The Community of Yoga
by Mary Leonard

You may remember the terms transcendental meditation and the relaxation response from the 70s and 80s, may have even dabbled in one or the other or even practiced meditation for health reasons. Today yoga and meditation are much more mainstream. Data collected by Harris Interactive Service Bureau in 2008 for the Yoga Journal indicated that almost half of current practitioners started practicing yoga to improve their overall health. In the 2003 study, that number was 5.6 percent. Even employers are recognizing the benefits of a meditation practice. At Google, the company, courses in meditation are offered in the workplace to improve the overall health of employees and atmosphere of the workplace. If your employer is not as enlightened as the West Coast Google, then you might want to try Yoga on your own time at one of the many studios here in the Hudson Valley.

Yoga studios help with the practices and offer a myriad of classes for all levels as well as other services. For example, Mudita Yoga Center and new Leaf Holistic Health, on the Rondout in Kingston, offered Whole Body Cleanse this past spring at Mudita—a program that combined yoga, acupuncture, diet, lectures and discussion groups to “detoxify, restore balance and give the tools to promote a healthy lifestyle.” Shawn Harrison, one of the owners of Mudita, says, “Not only is the food you eat connected with who you are, but also your thoughts.” In addition to the spring cleanse and of course continuous yoga classes, Mudita offers an Illumination Series of special classes that range from writing as meditation to the yoga of sound.

Yoga is not only stretching and aerobic activity, it is an ancient tradition that brings attention to harmony and balance in the mind and body. Yes, the postures themselves are meditations that incorporate a breathing process, but pranayama, the practice of breathing alone, can bring deep relaxation as well as strengthening the lungs and the diaphragm. If you are new to yoga, you might be asking, do I really have to learn how to breathe? Sometimes what we did naturally when we were children becomes lost with time. Yoga incorporates breathing practices like the kolabati breath, which involves sharp quick exhales so that one’s diaphragm is moving in and out rapidly. The concentration on the process is a form of meditation and the physical process is excellent for digestion. The alternate nostril breathing is another set pattern: breathing out of each nostril while holding the other shut. It promotes harmony and balance. The doubter might be saying, I don’t believe or don’t have time for these details, but pranayama can be practiced for a few minutes a day, anywhere.

But yoga at its best is not a solitary or exclusive activity. Yoga studios and teachers emphasize the importance of introducing members to each other, and even offering classes not readily associated with yoga like book clubs and dance classes. Although at this time Sondra Loring, owner of Satya in Rhinebeck and Sadhana in Hudson, is not offering any formal community activities, she said that members stay to chat or go off for tea together after class. Also, she has offered classes in dancing, drumming and special workshops for teens. Sondra says that despite the recession she has seen no drop in memberships and believes that people join and practice for different reasons. But even if they began believing that yoga was only another aerobic activity, they soon learned and experienced the ancient tradition of harmony of mind, body and spirit. Her studios incorporate many types of yoga but all emphasize the vinyasas or the continuous flow of movement that helps people attend to the body in a complete way. Sondra also mentioned a study done in India for people with diabetes. When they practiced yoga daily, even a short practice, they were cured.

Donna Cohen, owner of Yoga at Duck Pond in Stone Ridge, stresses the importance of body awareness by incorporating Feldenkrais practices into her yoga classes. Most yoga teachers readily concede making modifications to traditional postures—recognizing that one does not need to produce the perfect asana—but Donna’s work really stresses that there is no model pose for alignment. So don’t be frightened by the photos of some yogi twisted in some impossible upside down asana. Awareness through movement is Cohen’s mantra. For instance try this. Go on your back and bend your knees. Place your feet on the floor and open your feet more than hip width and then less. Don’t think of a perceived ideal. Give validity to your experience. In her classes Donna wants people to step back and observe, then make friends with both the body and the mind. Even though Cohen studied and practiced Hatha Yoga, her classes incorporate all of what ancient yoga represents—the yoking together of mind, body and sprit.

As Sondra Loring says, “Yoga studios encourage community. People get to know each other and experience how to make good choices, how to be generous to self and others and ultimately to attend to the body in a complete way.”

The Yoga Centers Mentioned in this Article:

Satya Yoga Center:
6400 Montgomery St., Rhinebeck, NY 12572
Phone (845) 876-2528

Sadhana Center for Yoga and Meditation:
403 Warren St., 3rd Floor, Hudson, NY 12534
Phone (518) 828-1034

Mudita Yoga Center:
4 West Union St., Kingston, NY 12401
Phone (845) 750-6605

Yoga at Duck Pond:
70 Duck Pond, Stone Ridge NY 12484
Phone (845) 687-4836