The Yoga you didn't know you needed

What’s in a name? Apparently a whole lot if you believe in ancient ideas. Naam translates from Sanskrit to mean word or name. Naam Yoga is a practice of postures like other yoga, but involves a lot words. You get to chant with the music.

Normally, I would shy away from anything that seemed like a summer camp sing-a-long. I have no known ability to find a pitch or blend in harmony. I stumbled into Naam Yoga while on a visit to Santa Monica, CA this summer. I wanted a studio where I could take a few classes to stay in shape. They had a $29 introductory special. I figured if I hated it there wasn’t much to lose and there were all sorts of options from vinyasa to Pilates, along with the Naam.

I’ve done a little yoga my entire life. My Dad was into it before it ever became popular. He’d do embarrassing headstands in the living room at odd times and had a Hatha routine he liked. I sometimes joined him in a sun salutation or those kinds of stretches you are great at when you are a gangly kid. When I got older, yoga became something I enjoyed for the community of people, as well as for the health benefits. It gave me muscles, flexibility and energy, from all of the extra oxygen you inhale with yogic breathing. It was one of the few activities that my father and I could share when I visited — but I never got that into it.

With so many types of yoga out there, I was surprised that a man named Joseph Michael Levry created the Shakti Naam classes as recently as 2006 in New York City, according to Primavera Salva, one of his longtime students. Levry discovered the practices he put into his version of yoga from a spiritual quest that included Universal Kabbalah, vinyasa, Hatha yoga, Kundalini and more.

On my return to New York, I discovered the cozy Naam studio on 72nd Street between Amsterdam and Columbus Avenues. Salva taught a class much like the ones I had taken in California, with gentle postures, breathing techniques, music and the Sanskrit words meant to bring in energy and light.

While other types of yoga were nice, my two months of Naam had been the first time I really felt something special was happening. I was happier and energized, plus my life seemed like it was lining up. I was making new friends, dating more, getting new work, and feeling fantastic about my body. Silva said that when she began studying with Levry she had been trying to get pregnant for three years. Three months after telling the Naam founder what she wanted, and doing the prescribed meditations and postures, she became pregnant with the first of her two children.

Salva teaches at Naam in New York and also internationally, as well as being on the board of directors of this growing practice. Rootlight.com is the hub for Naam around the world. You can download the music, and purchase books to do an entire class at home. Downward dogs are surprisingly few but the repetition of simple movements such as swinging your arms can be just as much exercise.

Each teacher has their own spin on how they teach. It’s not religion, but it has a focus on spirituality. Kabbalah’s ideas of bringing in more light are the underpinnings of each word and hand movement. As we pointed our first fingers up in the air with the thumb out, we were told the index is our Jupiter finger and it can activate prosperity. I’d like to believe that, but even if it isn’t true, the low impact exercises surprisingly get the heart rate up as well as lift the mood.

Salva said that when people come to Naam they often see their lives as a series of problems and after doing Naam for a few months, they see their problems as opportunities. I found that I can eat more and not gain weight, get extra work done in a day, and am generally a little happier. Right now, that is enough reason to keep going back to learn more.