When Marsha Child could no longer battle rush hour traffic to Marina Vrahnos’s yoga class, she invited the yoga class to her art gallery
By:Christian Kirkpatrick
Four figures in loose clothing recline on mats. A graceful woman in a turban sits facing them, behind two small candles.
Her quiet voice ebbs and flows as she coaches the figures. Slowly she describes the next position they are to assume. As they slide into it, her voice washes over them, gently pulling their wandering thoughts back into the moment, as she describes how the position feels, how to hold it and how it benefits the body.
Soft morning light fills the room.
On the walls, in the corners and even from the ceiling, hang paintings, etchings and engravings of slender, soulful figures in shades of beige and brown.
This is the Thursday morning yoga class in the Marsha Child Contemporary- European Art gallery on Alexander Street in Princeton.
Marina Vrahnos and her students have just completed the last of the yoga postures for this morning. They pull their mats into a circle to meditate.
Ms. Vrahnos reminds her students how to position their hands and tongues, what to chant and how to breathe. Though minute, these instructions are delivered in such a gentle and soothing manner that they seem no more demanding than the murmur of a night nurse straightening the bedding of a restless patient.
Ms. Vrahnos teaches kundalini yoga, also called the yoga of awareness. Practitioners say it promotes physical vitality and that it trains the mind to be strong yet flexible during periods of stress and change.
Each yoga session begins with a period of "tuning in." Class members calm their minds and open them for guidance by chanting mantras.
Mantras are sounds, words or phrases that, when repeated, direct the chanter’s thoughts. They do this through their meaning, their rhythm and the feel of the words in the mouth. Practitioners of yoga say that a mantra, when recited correctly, physically benefits the chanter by activating portions of the brain and nervous system.
After the mantras, Ms. Vrahnos leads her class through a series of postures based on angles and triangles. By bending their bodies into prescribed angles that put pressure on various glands, students of kundalini yoga seek to cause these glands to increase their secretions.
Ms. Vrahnos says that this activity also builds up male energy in the body, which is released and balanced by female energy when the students relax from each posture. Then, the glandular secretions that have been accumulating circulate throughout the body, creating physical balance and encouraging emotional stability.
Two important components of correctly assuming a kundalini posture and of meditating are breathing properly and positioning one’s hands correctly.
Students of yoga believe that when they control their breathing, they control their lives. They also say that breathing has different effects on the body and spirit. Long deep breaths, for example, promote patience and endurance. Even, rapid breaths cleanse the lungs and blood while energizing the body.
In the yogic tradition, each area of the hand is associated with a different part of the body or brain and with a different emotion or behavior. By curling, stretching or variously configuring their hands, practitioners of kundalini yoga strive to communicate with their bodies and minds.
After the students have gone through their postures, class begins to wind down. The students lie on their mats and close their eyes. Ms. Vrahnos turns off the lights and turns on silvery music. She asks each student to visualize the breath as a stream of energy beginning at the feet, flowing up through the legs and torso, relaxing the body as it moves through.
Above the supine students, figures on canvas and paper keep watch. They gaze into the distance, their faces pensive. Though painted in the colors of earth and sand, they seem to look for something better than this world.
After their rest, Ms. Vrahnos and the students join in a circle. They sing a parting song of benediction to each other. Class is over.
But no one seems to want to leave. Laughter and conversation begin to bubble.
Everyone agrees that this lovely setting enhances the class. Ms. Vrahnos says that it adds to the peacefulness of the yogic experience and encourages one to succumb to the moment, which is an important goal in yoga.
Marsha Child, the owner of the gallery, says she enjoys seeing it afresh after moments of semi-consciousness during class.
Ms. Vrahnos draws a parallel between practicing yoga and creating works of art. To do both, she points out, one must focus one’s energy.
Several students mention the nourishing nature of yoga. "During the day, we all stop to eat at some point. Yoga is a way of feeding ourselves," says Yukiko Iino, a Princeton resident who teaches yoga herself at the Princeton Center for Yoga and Health.
All agree that practicing yoga helps gives them peace and fortitude for meeting life’s difficulties.
Ms. Vrahnos teaches at the Marsha Child gallery on Thursday mornings from 9 to 10:30. Classes cost $10. She also teaches on Saturday mornings from 9 to 10:30 at 37A North Mill Road in Princeton Junction and from 7 to 9:30 Tuesday evenings at Aquarian Dance Yoga and Massage on Rt. 33 in Hamilton.
The Plainsboro resident will not teach this summer but will resume her classes on Aug. 22. For more information, call (609) 275-1998.