I’ll be the first to admit it: I avoided The Body Electric Yoga Studio for years.
Actually, I avoided yoga in general for years. My fears and insecurities prevented me from trying new things like yoga for a long time. But you’re not flexible. Like, at all, my mind would point out. Everyone will judge you.
I let these insecurities get the better of me for years until finally one day I decided to try yoga. Looking for injury prevention and recovery from high-intensity sports like distance running and triathlon, I tried out some restorative/therapeutic yoga classes at St. Pete Yoga. I was hooked.
The Body Electric (“BE” for short) intimidated me more than any other local studio. Still does, if I’m being honest. The BE is located in a super cool warehouse-style building with exposed brick and hardwood floors. They are a women-owned business, employed by super-cool alternative queer artsy babes who could be on the cover of a local yoga magazine feature in Portland or Asheville.
In a word, the BE seems boujee. And I am far from it.
My fears of not fitting in, of being judged and laughed at are something I am on a mission to conquer, though. So when I learn about The Body Electric’s poolside yoga series at The Hollander Hotel in downtown St. Pete, I decide to bite the bullet and awkwardly swandive in.
As with any other new fitness endeavor, my breathing and heart rate increase rapidly as I park near the Hollander, grab my yoga mat and walk to the hotel. I love going to the Hollander for their specials and am grateful to know my way around enough to head straight to the back patio and set up my mat poolside. I check in with a friendly-looking BE employee, wondering if being ridiculously attractive is a requirement to work there.
Probably.
I roll out my mat and look around me, though, and am comforted to see a fairly diverse group: People of all genders and ages surround me in various poses on their mats. Yes, some of them are svelte swans wearing expensive brand-new yoga garb, but many just wear simple shorts and a tank top. The girl next to me sports a CrossFit shirt. Good sign.
As I relax into my mat, our yoga instructor Gracie introduces herself with a smile. She is dreadlocked and barefoot and moves easily through the spaces scattered around the deck. Gracie cracks a couple of jokes and I am immediately at ease with her low-key approach to yoga. Not at all what I expected from the Body Electric.
We begin our stretch session on our backs, which is unusual and I like it. My eyes are closed and I soak in the sounds of downtown — birds chirping amidst the construction and cars driving by. My love for this city increases each time I step outside of my comfort zone and try something new. This morning is no different.
Gracie’s melodic voice guides us through the opening moments of our flow: She tells us to “feel the soft animal of your body” and reminds us our body contains DNA from our ancestors; from our ancestors’ ancestors and those who came even before them.
“Your body has wisdom. Listen.”
And so I do. Gracie’s wisdom comes through in her suggestions and before I know it I am enthralled and in tune.
This is exactly what I needed.
Before things get too deep, Gracie has us pull our knees to our chests and tells us not to worry if we fart. I laugh and relax into myself a little bit more.
The hour flies by and though some of the postures are difficult (I’m looking at you, chaturanga) it is not over-the-top like I feared. The only time I grow frustrated is when Gracie refers to some of the postures by name rather than guide us how to do it, then follows up by reminding us not to compare ourselves to our neighbors. If I don’t know what something is, the only way I can find out is to look over at my neighbor — who is indeed far more flexible and graceful — so my one suggestion to help newbies like me is to introduce a posture's name along with instructions on how to do it.
Otherwise, though, the class is 60 minutes of awesome and my body grows open and relaxed. Gracie tells us she’s helping us open our hips to get ready for the weekend — woop woop! — and I laugh but it ends up being completely true: My naturally tight runner’s hips feel like they’ve been massaged into a trance.
Much like my mind, which has also wound itself up pretty tight in the last months of mayhem.
We wind down the session and return to our backs for our final pose of shavasana. Our yogi gives us gentle and very much-needed reminders. “Listen to your heart: You are alive and you deserve to be here,” Gracie reminds us. Tears spring to my eyes as I focus on my heartbeat and consider my body.
I have been going through the personal heartbreak and destruction of navigating divorce. The last couple of months have consisted of the intricate contradiction of me simultaneously feeling like I am both way too much and not at all enough. Everything I was once so certain of has come into question in an instant, after 10 incredible years of never having a doubt in my mind.
My arms cover in goosebumps and a chill runs down my spine as Gracie gives us one final reminder, poignant and poetic and necessary:
“Your mind may try to tell your body not to take up this space. Politely disobey and Take. Up. More. Space.”
It’s as if she is speaking directly to me and I consider what she said earlier in our session about sharing our ancestors’ DNA and listening to our bodies.
I am here.
I savor those final moments on my back, inhaling the wisdom and putting gratitude “out there” for whatever placed me exactly where I need to be in this moment so I can remind myself of who I am and what I deserve.
Boujee? I have yet to go to the Body Electric’s studio itself, so I will keep you posted. But to be sure, I will be going — and soon — because in the entire hour of stretching and flow as our yogi guided us through the movements, I never once felt judged or criticized — other than by myself. If anything, the BE was a timely reminder to own my being and be here now.
My hips are grateful for the release of tension; my heart even more so. Thank you, Body Electric, for helping me be.
Poolside Yoga at the Hollander Hotel is every Saturday at 8:30 a.m. Click here for a full schedule of classes offered by the Body Electric.
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