My Town: A Great Place to Live Interview

Rachel Sloan, who writes the column Fit for Life for My Town: A Great Place To Live - a free monthly local magazine, reached out to Jason for an interview about how he came to yoga and how it's helped influence him. Take a look at his interview below and check out the full interview in the My Town magazine free around town!
Check out the magazine here: http://mytownagreatplacetolive.com/

I see that your studio has been open since 2009. What inspired you to open your studio? 
Many years ago, we were a collection of traveling yoga teachers who rented various spaces around town. Years of temporary locations made us long for a home of our own. Opening the studio allowed us to deepen our practice, expand our offerings, and build a stronger community.

About the name Binghamton Yoga…that happens to be in Endicott. There must be a story there, care to share?
In the beginning, many of our classes were taught at temporary locations in & around Binghamton. So, we created a website called www.BinghamtonYoga.com, to help our students connect with our teachers and classes.

When we tried to find a permanent home, we began our search in Binghamton, but we weren’t able to find the right space. Months of searching led us to our current home in Endicott with high-ceilings, tall windows, plenty of floor space, and free parking. By that time, the name was synonymous with our teachers and we decided to keep it. Hence, Binghamton Yoga “in Endicott” – LOL!

Two of my favorite temporary locations were The Art Mission in Binghamton and Rexer’s Martial Arts Academy in Endicott.

The Art Mission was on South Washington Street at the time. Every few weeks the entire art exhibit (and our practice space) would change. One month we’d have gorgeous impressionistic paintings, the next it would be nihilistic sculptures. It made every class into an artistic adventure!

Rexer’s Martial Arts Academy was a buzz with kicking, punching, and screaming! Twice a week, we’d rent a room upstairs from their dojo. We’d light a few candles, play some soft music, and find calm amongst the cacophony. At the end of each session, we always lay in Savasana (Corpse Posture) and at Rexer’s the ruckus downstairs would literally vibrate the floor to the point that it became relaxing massage.

And while I look back fondly, I’m so happy to have a calm, stable studio in which to grow and practice every day.

Were you into sports or fitness as a kid? When did you or how did you discover yoga? How long were you practicing before you opened the studio?
I grew up active. I began karate with Hidy Ochiai in my early teens and added weightlifting and running in high school. I believed in hard, fast, powerful movement and I followed that route into type-A personality sports and workouts for several years. That is, until I began to get lower back pain.

Pain teaches you a lot about yourself. It can be both depressing & enlightening. I was in my mid-20’s and I generally just “worked through” the lower back pain. However, as the pain became more frequent and intense I had to take a look at myself and admit that the answer might not be within my current understanding of myself and/or the world.

So, I started by visiting traditional doctors, but they proved relatively ineffective. X-Rays, MRI’s, and drugs rarely fix anything. Next, I began looking into things that made my type-A personality a bit uneasy, such as holistic nutrition, massage, and chiropracty. Each of these have their merits, but Chiropracty gave me the most obvious and immediate relief, so I began looking for ways to “manipulate” my own body.

I added yoga to my workouts and found that I felt somewhat better. So, I added more yoga and I felt better still! As yoga became a larger part of my workouts, I naturally began to incorporate more of its intellectual and emotional tenants. I realized that as I unloaded the stress from my body, lengthened my spine, and found new ways of looking at things, the pain faded – however, when I went back to my old type-A workout habits,
the pain returned. So, the cure became obvious: insightful, non-judgmental yoga.

It’s been nearly 20 years since I made those initial changes and I’ve been virtually pain-free for years now! I maintain this happy place through a consistent, softened yoga practice, augmented by wellness-visits to a yoga-friendly physical therapist who helps me take an objective point of view on the state of my body. I can’t imagine life without the freedom that yoga has brought to me.

I became a yoga teacher in 2001 to deepen my own understanding and to bring any insights I might have to others. Opening the studio in 2009 was just the natural extension of that desire to continue to get deeper and to spread that peaceful knowledge to anyone interested.

Your studio offers a variety of different kinds of yoga styles. What’s your personal favorite?
Everyone needs a “gateway” practice – something that appeals to them in the moment when they first try yoga. If you don’t find that, then yoga may never speak to you. For me, the gateway was Ashtanga-inspired, power yoga. It just grabbed me and my type-A personality - at that time. As I practiced and evolved, the power yoga lost its luster. I began to find that Hatha-style alignment, awareness, and exploration gave me, and my students, better results. That evolution has never ended. The yoga adventure has taken me to long, slow Yin-style yoga, meditation-like restorative practices,
and even community-building partner work.

These days I have a large toolbox of styles that I use to produce different sensations, alignments, and workouts. Personally, I practice a combination of everything I’ve ever done, with a focus on inner-guidance.

Do you have a favorite pose? Why is it your favorite?
Poses are like words. I love stringing them together to form sentences and paragraphs, to tell a story about how I’m feeling or to explore certain alignments and sensations. Therefore, my practices progress from one posture to the next toward a particular posture, like a story with a plot or theme. Two of my favorite postures are Half Moon Pose and Cat Tail.

​Half Moon Pose, (aka Ardha Chandrasana) is a powerful, full-body celebration of balance, flexibility, and strength. You stand on one foot, find balance with one hand, extend your hamstring until you touch something (ground or prop), and use the strength of your core to hold your limbs out in every direction. It’s a real rush to nail your first Ardha Chandrasana! Here I’m shown doing it at the top of a hiking trail in Connecticut.

Cat tail is another full-body celebration, however, unlike Half Moon Pose, Cat Tail is practiced calmly, on the ground with total support. As you can see, Cat Tail is a twisting backbend that brings asymmetry to the hips and stretches the quadriceps while opening the shoulder. It’s generally held for several minutes and during that time, you can travel through a wide range of releases and sensations.

Neither one of these postures is meant to be done in isolation. They are the full expression of a progressive practice that works up to these positions.​

How does yoga help you in your physical as well as emotional life?
Like I said, yoga has given me the tools to “fix” my back pain – which is priceless. It has also freed me from the jail cell of being afraid to try new things or look ridiculous doing something. It has literally & figuratively turned my world upside down and given me a new perspective on myself, my relation to others, and with the universe. I’d never want to go back!

How do you recommend someone new get into yoga? 
Find a class, style, or teacher you love – embrace it – and then GROW (into it, beyond it, etc). Yoga teaches that we can (and should) continue expanding our awareness. Notice your real limitations – they may be hiding beneath the type-A workout personality you wear to the gym or the couch-surfing sloth you become most nights after work. Ultimately find a modality that connects you to yourself and you’ll never give it up.

Do you offer classes for physically handicapped persons, the elderly, or the physically challenged?
Yes. Binghamton Yoga has 9 teachers and 26 classes a week. We teach many styles – from flow yoga to restorative yoga. I believe we excel in alignment and gentler styles. We are located on the second floor, so we can’t handle every demographic, however, you’ll find 4 Gentle supported yoga classes per week, which are perfect for any one at any age who wants space & time to find alignment and movement with little or no weight-bearing on hands and/or knees. You’ll also find 4 Restorative and Yin-style classes, which focus on a more meditative approach to yoga where we use time and gravity to produce the practice more than physical exertion. The remainder of the classes are a combination of movement, breath, and alignment.