This isn’t my first yoga class, but it is the first time I’ve taken a Yoga Basics, which is slower and more deliberate in the technicality of the poses. Muscles engage in my thighs and back that have rarely been activated in the faster-paced alternatives.
Another first, the class is filled with various ethnicities, and men and women of different sizes and shapes. Even though I am an athletic person, I am all too familiar with feeling like a whale next to the slight yoga ladies, but here in this white-walled room, I feel at ease.
There is not an ounce of competitiveness throughout the class. We wait patiently as each person is adjusted in the pose.
From the college student who bends easily like a slinky to the voluptuous woman who has just mastering her first down dog, everyone at the Harlem Yoga Studio is here to improve their own body and mind.
Ariel Sloan, a medical student who lives on the Upper East Side, tells me she is here to relax from the daily compounding stress.
Donna Desilus, a North Harlem resident, is taking her second class, and says, “I want to do a better job of taking care of myself.”
“Yoga for Every Body” is the tag line for this clean, serene studio in Harlem on 125th Street between Lenox and Fifth Avenue. It is here that co-owners Laurel Katz-Bohen and Erica Barth, who met while obtaining their teaching certifications from the Integral Yoga Institute of New York, have made it their mission to bring this practice to a blossoming neighborhood.
Barth notes Harlem residents have welcomed the practice with open arms. The two owners have found that handing out flyers on the street, which is considered a useless marketing tactic in other parts of Manhattan, is a valuable tool. “People actually stop and talk to us. They ask questions. They are curious about yoga. They welcome us.”
At Harlem Yoga Studio, the same sense of open-armed hospitality is extended with a variety of classes ranging from Donation Only to Kids Yoga in an effort to serve the community and make yoga accessible and affordable for everyone that wishes to enhance their overall wellness. It is a place where yoga is free of ego. It is a place where one can get back to the basics of what yoga was meant to be, becoming a better version of you, both mentally and physically.
To learn more about Harlem Yoga Studio, visit www.harlemyogastudio.com. Ask about the New Student Special, 3 classes for $25.
