
“Karma
yoga teachers.” (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.karmayogastudio.com/teachers/.
“Methodology.”
(2009). Retrieved from
http://www.anusara.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id
62&Itemid=114.
Strover,
S. (2012). “Creating a theme-centered class” in Yoga Journal. Retrieved from
http://www.yogajournal.com/for_teachers/2281?page=3.
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