Yoga is back by spiritual demand

St. Charles Library offers its first weekly class

Bring a yoga mat and get ready to de-stress.

The St. Charles Parish Library and Creative Family Solutions  in Luling have partnered to offer the library’s first weekly yoga class – and it’s free.

Yoga has been available at the library for years, but the increasing availability is new.

The class has been offered for all ages and multiple library locations, but increasing demand for ways to calm down in an increasingly stressful world has focused more attention on these disciplines or practices known as yoga that originated in ancient India.

Beginning on Sept. 11, a one-hour class will be held at 6 p.m. Mondays at the West Regional Library, 105 Lakewood Drive in Luling.

Yoga instructor Sara Lyon said it’s an all-level class, but participants must be able to get up and down off of the floor. Also, they need to bring their own yoga mat and wear comfortable clothing.

Lyon taught three classes called, “Yoga For Stress Management” during the 2016 Summer Reading Program and returned to host two more this summer.

Library spokeswoman Lauren Camp Pitz said Lyon was invited back by popular demand.

“The response from library staff and attendees was overwhelmingly positive,” Pitz said. “I received comments from numerous patrons and staff — and even some emails — about trying to find a way to offer more yoga classes. After relaying this information to Sara, we began to brainstorm ways to offer yoga to the community on a regular basis.”

The course also fits the library’s efforts to evolve and grow with the community’s preferences.

“We’re always looking for new programs to offer and new partnerships,” Pitz said. “We look for ideas in all sorts of places. We weren’t necessarily looking for a yoga instructor, but I came across a ‘Yoga for Stress Management’ class in the St. Charles Parish Public School’s Community Education booklet that Sara Lyon was offering through Creative Family Solutions and thought it would work well at the library.”

When Lyon generated an email list from the classes, she saw firsthand a growing interest in the course and then she had a waiting list for them.

She also teaches a yoga class at City Park’s Sculpture Garden every third Saturday at 8 a.m., which also is growing in participation.

Lyon said the same is true of expanding yoga offerings in the parish.

Calling it a “wonderful union of the minds,” she found holding the class at the library an excellent fit and especially with the recent renovation making it an especially accommodating location for a course.

“Yoga means union and we’re trying to combine efforts to help our whole bodies heal – mind, body and soul,” she said.

Lyon, a native of Colorado, came to the area in 2008 with her husband, who is a native of Destrehan. She studied under Yogi Baba Hari Dass in California and has been a registered yoga teacher since 2003. She is a staff counselor with Creative Family Solutions, a nonprofit counseling and educational organization for youths and families in Luling.