YOGA ROOTS

Exactly twenty years ago, in June 1995 I lived in New York City for the summer studying acting. It was nice, but I felt I needed to do something else too. And then I found Crunch Gym on 13th street. Weightlifting didn't bring me into the studio, but the yoga they offered. Jivamukti Yoga. My teacher was Sharon Gannon, one of the founders of Jivamukti. Yesterday after 20-years I decided to go back to my yogic roots. I attended to a class close to Union Square in New York.

I had a terrible headache when I entered to the class, caused by the heat, but even more by absolute craziness of the city. Earlier I was able to take in three months of Manhattan, before I had to leave, but now three days was plenty! I hoped the yoga could help me deal with outer chaos.

In Kundalini Yoga we have one teacher teaching a class, in this Jivamukti class there were three teachers. One was leading the class and others helped to correct the poses of students. Right after we began, one of the assisting teachers massaged tiger-palm on my neck and shoulders. It started to heat up my body, and together with stretching I immediately felt the headache going away. What a relief.

Although I had't done this form of yoga for many years, the feeling of the class took me right back to where I started from in 1995. I felt like I had come home. This is where I PRACTICED to do yoga in my early years. Eventually graduating to DO yoga with Kundalini. This was a valuable realisation I did yesterday in that class. The head teacher said: 'We are not here to do yoga, this is not yoga. We are here to practice to do yoga.' This was great, I finally got it. Asanas and concentration while correcting poses teaches us how to breath deeply in motion. When you learn that, you're ready to DO yoga everywhere and anytime. When I left the studio I felt great in the midst of the crazy Manhattan. My body was breathing in all the wilderness of the city, and I felt happy.