YOGA TO THE PEOPLE

last year while living in st paul i joined a gym. it was a great routine to get into of going to the gym everyday after work. i tried a lot of new types of exercising that i might not of done on my own: hip hop dancing, pilates, kick boxing, step aerobics, and yoga.


i had dabbled in a bit of yoga in college, but had never became a committed yogi. so when my friend jada and i started regularly going to a yoga class i was excited. i was on the path to becoming a yogi! as the summer months approached though i began training for the 1/2 marathon, poodle and i moved to minneapolis, worked on the house constantly, and my yoga practice went out the window.


when i moved to nyc i hoped to regain my yoga momentum that i had started in minnesota. lack of funding was going to be an issue though, until a fellow VISTA told me about a yoga study called YOGA TO THE PEOPLE (http://www.yogatothepeople.com/new-york-yoga.shtml). A fantastic studio thats classes are donation based! that means i can go take a yoga class for $1!

sounds amazing right? it is. but with such a deal there is a catch... space. because it is donation based they try to cram as many people into the studio as possible. that makes sense when trying to turn a profit. we are literally 1 inch away from our neighbors on all four sides. it takes some getting use to and also some expert maneuvering between stretched out legs, arms, feet, and hands.

while my friend and i were laughing about the close proximity of a class the other day she made a really good point. the name of the studio is YOGA TO THE PEOPLE and with that name brings a sense of community and collective practice. i really liked how she put that and it makes me feel a little more connected to my fellow new yorker on the mat over. the idea of doing something so personal and spiritual next to a complete stranger is moving and reflective of the idea of community that i wrote about yesterday.

at the end of every class during our finial pose the instructor typically reads a quote or proverb or short passage. the other night she read an amazing passage from all places the children's book, The Velveteen Rabbit. As dorky as this sounds i invite you to reflect on this meaning and how beautiful it is...

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."