The daily class on the Rising Lotus timetable starts at seven in the morning. People sometimes ask why so early. It is a decision rather than an accident, and here is the thinking behind it.
The body is ready before the day starts
Yoga asks for twists, forward folds and steady breathing, and all three are more comfortable on an empty stomach. At seven, the last meal was the night before. There is nothing to digest and nothing to work around.
The body is also stiffer in the morning than at six in the evening, and that turns out to be useful. You cannot push a cold body into a shape, so you move carefully, warm up properly and pay attention. Morning practice teaches patience in a way evening practice does not have to.
The mind has not filled up yet
By evening, most of us are carrying the whole day: the messages, the traffic, the conversation that went badly. It is possible to practise through that, and sometimes it is exactly what is needed. But at seven the day has not happened yet. Attention is easier to gather before it has been scattered.
This is not a modern discovery. The hours around sunrise have been the traditional time for practice in yoga for as long as there have been texts describing it.
A habit that the day cannot cancel
The practical argument is the strongest one. An evening class competes with everything: a late meeting, a friend in town, tiredness, rain. A seven o'clock class competes with one thing only, which is your bed.
If you win that one argument, the practice is done before anything else can interfere with it. A modest practice you actually keep is worth more than an ambitious one you keep postponing. The World Health Organization's guidance on physical activity rests on a similar idea about movement in general: some regular activity is better than none, and all of it counts.
Boudha at seven
There is also the place. The studio is a short walk from the Boudhanath stupa, and the neighbourhood is awake early. Pilgrims are already walking their circuits of the stupa at dawn, butter lamps are lit, and the streets are as quiet as they will be all day. Walking through that to a mat is a different start from fighting evening traffic to reach one. If you are visiting, our guide to yoga near Boudha Stupa has more on making a morning of it.
What the week looks like
The morning classes rotate through different styles across the week, so the same hour asks different things of you on different days. If you are unsure which suits you, Hatha vs Ashtanga vs Yin explains how they differ, and the timetable shows which day is which.