With the advent of social media, days in honor of sports, food and activities have gained new prominence. And today isn’t just any old day—it’s International Yoga Day.
(It’s also #NationalCookieDough day, which, we fully admit is cause for extensive celebration, but we thought we’d put the spotlight on Long Beach yogis working to impact the people living on the city’s shores).
Long Beach’s yoga scene is a combination of old and new, from Yogalution to Purple Yoga, Yoga on 3rd, and others in between. Here are some suggestions on ways to celebrate such an occasion.
The Post has had the privilege of profiling and otherwise covering a variety of these studios, which cover such traditional practices as Bikram, Vinyasa and Hatha yoga, in heated studios and outdoor environments.
First of the studios, and perhaps the most well-known, is the inventor of Long Beach’s ubiquitous Yoga on the Bluff series: Yogalution. Founded by Dharma Shakti, the Yogalution Movement Collective originally began the free outdoor sessions at Bluff Park to practice Bhakti seven years ago. The class now meets seven days a week, at 6:00PM on weekdays and 11:00AM on weekends. You can join your friends for a free flow tonight if you so choose.
“What started as one class a week with three to four people has turned into daily classes with attendance of anywhere from 40 to 200 plus people,” Shakti said in an interview a few years ago.
Another studio that has gained some traction in Long Beach is Danielle Morrill’s Yoga on 3rd, which approaches yoga with a down-to-earth attitude and plenty of playful flows. Morrill even hosts a regular aerial yoga class—the only such class in Long Beach. (Remember P!nk’s performance at the Grammy’s years ago, suspended by ribbons hanging from the ceiling? It’s like that, but with yoga). Today, classes will meet at 5:45PM for a basic class, and 7:45PM for a Hip Hop flow, which incorporates a few more aerobic elements, thanks to Morrill’s past work as a gym trainer.
“Everyone wants to feel like they belong somewhere,” said Morrill, regarding the community feel of her classes. “Long Beach is a melting pot—everyone wants to be a part of something.”
If you’re looking for some intense hot yoga, look no further than Joe Vogt’s Purple Yoga, which has classes in rooms that can get up to 100 degrees for the more vigorous classes. Purple Yoga is perhaps the largest studio in the Beach (of a larger chain of three yoga studios), and hosts a series of classes all day, with the remaining classes occurring at 4:00PM, 5:00PM, 5:30PM, 6:30PM, 7:00PM, 8:00PM and 8:30PM.
“It’s people trying to become more enlightened and improve themselves,” said Vogt. “If everyone is expressing a certain thought, kindness and love, it spreads. It’s the maharishi effect.”
Other yoga studios to check out today, or later, once you’ve become addicted to the soothing meditation on movement that is yoga, include the recently opened Olive Yoga, Ja Yoga, Purple Yoga, Kava Yoga, Yoga World Studio and FreeSpirit Yoga.
On #InternationalYogaDay, the world is your oyster, you Long Beach yogi.