“Our focus today is on what is true right now, to focus on the actual moment rather than letting the stories of your mind take you to a place that is not necessarily true,” said Leslie Pearlman at the beginning of a recent virtual yoga class. “Feel your breath moving through your body and feel the truth of that.”
A former attorney who ran a domestic violence advocacy project in Brooklyn, she was introduced to yoga at a young age by her mother. “I remember her vividly doing breathing exercises and sun salutations in her bedroom,” she said via email. Around the age of 12, she accompanied her mother on her first yoga retreat.
As an adult, she continued yoga intermittently, but not seriously. About 20 years ago, one of her co-workers went on a yoga vacation in the Bahamas “and came back rested, recharged, and glowing. Her noticeable shift was all the prompting I needed.” A few weeks later she was there. “That vacation changed my life.”
For close to two decades, she has been teaching yoga on the South Fork at studios and gyms such as Ananda Wellness and Yoga, Hamptons Gym Corp., and the former Radu gym. At her own studio, Good Ground Yoga in Hampton Bays, she is conducting classes via the Zoom app like instructors from other local yoga studios, such as Yoga Shanti, Mandala Yoga, and Tapovana.
She has practiced Forrest yoga since 2002. Developed by Ana Forrest, the style was designed “to address the physical and emotional stresses of modern life.” She has apprenticed with Ms. Forrest for 19 years, achieving the rare distinction of Forrest Yoga guardian and mentor. The tenets of the practice are breath, strength, integrity, and spirit.
According to Ms. Pearlman, those taking a class will breathe deeply, build strength safely, focus on their core, open tight spots, and build internal heat through movement and longer-held poses. “You will learn to work in a healing way for your injuries and feel better and stronger as a result.”
Although her practice has given her many tools to deal with stress and anxiety, she is struggling along with the rest of us right now. “On a personal level I am concerned about the health and well-being of my family, friends, community. On a global level I am concerned about what it means for the world to be in a state of fear and panic, how the energy of fear will close us off and shut us down.”
She copes by setting an intention every day. “I ask myself what can I do today to design the energy that I want to generate.” On a recent day she “chose to practice hope as an antidote to fear.” Noting that in times of uncertainty it is easy to feel hopeless, she said hope is a practice grounded in memory. “We look back at our past to feel the hope that comes from our own trials and adversity. We look back to history to feel the hope of strength and perseverance.”
Her recommendation for a simple stress-relieving tool is a breathing style called bhramari. It sounds like a buzzing bumble bee. “The noise of bhramari’s buzzing can drown out the endless mental tape loops that can fuel emotional suffering and anxiety. This practice activates the calming parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. It can begin to quiet the mind within a few breaths.”
How to Do It
“Find a comfortable seated position, either on the floor or in a chair. Take a breath or two to settle in and notice the state of your mind. When you’re ready, inhale, and then, for the entire length of your exhalation, make a humming sound in the throat like the sound of a bumble bee. Keep your facial muscles loose, your lips lightly touching, and your jaw relaxed. Stretch the buzzing sound on the exhalation as long as it’s comfortable. Notice how the sound waves gently vibrate your tongue, teeth, skull, and brain. Do this practice for six rounds of breath and then, keeping your eyes closed, return to your normal breathing. Notice if anything has changed.”