Author: H.M. Shaw
Stop me if this sounds familiar to you: “Yoga! I heard that’s so good for you.” This is blanket statement which is often uttered by curious parties. As curiously informed as a person sounds when they utter these eight little words, they do not expound upon why yoga is so “pro-posture”, if you will. What and where exactly does this “good” come from?
With this mindset, yoga becomes just another four-letter word rather than an action or a way of life – without trying it, there is no way to witness the glowing results. This is because those who are simply aware about the perceived “good” might be a bit hung up on the flip-side… a state of “bad”. In certain worlds, “bad” is not being flexible, “bad” is not being motivated to exercise, “bad” is standing before a growing stack of bubbly pizza crusts and oily wing bones unable to tell oneself, “Enough!” Wanting to counteract or decry “the bad”, certain people resort to yoga as a method of correcting personal faults, such as lack of focus, breaking under stress… or even controlling cellulite.
Of course, we all want to be happy. Happiness and health go hand in beet-stained hand. But yoga is not a vehicle to reach happiness and health like a squeaky-clean utopia where the kale grows wild. Riding the mat like a Lululemon-sponsored love-bus and pounding on the accelerator to reach such a destination in a quixotic fashion is a means to missing steps, even if it means having the occasional missteps. Yoga is about finding oneself at their happiest and healthiest by looking inward. Taking on the challenge of being out of one’s element and running the risk that they won’t find a safe haven – that is the one of the highest achievement in a yoga practice.
For Western New Yorkers who thrive on turning their gaze inward, Evolation Yoga (912 Elmwood Avenue) is a second home. Myriad yogis of different levels and backgrounds seek out Evolation, making it a melting pot of ages and abilities. I recently had the pleasure of sitting down with Evolation Yoga’s owner and operator, David Drost, who offered his insight on how yoga can make us happier, healthier, and whole.
HMS: How and why did you realize that yoga was the right path for you?
DD: “After many years of a corrosive career path and lifestyle and a few yoga classes, I had an opportunity to work within the studio. The environment was like nothing that I ever experienced. The lack of materially driven motive, doing things in the class translates to growth and a theory of making change within yourself to possibly foster change within others in the world around you. That is what draws me to practicing and also teaching.”
HMS: Yoga is not just a noun, it is a verb. What sequences do you find to be beneficial for both mind and body?
DD: “Asana practice is the first step that is found in yoga. Asana being the physical practice. Not many people know about the deeper limb, the broader spectrum of yoga. Asana practice by default is where I found the static practice that people call bikram yoga now. That static nature of postures that twenty-six postures and two breathing exercises goes way beyond Mr. Birkram Choudhury. That is where I found yoga was in the twenty-six postures, doing it the same way, working on it over time, and it being limitless [and] hopefully over-time being able to add onto the practice. The next thing that I practiced was yin yoga and kundalini yoga. There are definitely pieces of kundalini yoga in that twenty-six and two hot series due to the fact that we come into the postures and we hold it and build energy by holding and breathing. That’s at the core of kundalini yoga. So, I really found it there in the twenty-six and two series hot as we call it at Evolation.”
HMS: What is the appeal of being a part of Buffalo’s yoga community rather than a yoga community anywhere else in or outside the US? Why stay in Buffalo?
DD: “And I have made that decision to stay. I have had opportunities within Evolation [Yoga]—You’ve seen how broad it is—I love this town. I’m from this town. There’s a core group of people who have who have been really open to seeing that broader spectrum and it is a thrill to watch people find that broader spectrum, that ability to be open to something that’s spiritual, but not religious. People get mixed up when they hear that word, ‘spirituality,’ because religion uses it so much. Spirituality is not the same thing. [And] With yoga, doing something and not making an attachment to the outcome for me is huge because that’s exactly what drew me in in the beginning. In the corporate world, the world that I lived in before in big companies, it was always driven by the attachment. ‘This has got to happen! Under any circumstances this has to happen.’ That’s not always the case in the real world. In the room [the studio], we get to practice it with asana. We get to practice it within ourselves. And then we get to realize that in the broader spectrum of our own lives and maybe not be that wound up tight so that other people can experience a gentler person.”
HMS: Like any other Elmwood Village hotspot (pun intended), Evolation Yoga has regulars. What is it like to see the same faces again and again?
DD: “Again, it’s a thrill to watch their practice grow, to be a small part of facilitating that growth, as the owner of the studio let alone being the teacher is amazing to work for the betterment of somebody else. We try not to be profit driven. There’s a lot of people who have been writing about yoga, not only locally, but elsewhere and they are saying, ‘Yoga is big business.’ Talk to a yoga studio owner. It ain’t big business. Doesn’t matter how nice the studio is or how major of a market it is. It’s a labor of love and it’s a labor of doing it without the attachment. Hopefully, not for too much of the material aspect. Obviously, I’d like to be able to pay my bills and live a decent life from the money that it creates. So, being a part of that for people in general and seeing people come back from the neighborhood is a great thrill too.”
HMS: Evolation receives much acclaim for its instructors. What do you believe makes a good instructor? What has made you select those who teach along with you?
DD: “Well, it starts with the training process. We have several teachers that did go to training with Evolation Yoga training, but most of them did. [And] There’s a common tack that you find working with a teacher and those teachers are who are open-minded as we want to be. Those people decide to stay and those who are not wiling to be open-minded don’t stay. We come from a place of never telling anybody that they should be doing anything in a class that they cannot do. We don’t ever want to push anyone to some place that they cannot obtain at this point. The fact is the exact opposite. We try to do these things with the proper form in mind. So we stress when we talk in meetings and in our own circles that it needs to be about the form first and allowing anyone to come into any class. Notice that we don’t have many beginners classes. We just started doing that foundations workshop, but yoga is meant to be found in a general class with everybody else. It’s meant for you to take away the ego of not knowing what to do and learning it. So, you come into a class that we consider to be a beginners class and you’re with these people, [right?] that have more abilities than you do and you’re expected to do some of those things, but you’re meant to do them without your ego attachment. You’re meant to do them to try to do that posture. You can’t do the fullest expression of a posture, don’t do it. Listen. Make it a practice within your life and it needs to come from within. If you are relying one someone else one hundred percent of the time to show you, to put you in the right place, without you looking, listening—People don’t want to listen in most classrooms—breathing. Those are the people that we find through our core belief system—and all-inclusive. I don’t want to put an advanced class on my schedule. I just don’t. Evolation doesn’t do that either. They will do that occasionally in small groups of people, but on a larger level it’s that every single class on the schedule is open to beginners. We say that in our point of sale system, in our point of sale paperwork and on the website. Those people who are willing to accept that tenet hopefully stay with us.”
HMS: What do you recommend to any novice to do in order to prepare physically and mentally for their first few practices?
DD: “An open mind is all you need. Open mind. The ego—it’s so hard to overcome it. The self-centered ego shows up in so many places we don’t even realize it. We can practice being selfless, but still be self-centered. We can be self-centered and still be… There’s this cycle of, ‘I’m standing in a room and I don’t want to be there because I think that everyone is thinking about me. I can’t do this right. What do I look like? What am I wearing? What do I smell like?’ All these things make you self-centered. Not necessarily selfish. ‘I am only thinking about myself and what other people are thinking about me.’ It’s none of my business what you think about me. You know what I mean? Obviously, I partake in the society and I should probably be clean, look presentable, I shouldn’t be too much of a freak, you know what I mean…”
HMS: Hey! Don’t put down freaks.
DD: [Laughs] “I’m not. I’m just saying not too much. You want to make people comfortable. But, trust me we’re all freaks. We’re all weird. I don’t trust anyone who is not weird.”
HMS: How do you feel about yoga in the mainstream now that it has gained so much popularity?
DD: “We’re going against the grain of what’s happening in the mainstream, I think. We have more different types of practices and are continuing to grow the different types of practices that have not only in our studio, but that Evolation in the broader spectrum offers. We’re working on a yin yoga module in the trainings. We’re working on a partner yoga module in the trainings. And you don’t often find that much diversity in studios. And the fact we encourage anyone of any ability to join any class at any point and not try to join in with the mass marketing of things. I wrestle with carrying merchandise all the time. I don’t subscribe to needing a certain thing to practice yoga. I mean, yes, we in a modern world, we have wonderful tools, but if you can’t do this out in Bidwell Park with bare feet in the grass, then what are you doing it for? It’s to feel and be a part of. Not to separate yourself with gear. And it’s becoming more and more about gear. The second tier to that question is how many people are going through trainings and not everybody is at the level of acceptance as they need to make it through the training for the right purposes. If you’re going to be going through a yoga training program and your intent isn’t correct, your action will be guided by ego and it will be guided by emotion, not by the right intent, let’s say, for a larger wellness, a larger good. I see that happening in the larger community, especially in popular entertainment. But that’s what happens. If something gets popular, it shows up in entertainment. And it’s always misrepresented. Doesn’t matter what the fad is really. They’ll even misrepresent the most ridiculous fad. And it’s really hard to call something like yoga a fad because it’s so ancient. It was softened because of informed teachers and informed studios. People in entertainment who respect—this might sound a little bit kitschy, but—the life-changing aspect of what it [yoga] can do. I don’t mean to demean any other health or wellness modality, but this is different from any other health or wellness modality. Most people realize that. If they don’t, they don’t. They come in, get their Groupon for a month-unlimited, and they never come back. Or they come in for one class, they don’t give it a chance. And you can’t just take one class. It’s impossible. From experience that I had myself, I took one class and didn’t come back for a couple of years. Then, I said, ‘I need something else in my life.’”
HMS: What would you like to see happen for Evolation Yoga Buffalo for the duration of 2015?
DD: “The same natural growth that it’s experienced from before I bought the studio and the same natural progression and growth that it’s shown in the last year and a half. I need to reframe all the time my life and in my practice what is progress for us. I set out after I purchased the studio in 2013…I said that for one year, I want [sic] to be able to pay my bills, to pay the teachers primarily, make sure their taxes are paid, make sure my taxes are paid. I have no problem paying taxes. I’ll pay extra taxes. I get what it takes to run this country, the gift that we have in our society. Still means a lot of work. So, I wanted to pay the bills and be in a position to be open another year. And we’re there. And here we are in 2015 and there should be no reason why we couldn’t be here another year. That’s really it. Just to be able to doggy-paddle and hopefully make some forward progress. We had three studios in Buffalo at one point. That’s how I got the job. I worked administratively when we grew. But it was unsustainable. I mean, who knows what will happen in the future, but right now this is all that is needed.”