NEW YORK (NY1/CNN) - Some 12,000 people signed up for the 15th annual Solstice in Times Square, a full day of yoga classes celebrating the first day of summer and the longest day of the year.
“Our lives are so crazy in New York. How do you stay calm? The perfect metaphor for that is doing yoga in the middle of Times Square,” said Tim Tompkins, who started the event with yoga instructor Douglas Stewart. At that first event, they were two of only three people who showed up.
It’s a different story now.
“Who would think that in the middle of Times Square you would get 12,000 people sitting still in a meditation, and actually focus?” Stewart said.
Wouldn't taking a yoga class amidst the nonstop action of Times Square would be difficult? The folks who gathered there Wednesday said it’s no problem. After all, the event's theme is "mind over madness."
“The magic and purpose of yoga is being able to center and take away all the extraneous stressors,” one participant said.
The event has become a yearly ritual for many yoga enthusiasts, who say they meet new friends and reunited with old ones at the mass yoga class.
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