Evening Chair Yoga

Thirty minutes in a chair each evening, to close the day gently and move toward sleep.

Many people reach the end of the day stiff, tired and still busy inside. This book offers a quiet way to close the evening: thirty minutes on an ordinary, sturdy chair, with slow movement, slow breathing and calm attention. No flexibility, fitness or experience is needed, and you never have to get down on the floor.

The book is built as a course of fifteen evening lessons. In each chapter a kind teacher speaks to a small class of beginners: first a clear lecture on one subject, such as the body clock, the stages of sleep, the breath, sitting well, the neck and shoulders, the spine, the legs and feet, the hands, attention or the body scan; then one complete thirty-minute practice, described in words from where each movement starts to how you come back; and at the end a summary of the evening.

Every practice has the same five parts, arriving, breathing, moving, stillness and closing, so that it soon becomes a familiar habit that leads you toward bed. Later lessons show how to meet worries at night, what to do when you wake in the small hours, how light and evening habits shape sleep, and how to build your own evening practice.

After reading this book, you will be able to…

• Set up a safe chair and space, and practise within the rule of comfort
• Use a slow, slightly longer breath out to help the body move from busy mode to resting mode
• Do gentle seated movements for the neck, shoulders, spine, hips, legs, hands and arms
• Practise simple meditation, a body scan and kind wishes in a chair
• Build your own thirty-minute evening practice and a calmer path to bed