NYC Fitness & Yoga Pass Book Adventures

Thursday, May 26, 2005

Lauging Lotus Yoga

Laughing Lotus Happy Hour with Betsy

Attendees: Karen

I had some apprehension about returning to Laughing Lotus after last Friday's yoga debacle. However, I paid for two classes, so I had to use or lose my money's worth. So, I went back for the one-hour long session at 5:30 pm that Laughing Lotus (hereafter LL) likes to call, "Happy Hour." And overall...it was.

The class is Open, which also had me scared. I was very concerned I wouldn't be able to do it, or do it well. Thankfully, my fears were mostly unfounded. I decided I would work very hard to take care of my knees, and if I needed to stop, I would do so. For the most part, I had no problems. It really helps to have taken beginner yoga classes before--she had us move thru down dog, plank, cobra, warrior I, II, III and triangle poses briskly. The pace wasn't rushed, but I would have been at a loss had I not known what those poses were. I was pouring sweat by the end.

I've only been to LL twice, but I really feel that they're very pretentious about their yoga-ing (do I really need to spend $65 on the embroidered yoga pants they sell?), and I'm not keen on the pastel wall colors. And, if I may consider two a quorum, the instructors seem very into impressing people with advanced pretzel poses.

The instructor tried very hard to encourage us with idiomatic encomiums and little nuggets of "truth." Over-talking seems to be a trend at LL. They tell us to meditate, and then break the silence proclaming that we're finding our inner truth. The fascination for me is that these instructors genuinely seem to believe that they're somehow spiritually teaching us. But, trite exposition doesn't lead to enlightenment. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, experience is the great teacher. If they can be remembered, perhaps those instructors' words will gain relevance in retrospect when grounded in our life events, but superficially referring to one's inner truth does little to explain what that truth is or how to find it. Quotations from various worldly texts are charming, but real-life context is necessary if these instructors seek to truly teach.

Oh, at the end during corpse pose, the instructor unexpectedly removed my glasses, placed an eye pillow over my face and massaged my sweaty head. I was skeeved out--I don't want some eye infection from those used pillows. And did she massage other people's scalps, too??? Am I carrying their sweat?? Ewww! (Ok, so maybe I'm a hypochondriac, but I still worry I'm going to get some fungus from the yoga mats.) On one hand, the touching is the most human part of the class for me. On the other, my germophobia gets in the way.

Anyway, this class was good, but so far my favorite instructor is still Kelly at Bodhisattva Yoga one block from my apartment. She's humble, she encourages us, she makes us better. I wonder if it will always be true for me that there's no place like home.

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