Mendota Heights Family Adds Yoga to Annual Thanksgiving Menu

For most, a traditional Thanksgiving is a time for families to get together surrounded by food. For one Mendota Heights family, the tradition has also added yoga to the day’s menu.

For the past eight years, Joyce Paxton and her daughter, Kelsey, have gathered with friends and dozens of class attendees to teach a free Thanksgiving morning Kundalini yoga class that also helps to raise money and food donations for a small Frogtown neighborhood food shelf.

This year’s class will be held at in Eagan on Thanksgiving morning from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. The class is free and open to the public. According to a press release for the event, the Thanksgiving morning class typically receives about $500 in cash donations and 500 pounds of non-perishable food. Proceeds from the event go to support Sharing Korner food shelf of St. Paul.

The mother and daughter teachers each went through Kundalini yoga teacher training nine years ago and both teach independently around the Twin Cities area. But for one class a year, on Thanksgiving morning, the family comes together to teach jointly and help give back to the community.

Joyce’s husband, Wes, is also a Kundalini yoga instructor and handles receipts of the cash and food donations brought in each year.

For Joyce Paxton, the class is also being dedicated to remembering her friend, Katy Gray, who died of breast cancer two years ago. Gray had lived with Paxton and was the first person to suggest that she start the annual class.

“Katy was an inspiration to all of us who were privileged to be included in her circle,” Paxton said. “She was always reaching out to help her family, friends, church, community; she brought out the best in everyone and made you feel special.”

The first class, held at The Center for Happiness, a Minneapolis yoga studio that is now closed, surprisingly drew approximately 50 people. The annual event has continued to draw well throughout the years. Last year, the first at YogaSoul Center in Eagan, the class drew approximately 40 people for a pre-Thanksgiving meal session.

Paxton said she hopes people come out and take a moment to breathe amid stress that the holidays can bring.

“This Thanksgiving yoga class is about offering people a time and place to find a quiet moment, take a deep breath, connect with themselves and those they love by counting their blessings and showing their generosity to others,” she said.

The YogaSoul Center is located at 1121 Town Center Drive, Suite 100, one mile east of Interstate 35E, on the southwest corner of Yankee Doodle and Lexington, next to Solimar Spa.