Jumping and laughing NYC Yoga Teacher in Profile

Flow

Portrait/headshot pictures of NYC yoga* instructor Niki Sheth. Do yourself a huge favor and take her classes at Studio Anya. All in all, my abs have never looked better and my flow has never been stronger.

Important to point out that yoga for strength seems easy. But it is really quite challenging. The improvement of strength in my legs and back is evidence of this. I can barely walk after class sometimes. In a good way.

Since Niki has mastered teaching the art of micro movements into her practice, she teaches how to truly "organize your shoulders" and not hunch up. Its relateable when she mentions how hunched up she gets when she is holding her baby. This is evidence that even yogis hunch up.

When we were shooting, Niki and I discussed how I was challenging her to have good posture. A pro yogi! Imagine that. Goes to show that everyone does it.

Yoga*

yo·gaˈyōɡə/nounnoun: yoga

1. a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, in addition to the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practiced for health and relaxation.

3. Yoga literally means “union”. This union can be understood on different levels: To enumerate, philosophically, as that of the relative, limited self with the absolute Self; religiously, as that of the individual soul with the Infinite Spirit; psychologically, as the integration of the personality – a state wherein a person no longer lives at cross-purposes with himself; emotionally, as the stilling of the waves of likes and dislikes, permitting one to remain in all circumstances complete in himself. (1)

According to the ancient sage Patanjali, yoga is the neutralization of ego-directed feelings. Since once these become stilled, the yogi realizes that he is, and that he has always been, one with the Infinite – that his awareness of this reality was limited only by his infatuation with limitation. (1)

Origin

Sanskrit, literally ‘union.’