Stretching the Limits

Fear. It is a powerful and primitive human emotion that alerts us to the presence of danger, helping to keep us alive. Today, fear and anxiety are rampant around the world as humanity faces an unseen villain, a virus that can rob the very breath necessary for life.

Ironically, one means of alleviating the stress of living with this health crisis can be found in yoga, an umbrella term for is a group of physical, mental and spiritual practices that originated in ancient India.

Area yoga teachers, some of whom are now conducting online classes for their adherents, report that people have been reaching out for the solace that the disciplines can provide.

“Everyone is dealing with stress, anxiety and fear about the future which are all projections,” said Sarah Getz, who operates Yoga at Space (www.yogaatspace.com) in Salisbury. “It’s mind stuff and yoga gets people grounded in their bodies. Anything that gets people back to what they are feeling here and now, that helps them to get more centered in themselves, can help.”

Although her physical studio has been closed since March 12th, she said some of her teachers are now offering online classes and she is conducting audio classes. Information on how to join the sessions can be found on her website.

“We have quite a lot of students reaching out and thanking us for what we have done,” she said. “People do need support and connection. We’re hearing from people. It’s never too late to start practicing and there is so much support online.”

Among those offering online classes are Nicholas Dalton and Melissa Parsons, who run the Padmalaya Yoga studio in Millerton NY (www.padmalayayoga.com). The certified Svaroopa yoga teachers help practitioners to achieve deep relaxation, to practice breathwork and precise alignment in well-supported poses, all with the goal of releasing core tensions from the spine and the entire body.

“We’ve been offering three classes a week,” Dalton said, explaining that he and his wife have been constrained by unreliable Internet service and the need to homeschool their children.

“Our teaching style is different from other practices,” he said. “We work with the tight areas of the spine. It can be a bit of a challenge for people not familiar with yoga. We help people achieve bliss by trying to open the spine and getting the internal energies flowing. It’s physical but also mental and spiritual.”

Classes are offered Mondays and Thursdays, 5-6:30PM, and Saturdays, 9-10:30AM.

The classes are appropriate for any age group. “Most of our students are 60 to 80 years old,” he revealed. “We do some simple breathing at the beginning of every class and we use a lot of supports—chairs, blankets, walls … .”

While Dalton says he and his wife are not “technically savvy,” he sees a “silver lining” to the disruption of society by COVID-19. “Some people have suggested that we continue the online classes after it is all over,” he reported. “We have people joining the classes from New York City, Florida and all places in between. Zoom is pretty simple and I could see offering one class a week.”

While most of the current adherents are from the couple’s mailing list, he said the classes are open to new students. “We can find some way to work one-on-one with new students,” he said. “It’s a routine, people can plan for it and it is something to look forward to,” he said.

At the Sruti Berkshire Yoga Center in Great Barrington MA (www.srutiyogacenter.com) the emphasis is on the Ashtanga yoga method built around the Mysore Class, so named because yoga was originally taught this way by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois in Mysore, India. It continues as the standard in traditional schools of Ashtanga yoga around the world. Classes begin with sun salutations (surynamaskara) and proceed, posture by posture through a prescribed, individualized series.

The center’s founder, Amy Webb, is just now beginning to contemplate online instruction. “As spring emerges and adjustments are made to our new norms, people are reaching out for community, a touchstone of what we were once part of in the physical world,” she said. “It is important to keep those fires burning.”

She said she delayed going to the Internet because it felt “reactive.” “I have a one- and a three-year-old at home and I needed to find a new rhythm with the kids. But people have been reaching out and checking in.”

“The whole spectrum of people’s lives is out of context, disruptions that are minimal to extreme,” she continued. “For some people, it means having more time to practice (yoga) and to go deeper, but others, without a lot of time, are scrambling to find time because they have essential jobs.

There’s kind of a big world of offerings out there for yoga and it’s hard to say where something might fit in. It’s clear a practice can be like an old friend but for others starting out it can be exciting.”

She said yoga fulfills different needs in different people’s lives. “We all have these lives with these challenges. Right now, is a heightened time but there are also personal heightened times as we go through our lives. At best, yoga brings people home to their bodies and makes them feel safe in their bodies. It helps to get to know the body and the way your mind and body are connected through breath.”

She said yoga teaches its practitioners to become “observers of what is going on, to go beyond your regular reaction.”

“It can assist someone’s own nature—if someone is already slow and stagnant, it might clear the stagnation; it could help very active people act in a way that has a rhythm, rather than just reacting. It drives me nuts when the measure of a good life is activity and movement. It’s better to get to know oneself within one’s own beautiful nature. Yoga can offer the guidance to figure things out for oneself. It can be taking command of what is right for you within in a framework that is right for you.”

She said the practice of yoga can be made to fit the practitioner. “It’s postures and meditation. You can lay on the floor, sit in a chair or practically run a marathon in a yoga session,” she said. “You can just not do a posture and be fine with that.”

She said that in the “shifting landscape” everyone is trying to negotiate makes practicing yoga an intensely personal choice. “It might be the right time to try something new—or it might be the last thing someone wants to do. Everyone is different. Yes, it will relieve stress. And, if it seems right for you, just do it.”

As in looking for the right therapist, she suggests that people experiment until they find a practice that is comfortable. “When people ask how to find a class, I say, “‘Just keep looking for the right fit.’ I think the greatest gift of yoga—particularly right now—is how it offers frameworks to learn to feel safe and at home in one’s own body.”