Addabbo hosts Forest Hills meditation, yoga and Tai Chi stress relief session

A free 90-minute session in Forest Hills paired meditation, yoga and Tai Chi inside American Legion Continental Post 1424, turning Stress Relief Awareness Month into a hands-on neighborhood reset. New York State Senator Joseph P. Addabbo Jr. hosted the class at 107-15 Metropolitan Avenue and pitched it as an accessible way to step out of the daily grind and into something restorative.

The evening was built in two parts, and that structure said a lot about who it was for. Bayside Meditation guide Blake Guss opened the program with breathing exercises, laughter, visualization and the idea of mentally releasing what weighs people down. Then Sean Newman, the head instructor and manager of Body & Brain Yoga & Tai Chi of Forest Hills, led an hour of balancing and joint-stretching movements meant to invigorate circulation, awaken muscles and nerves, and ground attention in the lower abdomen. Body & Brain describes its approach as combining qigong, tai chi, meditation and yoga for people of varying fitness levels, which made the event feel less like a specialty class and more like a sampler designed to meet residents where they are.

Addabbo framed the session as a self-care reset, saying people need to "breathe, unwind, and make room for calm and clarity in a fast-paced world." That line fits the political value of an event like this: when a state senator hosts meditation, yoga and Tai Chi in a veterans hall, the practices gain a kind of civic visibility they rarely get in a studio-only setting. The audience is not just committed yogis. It is also commuters, caregivers, older adults, and anyone who can use a low-pressure entry point into stress care.

The post itself reinforced that community tone. American Legion Continental Post 1424 identifies itself as a veterans' organization in Forest Hills, Queens, which gave the class a public, neighborhood-facing backdrop rather than a boutique wellness feel. Participants who finished the session received free class coupons for both Body & Brain Yoga and Tai Chi of Forest Hills and Bayside Meditation, a small but telling sign that the goal was not just one good night out. It was to connect people to ongoing local practice.

Addabbo used the same April window for a similar stress-relief workshop on April 30, 2025, with experts from Northwell Health Long Island Jewish Forest Hills. That program promised practical stress-management techniques, relaxation and humor exercises, and resources for extended treatment. Northwell Health Long Island Jewish Forest Hills describes itself as a Queens community hospital and a New York state-designated Stroke Center, which helps explain why these events keep landing at the intersection of wellness, health education and neighborhood outreach. In a month built around stress awareness, mixed-format programming like this looks less like a trend and more like a workable gateway.