How To Get A Yoga Butt

Ciera J. Cuevas

Yoga: Theory, Culture and Practice

February 25, 2013

How To Get A Yoga Butt

I came across 02 Yoga studio while walking down Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, MA.  My first thought was: It’s interesting how Yoga studios have been catching my attention so much more lately.  I relate this feeling to the strange phenomenon that happens when you acquire something new in your life, such as a car or a pair of shoes, and suddenly this something new that you never noticed before begins to pop up everywhere you go.  For me this subconscious focus is closely related to my participation in the Yoga: Theory, Culture, and Practice class at Lesley University.

In Yoga: Theory, Culture and Practice we discuss the theories of yoga based on readings by Swami Muktibodhananda, and J. Krishnamurti.   In addition, we observe and discuss how the practice of yoga is influenced by culture. In order to explore these avenues further the class was given the task of individually researching a local yoga studio and attending a class.  The Yoga Studio I have chosen to analyze is O2 Yoga Studio.

O2 Yoga Studio is not just a clever name for the studio, it is the name of the practice. This Western inspired branch of Yoga draws from the philosophy of the eight-limbed path of Patanjali. O2 Yoga balances many principles of Asthanga Yoga by using heat-generating sequences of postures or asanas, and a mind-focusing breathing technique.  It was created in 1998 by Mimi Loureiro “as a way to introduce people to the system she believes is like no other for changing and improving body, mind, and spirit”(Loureiro). Mimi Loureiro has a BA in Nutrition, a BA in Psychology, and an MS in Exercise Physiology and has been a full-time Yoga instructor for the last 15 years. She created O2 Yoga to show others how “to harness all the good energy by focusing it on one point, creating a “harmonious individual and therefore a more peaceful world” (Loureiro).

 Mimi officially opened the first O2 Yoga Studio in 1999 and 12 Years later, this past fall, the Cambridge location is now open. The Cambridge location offers classes to the public seven days a week at affordable prices, a 200 hour teacher training program, a monthly intensive class for members, Intro to O2 Yoga workshops, a vegan café, massage therapy, and a conscious clothing boutique. The classes and schedules differ month to month but as for the month of February 2013 the classes provided are Karma Yoga, Intermediate, Power Yoga, Basic Yoga, Pre-natal, Asthanga, Post-natal, and meditation.

The atmosphere of the O2 Yoga Studio is partially commercialized, business in the front and strictly yoga in back. Upon entering you are greeted by the front desk and introduced to the prices and packages. I passed the Conscious boutique of all name-brand O2 products, such as tight yoga pants, tanks, sports-bras, mats, mat holders, headbands, and water bottles. After passing through the bright and cheery boutique I followed the beautifully carpeted floor through the O2 lobby which was nicely decorated with paintings, murals, and statues to “assist in creating focus and drishdi.” Upon entering the studio room, I could see it was split level and equipped with all natural flooring: bamboo, wood, and cork. The room was dimly lit and the temperature of remained comfortably warm at 82 degrees.  The instructor was accompanied by a statue of Buddha and her voice by a faint worldly.

 I took Basic Yoga with one of the regular instructors, Maggie Hall. The Basic Yoga class is advertised as an introduction class which focuses on the proper execution of postures and principles essential to O2 Yoga. The class is supportive of students that are new to the yoga practice and to individuals that need a refresher on the foundation of the practice. From my experience I would say that the advertisement is very accurate. Walking in to the class I saw a mix of people all age ranges within adulthood, genders, and ethnicities. The students ranged from intermediate to beginner. Regardless of age, gender, or experience Maggie encouraged the use of a supportive straps, blocks, and advised us to not worry too much about how far we can go in a position.

 Maggie engaged us in our breath, she asked us to focus on our breath by placing one hand on the abdomen and bring the other hand to the chest. This brought awareness to my heartbeat and how I breathe. Maggie told us to take inhale through the mouth into our abdomen followed by a deep breath through nose into the chest. On exhale were told to force our breath out with an ocean sound. Maggie referred to this as ocean breathing, or Ujjayi breathing. Ujjayi breathing is a very guttural type of breathing and it brings about a feeling of heat pulsing through the chest into the throat on exhale.

            Breathing was reinforced in every pose which was very consistent with the practices I was used to from the Yoga, Theory, and Culture class. The poses in the course were also very similar. The sequence of poses was fairly simplistic, downward dog into a yoga push-up, and then back up alternating legs, and flexing the feet. Towards the end we were proposed with more challenging forms of some of the position.

At one point we were guided from a seated twist position into an arm balance called Astavakrasana which was very difficult for me. If we couldn’t we were encouraged to laugh at ourselves, acknowledge that this is to promote relaxation and a stress free life not worry if we could do the position right at a basic level. At the end of the class there was a small meditation portion, we laid on our backs, closed our eyes and listened to the faint worldly tune. I also noticed that room began to get very cold, but attributed this to being the last class of the day but I am not sure. After about five minutes of meditation we closed with Namaste, which Maggie explained to mean the light within me sees the right within you.

At the end of the class, I talked to the members about some of the other classes I may be interested in taking. The class that was mentioned was Karma Yoga in the mornings. Karma Yoga is taught by aspiring yoga teachers in the 200- hour teaching program as a means to gain teaching experience. One thing that I really admired about this class is that all of the proceeds go to the Maple Farm Sanctuary which is a  non-profit organization provides a sanctuary for animals that have been abused, abandoned and unwanted by “promoting veganism and respect for all life through public information ("Maple farm sanctuary," ). It was refreshing to witness the studio and instructor’s true commitment to the Vegan Café and lifestyle was not just a marketing tool.

Overall, my feeling of O2 Yoga studio is from a Western perspective very positive. At the end of Basic Yoga I would say I felt energized and relaxed.  Walking to the studio my mind was very negative, and filled with thoughts, one in particular was “How am I going to really engage in this class without overthinking what I need present and write?” By the time I finished talking to the members and instructors I was excited to take on the 25 minute walk and qualitative research project with no complaints. However, I also recognized how significantly different the standard of O2 Yoga differed from that my class teachings.

The main focus of the O2 Yoga practice is anatomical; by going through the stances the individual will gain a better understanding of their body, strengthen their muscles, adjust the spine and therefore create better posture. The belief is that by doing this the individual will have a “better mood, better interactions with the world, and a more centered and quiet mind” (Loureiro).  The O2 Yoga purpose differs from the teachings of Swami Muktibodhananda who explained in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika that yoga is to be “practiced for the sole purpose of preparing oneself for the highest state of raja yoga, i.e. Samadhi” (Muktibodhananda 1985, p.27).  

While yoga can result in a balanced physical, mental, emotional equilibrium that is not the purpose. Instead yoga is meant for preparation of the body, mind, and emotions so the entirety of an individual can withstand the obstacles they will face on their journey to a higher state of consciousness (Muktibodhananda 1985, p.26).  In O2 yoga the goal is to achieve what Swami Muktibodhananda considered the “side effects” of reaching Samadhi. Muktibodhananda would say that these side effects are better off ignored because they render the practice useless.

The O2 Yoga Studio advertised massage therapy, yoga pants, and a Vegan Café all of which from a Western point of view sound fantastic but from an Eastern stand are commercial and have nothing to do with yoga.  In westernize society we have come to put yoga in the same category as massage therapy and eating healthy. The Hatha Pradipika would say that “hatha yoga is not being taught for its own sake, for therapeutic purposes, or for gaining worldly or psychic powers, and this is something the hatha yoga practitioner should always keep in mind” (Muktibodhananda 1985, p 28). Muktibodhananda belief examines how in the past five decades the new generations of yoga presented in the West have lost the true meaning of yoga. Modern society uses yoga as an exercise regimen with headings in magazines such as “Get a Yoga Butt in 10 Days.” Just as promoted at O2 yoga in the west yoga practiced mainly to improve or restore health, to reduce stress, to prevent the body from ageing, to build up the body or to beautify it (Muktibodhananda 1985, pg. 27).

Much like most studios in the West, O2 Yoga studio has a variety of instructors and a variety of classes. Sometimes individuals will take a liking to one instructor and class and stick with it but often individuals take a combination of different styles and different teachers. This is done partially because they want to find the right fit, or they just get bored. I have come to notice a pattern in West where individuals like to keep moving always in search of the next best thing. We tend to believe that what is old is the problem in our lives and maybe if we try this new thing our lives will be better.

However, this is not the case in traditional Yoga. If an individual wishes to practice yoga and reach their highest potential he/she must commit to one teacher and one form from beginning to end. “Whether one practices karma yoga, bhakti yoga, kriya yoga, jnana yoga, Zen Buddhism, or a combination of a few varying techniques, one has to have an ordered system and that system has to be followed from beginning to end, without diverging and trying other systems and gurus along the way”( Muktibodhananda 1985, p 29). A different approach on master’s and yoga practice which differs from both Western Yoga and Muktibodhananda traditional yoga is presented in the Krishnamurti text, This Light In Oneself. Krishnamurti does not believe that a teacher or a class is required to reach the highest state of consciousness. He believes it to be more satisfying to see if one could be a light to oneself, a light that has no dependence on another and that is completely free. (Krishnamurti 1999, p. 17).

Personally I feel most inspired by the theories explained in the Krishnamurti’s text. His overall belief is the meditation practice within yoga and his focus is on the power of oneself. A common problem residing especially in the West is this habit of depending on someone to put us in the right direction and to tell us what we need to do in order to be happy. We crave happiness and use phrases such as “I will be happy when…, or I was happy….,” but rarely do we say “I am happy at this present moment.” What Krishnamurti explains “We all want to accept somebody who promises something, because we have no light in ourselves. But nobody can give you that light: no guru, no teacher, no savior, no one” (Krishnmurti 1999, p 18).

At this point I have known the yoga practice from a western perspective through O2 Yoga studio. I have come to know it from Yoga:Theory, Culture, and Practice at Lesley University. I have also learned about the eastern perspective through the ideas of Swami Muktibodhananda and J. Krishnmurti. However, I still have much to learn about what yoga is from my own perspective. The question I have yet to answer is what does yoga for me and what does it mean to me?

This is a difficult journey because it seems at times these theories of yoga even within the same hemisphere conflict a great deal with one another in certain areas. Although what I have come to understand is that in the end all of these practices seek the same goal. The goal is to flourish, to reach the highest potential of oneself. The conflicting views are not the necessarily the goal but the meaning of what it is to flourish and be at your best.

References

Krishnamurti, J. (1999). This light in oneself: True meditation. Boston & London: Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Maple farm sanctuary. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.maplefarmsanctuary.org/apleFarmSanctuary).

Muktibodhananda, S. (1985). Hatha Yoga Pradipika. Light On Yoga (2013 ed.). Yoga Publications Trust, Munger, Bihar, India. DOI: www.yogavision.net

O2Yoga (2013). http://www.o2yoga.com . Web. Feburary 24, 2013.

Physical Culture: Power Yoga

Abbie Levesque
Laura Douglass
CSOCS 3452.01
2/27/13

Physical Culture: Power Yoga

Baron Baptiste has several affiliate studios, but his two main studios are located in Boston, with one in Brookline and one in Porter Square in Cambridge. At these studios there are several kinds of classes. For instance, there are specialty classes like “Yoga for Runners.” There are also several classes given on a regular basis. These are the meditation, core intensive, Hour of Power, All Levels, and Power Yoga Basics classes. It’s recommended that one takes a Power Yoga Basics class at some point in their Power Yoga career. These classes are all hot yoga classes, and definitively power yoga. (BaronBaptiste.com) The practitioners are all very athletic and for the most part the practices are atheistic, leaning towards agnostic. The studio is kept at about 90-95 degrees fahrenheit, and very humid. The practitioners were almost entirely athletic, white, and between 20-30 years old. The gender split was about 50/50, unusual for a yoga class. The practice itself was very physically demanding. The class I took was at the Cambridge studio, and was a power basics class taught by Samuel Robinson, who was also looked about 25, and was also white and athletic.

The History Of Baptiste Yoga

Baptiste was born into a Yoga family. It was actually his father who originally founded Baptiste Yoga, though the Yoga practiced at the studios today are definitively Baron’s. His family, he says, was full of “health, yoga and philosophical educators” (BaronBaptiste.com). Well Baptiste Yoga as a name seems to have been around since the 1940’s, the Yoga practiced by the studios today developed in the early 1990’s, and seemingly coincides with Baron becoming a part of the Philadelphia Eagles coaching staff- it was probably this combined with his background in more traditional yoga that cause the development of Power Yoga as a physical practice, which he was instrumental in helping develop and only came to exist as we know it today in the 90’s. In 1998 he founded his Cambridge and Brookline studios. The practice as it exists now is high impact, asana based yoga that is focused mostly on physical fitness with an aspect of self-help to it, mostly tied to an Orientalist view of Indian religions. As of the present day, Baptiste has over 40 affiliate studios and seems as focused on training new teachers as it is on running a Yoga practice. Baron has 4 books out now, all self-help in nature, and has several practices geared towards low-income communities in the US and Kenya. (BaronBaptiste.com)

The Physical Culture of Power Yoga

Power Yoga is a particularly good example of how the physical culture has modified Yoga. Singleton in particular discusses this, saying that “a preoccupation with the aesthetics of the body is common in yogasana manuals through the 1930’s... Publications such as these purveyed asana as a body-conditioning technique that could deliver happiness through health and aesthetic body perfection” (Singleton, 2010, pg. 129). It is in the pre-occupation with the physical that one can begin to see the shift from traditional Yoga used as a Hindu and Buddhist religious practice to the modern Yoga that is inherent in Baptiste Yoga, where the preoccupation is with the body and the implication that Yoga and the fitness it gives are a path to enlightenment and happiness. The 1930’s seems to have been a turning point in this way for Yoga- post-colonial India realized that Orientalist westerners would buy Yoga as a sort of export. Power Yoga perfectly embodies the physical culture that Singleton discusses, even though Power Yoga as Baptiste teaches it only developed in the 1990’s. Nonetheless, the focus on the physical as a way to reach a sort of clarity and spirituality highly mirrors the physical culture of Yoga in the 1930’s, and Baptiste’s Yoga practice is almost definitely a descendant of the physical culture Yoga that Singleton discusses.

The Spirituality of Power Yoga and its Cultural Implications

Power Yoga as a practice seems to be geared towards a more athletic set. That is, the people who practice power yoga as opposed to other forms of yoga are looking for a workout and not really any spiritual enlightenment. That being said, many of the practitioners are looking to Yoga as a form of self-help style self improvement. Well they’re not looking to it for religion, they are viewing it as a way to be better, and that Yoga is somehow inherently more enlightening than any other physical practice. Self-help sells, of course, and Baptiste has adapted the Hindu and Buddhist culture into one of an almost agnostic, “think positive and challenge yourself” culture, for the most part washing out the Indian elements but leaving behind the central ideas of focus and knowing one’s self. This is extraordinarily evident when one looks at the Baptiste books. They all all in that style and all claim to preach some form of inner enlightenment. Well it is easy to simply critique Baptiste or praise him for the manipulation of Indian culture, it’s also important to recognize that he does it because there is a demand for it, and that demand says something about Western Yoga. Not only is there an Orientalist component to Western Yoga, but there’s also a fascination in the west with someone sharing their “secrets” to enlightenment- that if one follows what this person tells them to do, they will be beautiful and happy. It’s an interesting mirror to the guru culture in more traditional Yoga. Instead of looking inside themselves for a person journey to happiness, western Yogis turn to someone like Baptiste, who claims to have somehow found the secret to happiness. It’s also very low-commitment as opposed to eastern Yoga and most western religions. Practitioners can go when they want, they don’t have to be deeply involved in or wholly believe in the philosophies of their practice, and they can stop whenever they want without fear of judgment from their cohort or families.

Orientalism and the Eat Pray Love culture in Modern Western Yoga

Orientalism has a long-standing culture in the western world. According to Edward Said, Orientalism is “the basic distinction between East and West as the starting point for elaborate accounts concerning the Orient, its people, customs, "mind," destiny, and so on. . .  despite or beyond any correspondence, or lack thereof, with a "real" Orient.” (Said, 1979, pg. 3,5) What this means is that western cultures romanticize eastern cultures, in this case specifically India, regardless of whether it’s an accurate portrayal of that culture. It is, colloquially, the Eat Pray Love phenomenon. The West views India as somehow inherently more enlightened, and that they somehow know more about the path to happiness than western culture- an exotiscism that is inherently misplaced and comes from a misunderstanding of their religious cultures being somehow more mystical than those in the west. Thus, the west often turns to India as a path to enlightenment. A criticism of this is that the West often treats India as a sort of spiritual playground for their personal enlightenment, appropriating and often bastardizing the native culture so that they can feel more worldly and wise than other westerners. This adaptation of the culture is apparent at Baptiste’s studio, though it does so differently than some other common practices of Yoga. It’s par the course for a westernized version of Hinduism to show up in Yoga- it’s not uncommon to hear talk about chakras and opening the heart-center with no actual explanation or understand of the religious practices and meaning behind them- to the West, this is just an easy way to enlightenment, with New-Age type ideas and mysticism without any idea of the actual religion it comes from. Baptiste turns this practice on its head- no mention of any of the explicit religious portions, though there were basic descriptions of sanskrit words and ideas, more seemingly to give the class a cultural basis than to encourage enlightenment. But this complete lack of any of the Hindu roots is a type of Orientalism all its own. Yoga poses are meant to be used as part of a religious practice, not unlike prayer in Judaic religions. Stripped of that and practice to aerobically, it’s actually essentially the same as calisthenics or gymnastics. It’s only because of Orientalism that the West views Yoga as somehow “better” than any western practice- they romanticize them and assume they are somehow more knowledgeable, instead of viewing them as being on equal footing. A sort of “noble savage” view, as Jean-Jacques Rousseau would put it. Not that Yoga as a practice is without its benefits- a power yoga class is both physically challenging and calming, increasing strength and flexibility. It’s simply what it is- that Orientalism gives some westerners a flawed view of what Yoga can do and of Indian culture.

The Theories of Yoga in Samuel Robinson’s Basics Class

The class I attended was Power Yoga Basics as taught by Samuel Robinson. He as a Yoga instructor subscribes to some theories that aren’t representative of Baptiste’s Yogic ideas but are nonetheless apparent in his classes. For instance, he is committed to “igniting the light that lives within each of our hearts” (BaronBaptiste.com). This closely mirrors J. Krishnamurti, who says “A light to oneself! This light cannot be given by another, nor can you light it at the candle of another. If you light it at the candle of another, it is just a candle, and can be blown out.” (Krishnamurti, 1999, pg. 111). He also focused heavily on pranayama, though without ever calling it that. He did, however, give a small talk about how important Ujjayi breathing is and how the breath and body must flow as one- a traditional idea in Yoga that was almost unexpected in a class that was nearly atheistic in nature. This subscription to pranayama seems to be specific to Robinson and not necessarily specific to Baptiste Yoga. Baptiste as a whole subscribes to the theories of physical yoga as mentioned above. That is, Baptiste believes in a good, healthy body being the key to enlightenment and happiness.

Works Cited

Baptiste Power Vinyasa Yoga. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.baronbaptiste.com/
Krishnamurti, J. (1999). This Light in Oneself: True Meditation. Boston: Shambala.
Said, E. (1979). Orientalism. New York: Vintage.
Singleton, M. (2010). Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. Oxford: Oxford UP.

Karma Yoga Studio

Abbie Roy

Yoga Midterm

2/27/13

Karma Yoga Studio

 Cambridge, Harvard Square

For my Yoga Midterm I attended a class at Karma Yoga Studio in Cambridge, in Harvard Square. The class I attended was weekly Sunday Evening Karma class, Vinyasa Flow Yoga.  This class is based on a contemporary yoga style, with a requirement of knowledge of the basic yoga postures.  The class “leads through a series of breath-synchronized postures which are linked to one another through a flowing movement- thus “flowing” into one another and inspiring the style name, Flow Yoga.”   My class was instructed by Lindsey, however she does not instruct every Sunday she is on a three-week rotation with two other Yoga instructors.  Lindsey doesn’t just practice at Karma Yoga Studio, but also at other studios in Boston.  Lindsey’s style of teaching Vinyasa may be very different than with the other two teachers, because everyone does it their own way.

Going to a yoga studio was a new experience for me and I didn’t know what to expect.  I figured it was going to be a mixture of our Yoga Class, and unorganized yoga classes I have attended in the past.  Walking into Karma it truly was a beautiful “sanctuary” as they call it.  The environment was very peaceful, and it was easy to become relaxed right when you walk through the door.  In our class the lights were dim and not too bright.  The temperature in the room was about 72 degrees, because it was a non-heated class.  We had three materials we need to get right when we got into the room, two blocks, a towel, and a strap.  We had used the blocks when we were doing lunges and needed support, or when we needed to be higher to get a better stretch.  She had mentioned that being up higher was easier and sometimes felt better then being flat on the ground.  The towel was used when we were doing breathing exercises; this again helped us from not being completely on the floor or on top of our yoga mats.  The strap was used to stretch out our legs and rotate them.  All of the materials were definitely necessary and had a purpose. 

The class was unlike any other class I have been to before.  It was very fast past, and very little meditation.  She was going around helping people and fixing their poses, along with talking, and going through the moves quickly.  I was curious that this was the case because it was a all levels class, and a more intermediate class would be different.  Even though it was very fast pace, it didn’t feel like we were in the room for an hour and a half.  Also, even though it was a fast class, we were able to focus on all of the things she said we were going to; which were, breathing, hamstrings/legs, abdominals, and a few arm strengthening moves. 

The history of Karma Yoga Studio was very challenging to find.  It is a private company categorized under Yoga Instruction.  They opened their doors in December 2001, and have been going fairly strong ever since.  Since I wasn’t able to find historical facts about Karma, I looked to see what the ratings have been over the past 12 years.  Over the past years Karma has had their great reviews and their poor reviews.  Starting with the poor reviews, they have been struggling with poor management and not keeping their costumers happy.  They also seem to struggle with their packages that they offer, and are not very clear about the rules and regulations, therefore customers feel as if they are losing money.  There has only been a few reviews were instructors were the issue, and when they were they were known to be rude and full of themselves.  More on a positive note, Karma has had great reviews for the great environment that they offer.  Along with having a gym upstairs it is useful and convenient.  Classes that aren’t over $10.00 is a huge attraction, and very affordable.  Even though some of the yoga instructors were focused in the bad reviews, they were also highly recognized as great instructors in the positive reviews.  According to the history that Karma Yoga Studio has so far, I am sure that they will keep growing in the future. 

Karma serves a variety of different people.  There are classes for people at all levels.  Beginners, and intermediate, along with pregnant women!  They have about 30 different classes that focus on multiple different things; therefore you can choose which one you want to attend.   Prenatal Yoga is a new class at Karma for pregnant women.  This is class where they can tune out the rest of the world and tune in to the amazing creation of both a baby and a mother.   Being able to serve a variety of different people brings in more people to the studio.

Not only does Karma serve people, but also “Human and Animal Rights.”  Over the last nine years Karma has raised over $150,000.  During Karma Class on Sunday evenings, entire proceeds go to local animal rescue projects.  Donations are set at $7.00 minimum, however most people give more.  When I was there for the Karma class on Sunday, the receptionist told me that most people donate at least $10.00.  There were about 15 students in my class, therefore if everyone donated $10.00 that night they made $150.00.   That is a great amount of money for one night and they do this every Sunday for a great cause.  I think that serving another organization really gets your name out there and that is great for business.  They advertise a lot that they raise money for this organization; therefore it will help the studio in the long run. 

The practice of Yoga at Karma Yoga Studio is influenced by culture in many ways.  They focus classes on a variety of yoga styles, Chi Kung, and other mind-body practices.  They don’t just limit the practices to American culture, which is a fast moving yoga, power, focused on losing weight or strengthening muscles.  Nia is a class they offer which is a mind-body-spirit workout, very low key, nothing like the American culture.  Also they offer Chi Kung, which is the Chinese equivalent to yoga.  Karma also has an eco-boutique offering environmentally and socially conscious yoga/fitness gear and gifts from around the world.  They bring in other cultures, because yoga is everywhere today.  Having instructors who are from other cultures also brings in the different cultures, because they will instruct a class differently then someone else will.  Students will get that first hand culture diversity by learning from someone who has learned it from somewhere else.  It is important to have different cultures in a practice because all different cultures practice yoga.

According to American Yoga Association there are a couple different theories about yoga.  “The whole system of yoga is built on three main structures: exercise, breathing, and meditation.” “The word Yoga means “to join or yoke together”, and it brings the body and mind together into one harmonious experience.”   Karma shows these theories by the setting in their studio.  Which is calm, peaceful, and sanctuary like.  By the setting that they have placed they are able to join the body and the mind together, before even doing the practice.   Once in classes Karma follows the three main structures of Yoga, exercise, breathing and meditation.  They show this by having multiple different types of classes to fit the need of everyone, but also in each individual class.  No matter which class is being taught exercise, breathing and meditation is being practiced.  I believe that this is a great theory of Yoga because those three main structures is what Yoga is all about.  Without the three main structures I think that Yoga would be missing the true meaning of Yoga, and wouldn’t be able to truly join together the body and mind into one harmonious experience. 

Overall, I enjoyed my experience at Karma Yoga Studio.  I received the lived experience and feeling for the style of yoga that was taught.  I really got to experience how they brought in different cultures to the practice, along with experience a new yoga class in general.  If I were to go back to a Yoga Studio, I would chose Karma because the instructor I had was great, and to me that always brings customers back.    I would recommend Karma to anyone, because of the different types of people they serve, from beginners to intermediate levels; there is a class for everyone!