Instructor Karen Nourizadeh is offering yoga lessons to a group of homless at an East Side shelter to help them center their topsy-turvy lives. “I want to do yoga for people who really need it. I really want them to take all that pressure and stress and throw it out the window.” Participants arrive wearing tattered clothes and tired expressions, and Nourizadeh leads them through a series of basic yoga exercises to limber them up and relax their minds.
“It was great. I’m not feeling as tense as I was. Anything you’re thinking about just leaves at that moment. You just relax,” said a 29-year-old homeless named Steve. Another young man named Frank, attending for the third time, said he’s been taking computer networking classes with a goal of trying to get off the streets. “[Yoga] encourages me to focus… I feel so energetic right now and more confident.”