Remember my post yesterday about enjoying doing a yoga video at home but wishing I were in a studio instead?
Don’t worry, I found one!
I finally made it to Scarborough Yoga, a local yoga studio near where I stay in Maine.
The studio space was bright, with hardwood floors, a calm green paint color and plenty of mats, cheerful orange bolsters, blankets, and props for practitioners to borrow. It had a bit of a sacred vibe, so rather than plastering my blog post with photos of their studio, I’ll stick to this one image of a compass painted on the ceiling that I just couldn’t resist sharing.
I liked feeling oriented right there in the room, picturing my body connecting to the earth through the floor with the ocean to my east, my home to the south, my childhood home to the north-west. It was surprisingly grounding.
I took the class with my sister-in-law, who is an avid athlete. (She swam 2000 yards the day before, probably while I was having a glass of wine and putting a puzzle together.) Both of us enjoyed Gentle Flow with Kristine, a restorative class that left me feeling loosened and more relaxed.
The website description was accurate. Class did incorporate pranayama, and focus on slow alignment and entering the poses with great mindfulness and precision. Attention was given to grounding the feet or hands with weight going into the correct places, or aligning the spine or hips correctly by straightening the hips or using your own hands to physically tuck your tailbone going into chair pose.
One thing I like about practicing with different instructors and at different studios is experiencing a different style. The end of class savasana began with a reading that used climbing a mountain and getting towards the top as an analogy for how we feel when we’re a long way into a challenge. It reminded us that sometimes fatigue is natural and not a sign that we’re not up for the challenge, but rather an appropriate stage based on how far we’ve come.
After the reading, Kristine went around and pressed our shoulders down so we could relax more deeply into savasana, and gave a brief third eye (forehead) and temple massage. You don’t need to be into the spiritual aspect of yoga or the third eye for this to feel amazing. Self-care is wonderful, and yoga is a beautiful form of self-care. But it’s also healing to be cared for by others, even in small ways such as having an assist for your shoulders at the end of yoga class. It added an element of human touch and connection and nurturing.
Though I’m enthusiastic about mindfulness and cultivating awareness, I’m not as curious about Hindu inspired concepts like chakras or the third eye. But their inclusion in a yoga class has never detracted from my practice, either. Like the physical side of yoga, many things are offered, and we take the poses or meditations according to our ability or what feels right to us. Cultivating an acceptance of where we are in our own practice and an ability to feel comfortable practicing at our level even when it’s different than the majority will make it easier for us to embrace new yoga classes or studios.
A nice thing about going to a yoga studio rather than attending yoga at a health club or gym is that there’s likely to be a greater variety of yoga to choose from. Yoga studios are where you’re most likely to find workshops or series on specific topics, which are great ways to expand your knowledge and improve your technique.
I took a beginner yoga series at a yoga studio once and it was great. (Well, until the instructor got injured and it got canceled halfway through… but it started out really promising.) A 6-8 week beginner yoga class with one instructor and one group of students is an amazing way to build a technique base so you can enjoy drop-in classes in the future.
Scarborough Yoga also offers some really cool sounding two-hour workshops, like on body rolling for hips and spine. That’s harder to find in a gym setting, which is why occasionally dropping into a yoga studio for a different style of class or a specific workshop can be worthwhile.
About the Studio:
The yoga studio is located in a shared space with Oasis, a chiropractic wellness center that offers other services like massage therapy and acupuncture.
Free and plentiful lot parking.
Multiple bathrooms and a shower are available.
Classes were priced at $15 for drop-ins, but monthly unlimited packages and discounted class packages were also offered. I was told the discounted class packages don’t expire. It’s always worth double checking, but that might make them a good deal for occasional practitioners. ($120 for 10 classes)
PS – my cell phone rang in class
I got a new phone, and though I put it on Do Not Disturb mode a Facetime call still came through. Which means the silent, peaceful yoga studio where people were relaxing into a pose was suddenly interrupted with… the James Bond theme song. (Yes, I chose it myself. Yes, it does make me feel like an awesome and important jet-setting spy whenever it rings. A feeling which fades all too quickly.)
It was a moment that called for quick action to silence the phone, and then some self-compassion. Things like this happen. Probably everyone in that room has had a cell phone ring when it shouldn’t have. Silencing the phone, taking a deep breath, and apologizing to the instructor after class and then not agonizing over it was the best thing I could do. In an ideal world, we would unplug and leave our phones outside of the studio. In reality, there may not be a locker available, or we may need to be able to glance in between poses to see if our child’s school has called. As with everything in yoga, I do my best, and try to let that be enough.
My phone never rang during an entire year of Equinox classes, and that’s at least a decent track record!