Late-Night Yoga, an Invitation

Late-night yoga.

It has been a staple of my routine ever since I started working second-shift as a cook, about 2001.  After a certain point, working into the evening after doing a regular day's work at home in the a.m, the body just starts shutting down.  Tasks I would like to accomplish are suddenly off limits, and going to sleep feeling so beat-up means waking up stiff.

Yoga is exercise, but not of the kind that depletes the body's energy. Here's an extreme example.  I get home from a bachelor party (I go to about one per decade it seems) at 4 am. feeling horrible - instead of crashing out, I do 5-10 minutes of yoga.  Easy stuff:  lying-down poses, stretching-and-breathing poses.  The crisis in my body is replaced by relaxed exhaustion.  I can actually fall asleep and stay asleep, and wake up halfway rebounding towards normal.

After a decade as a professional night-owl, I know many people who need yoga but can't go to a class on Saturday morning, or at 6 p.m. most nights.  Are you one of these people?

I am happy to announce a new weekly Yoga Class in St. Louis.

When?  Tuesday nights,  11:30 pm to 12:30 a.m.  Yes, that's right.  Late-night yoga.

Where?  Maplewood.  Stone Spiral Coffeehouse, 2500 Sutton Blvd just up the hill behind Shop-n-Save.

How much?  $12  

Bring? A mat. (I have a couple extras just in case.)

(As always, I offer a Free First Class to anyone new to my classes.  Many of you have enjoyed this benefit in the past, so share the love and bring a new friend with you.)

This space is fun and welcoming, and a hub for community arts and music.  See their website http://www.stonespiralcoffee.com/

The focus of this class will be easing body strain, re-aligning the spine, and clearing the mind for peaceful meditation.  I'll help you learn the techniques you need to maintain a healthy, graceful body.  

Tell your friends who wait tables, work second shift, or otherwise keep our 24-hour economy going that they don't have to get up at 7 am to do yoga.

If you've never practiced end-of-the-day yoga, you will be amazed at your enhanced flexibility and the natural ease with which your body shifts into relaxation. 

Contact me with questions etc.

Namaste!

Stephen

Bread: Deep Nourishment for Troubled Times

I was a kid in the 70s when inflation was crazy and nobody could afford to eat beef.  My parents were struggling to raise my sister and I while putting my father through grad school.  I believe the household balance sheet in 1975 read something like this:

Inner Sunshine

It has been a long month of working long nights, getting colds, getting better only to relapse, and seeing very little of the sun.

Today I worked all the way through Yogananda's energy exercises, about a fifteen minute routine of breathing, muscle isolating movements, and visualization.  I could feel layers of winter crud sloughing off, and a bright warm fire building up in my core.

By the end I found a depth in my breath I had been sorely missing.

Sometimes it's best to make your own sunshine.