PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — April is National Stress Awareness Month, and for many folks a yoga practice can be a great stress reliever, but making time for a class isn’t always easy — especially if you don’t work a typical 9-to-5 job.
A new yoga studio hopes to make wellness more accessible regardless of schedule, budget, or background.
Yin Yoga Space on Northeast 7th Avenue in Portland is open late at night — really late at night.
The studio offers yin yoga classes by day, and SIN Yin by night. Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays, the studio is opening its doors to yogis while many in the city are fast asleep.
SIN Yin is an open format program catered to service and sex industry workers, offering a space for practice from 11 p.m. to as late (or early) as 4 a.m.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” client Jesse Rowell Jr. explained, “I think it’s super beneficial.”
Yin Yoga Space is a dream realized for studio owner Rachel Brooks. After spending years in the service industry, Brooks found yoga as a way to move, re-center, and relax.
She opened her first studio, Seeking Space Yoga, in 2017 in Multnomah Village. She expanded to the inner east side in late 2022 with a focus solely on yin practice, something not commonly seen in commercial studios.
If you’ve ever taken a yoga class, chances are it was a vinyasa practice.
“Vinyasa is great. It’s a very beautiful, mindful movement and strengthening, but it can be less accessible for a lot of people, it’s a challenging practice,” Brooks said. “But yin had such a huge impact on me personally, and I watched a huge shift in my services from my students to yin just because of everything we’ve been through in the pandemic. When I first discovered it, I thought ‘Why didn’t I find this 10 years ago? I would’ve been so much healthier and happier.”
Many of her clients agree.
“You think of [vinyasa] yoga being a good opportunity for stretching, but with the flow it’s really active,” student Kimiko Matsuda said, “Being able to just sit into a pose and melt into that suddenly it’s like ‘Wow, my body needs that release.'”
A release that can be difficult to come by if your work hours prevent you from taking a class at 7 in the morning, or 4:30 in the afternoon. It’s a problem many service industry workers face, whether working late in restaurants, bars, or clubs.
“You’re on your feet, it’s sensory overload, you’re talking and interacting with people, putting on a bit of a show to make sure they’re having a good time, it’s very draining” Brooks explains. “Sometimes that can lead to habits that aren’t so healthy, because there’s only so much available when you’re getting off work anywhere from 12 to 4 a.m.”
That’s where SIN Yin comes in. During a first of its kind program, the studio is open past midnight several nights a week for open practice. Join a group flow or find a space for your own routine.
“Anything you can do to decompress from that [nightlife] in a positive way is important,” Rowell Jr. said.
“The fact that there’s a place for folks to come after a long day as an alternative to the night life that’s imbedded in that culture was definitely something to celebrate,” Matsuda agreed.
For Brooks, finding success as a Black business owner in an industry that tends to be thin, white, and wealthy is opening more doors than just her studio’s late at night.
“Representation absolutely matters,” she explained, “It can be intimidating enough to go into a space, and on top of it, to go into a space where people don’t look like you, can be even worse.”
“For me, it’s really powerful, given the fact that I just expected that I would always do yoga around skinny white women taught by skinny white women – in beautiful spaces with beautiful practice – but there really is something to be said about being in a room and seeing faces that look like mine,” Matsuda said. “To understand that we carry a lot during the day, and to come in and have our practice be our own without having to carry that component is more powerful than you might expect.”
The studio also provides scholarships and financial aid to students and practitioners overcoming cost barriers to practice yoga.
SIN Yin continues to expand, with the ability offer off-sight wellness sessions for local bars, restaurants, and businesses. The program works to make sure anyone feels welcome and safe, with security available late at night to ensure that practice is never stressful.
“I’m just going to be here, and be consistent,” Brooks said. “I believe wholeheartedly in this offering.”