I’m double jointed in my right hip. It’s a secret I don’t share with many, only close friends and family.

This little quirk has been known to scream pain at me occasionally, yet I have never seen a doctor. I had heard about the powers of yoga through friends who had taken classes before but I never thought much of it.

When I stepped into Jem Yoga in Merrick for my first session with owner Jeanne McElwain, I was hesitant, slightly anxious and had no idea what to expect.

The studio was small with hardwood floors and printed room dividers to separate us from the rest of the world. There was something about it that made me feel at home. The quiet music, the original white tin ceilings, the aura was so comforting and genial.

Jeanne, a spirited blonde, took her place at the front of the room while we assembled our mats and prepared for our session. Through the dim light and incense-filled air, Jeanne studied us.

“You have problems in your hip?” she asked me. 

“Yes, I do,” I said taken aback slightly.

“OK, we will try to do some hip work and if you feel any pain let me know immediately," she said. 

For those who know Jeanne, this is not the least bit abnormal. Described as engaged and personal by patron Lourdes LaColla, Jeanne brings a unique familiarity to her clients. Jeanne said she “found her calling” to teach Yoga more than 13 years ago. After traveling from studio to studio as a “vagabond” yoga teacher, three years ago she saw that a studio in Merrick had closed.

“Yoga isn’t competitive so it was the right opportunity,” Jeanne said. “I wanted to share this beautiful thing that is so much more than just the physical.”

As we continued through our session with the three other women, beginners as well, I realized that I may have found something here. I found myself bending, twisting and moving in an element that I was not used too, but found strangely comforting.

My breath slowed and I focused on my body, different from running the treadmill or doing push-ups at the gym. The poses, designed to stretch and increase flexibility, started to take shape and I felt more connected to my body in a way that the gym doesn’t seem to understand.

“It is tranquil,” client Andrea Weingarten said. “The atmosphere is so conducive to people doing yoga at all levels.”

Jeanne made sure of this when opening up the studio. Several years ago, her dying mother, asked Jeanne if she was happy. Jeanne realized that she couldn’t respond. Her heart wasn’t happy; it was tired. When her mother died, she left Jeanne a sum of money, which she used to buy the business. 

“Everything just fell into place,” Jeanne said. “Her presence is very much here.”

At the conclusion of our session, everyone was smiling and seemed to be breathing new air. It was as though we had learned our bodies again, the way a baby takes its first hesitant steps across a room.

It was a sense of being grounded and understanding the way we work, the way our ligaments move and even the way our lungs push air in and out.  My class at Jem Yoga was the beginning of a new fulfillment for me, the beginning of a new attitude to take on the world, double-jointed hip and all.