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A Peaceful Presence In Cedarhurst 

Local News 

By Michele Justic    

on Thursday, April 15, 2010 

The Five Towns has it all! The best in shuls, schools, chesed organizations, Judaica shops, restaurants . . . the list goes on and on. Yet, on some occasions, our overactive residents must feel like we have too much. Surely, just because we have it all doesn’t mean we need to do it all. Peaceful Presence Yoga Studio in Cedarhurst offers an island of calm in the midst of the stormy traffic of Cedarhurst.

Perhaps the customers arrive stressed out over a honking match or parking troubles, or feel they spent too much at a local store. Unfortunately, the tension may run even deeper than that and involve more serious challenges to health, financial well-being, or family life. But they can relax as soon as they climb the steps and open the door into the simple, uncluttered space, unroll their mat, and let their experienced teacher take it from there.

The studio currently has six certified yoga teachers and three licensed massage therapists. They offer over 20 weekly classes and have about 60–70 regular practitioners, with newcomers trying out classes each week. There are classes for men and women of all levels and ages, and they also offer the newest type—hot yoga, which uses a higher room temperature to allow the body to purge toxins.

Andrew Kahn opened the studio five years ago after practicing yoga for over two decades and studying it for six years at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, Massachusetts, the largest yoga center in the country. He identifies his mother as his first teacher after he was “very tense, distracted, and feeling out of sorts.” When he and his wife, Dr. Lori Cohen-Kahn, an oral surgeon practicing in Lawrence, relocated to the Five Towns, they knew Andrew would have a challenge rebuilding his successful practice in this observant community.

Andrew feels a deep connection to yoga and to spreading its positive effect. Commenting on Peaceful Presence and its company logo, he explains, “The dove is the central part of our logo and even our name. As a kohein and a teacher of yoga, I seek to follow in the footsteps of Aharon HaKohein, who loved people and sought peace. I believe he was truly a ‘peaceful presence’ who drew people to Torah.”

Andrew’s experience with the local community has been beneficial for both. He says, “Living in the Five Towns has profoundly affected my own level of Jewish observance and also the way I run the Peaceful Presence Yoga Studio. I have gotten a great deal of feedback from community members, including numerous rabbis who have honored the studio with their presence. I have had more rabbis as students than any other profession and they have not been shy about sharing their knowledge and perspectives every step of the way in the development of the studio.”

He added, “Some practices I embraced from the start (like closing the studio for Shabbos) and others have evolved based on requests (such as having separate classes for men and women and not doing hands-on assisting in my women’s classes).”

Andrew points out that while it is true that, at some studios, unwelcome foreign religious references, terms, or rituals find their way into the teaching of yoga, true yoga does not come from or teach any one religion. “The teachings are meant to be open to and beneficial to all people,” he says. “That is the unifying beauty of it: Individuals from all observance levels and ways of life are welcome at this studio.”

Nevertheless, this being the heart of Cedarhurst, Andrew chooses to use the Rambam’s teachings as his guide and posts it in the studio: “Since by keeping the body in health and vigor one walks in the ways of G-d—it becomes impossible during sickness to have any understanding or knowledge of the Creator—it is a man’s duty to avoid whatever is injurious to the body and cultivate habits conducive to health and vigor” (Rambam, Laws Concerning Moral Dispositions and Ethical Conducts.)

As a stay-at-home asthmatic mother who spends more time hunched over a computer or cleaning up toys than on “healthy habits,” I knew it was time for a change. I have recently started attending the Sunday session with Lisa and have been blown away by her level of expertise, combined with the personal attention and warm approach that is offered there.

I’m not fond of getting out on a Sunday morning and usually come in with a stuffy nose and a not-so-positive attitude. Then Lisa begins to work her magic. She works parts of the body I never gave any thought to before and pulls it all together into a highly effective routine that has me breathing, walking, and feeling better by the end.

I asked Andrew to tell me some more about this hometown guru. “Lisa Bialostok, a native of Taiwan, has been a big asset to the Peaceful Presence Yoga Studio. Her fitness, grace, and passion for teaching, along with her knowledge of many healthy dietary practices, are only a part of what attracts large numbers of students to her classes. She has a story of recovery that is inspiring and speaks of uncommon strength. For many years she had a successful wedding-dress business, which she found extremely stressful. Through both formal and informal training, she cultivated a yoga practice which she loves to share with the community.”

Clients at Peaceful Presence include rabbis, physicians, teachers, writers, homemakers, and artists. Students’ levels of fitness range from those with chronic disabilities to those who are already in exceptional health. Peaceful Presence Yoga reaches out to serve Holocaust survivors, brain trauma victims, and special-needs children. In addition, they are expanding into some of the progressive local area schools who are using yoga as an extracurricular activity, while helping to develop open-minded and well-rounded children. Andrew hopes to create future programs for different groups in the community, such as teenagers, and to meet the needs of those in the corporate world and local business. Yoga retreats are a possibility as well.

Andrew strives to bring everyone together in the pursuit of health and well-being. As he explains, “To me, the concept of unity is very important. I think there is way too much discord and divisiveness, even in this community amongst Jews. I hope that among other things, the studio will be a vehicle for helping to heal this sense of separation.”

“I also hope that the studio continues to blossom in the Five Towns and that I can repeat this model in other communities,” Andrew added. “What community would not benefit from a ‘peaceful presence’ in the neighborhood, spreading our teachings of tolerance, compassion, peace, unity, and discipline? I pray that G-d works through us all to speedily achieve this goal.”

To learn more, visit www.peacefulpresence.com, call 516-371-3715, or—even better—try a class at 436 Central Avenue (main entrance in the Gourmet Glatt parking lot).