Cass Gibson encourages each Moonlight Yoga student to come exactly as they are with whatever they have—in terms of both yoga skills and personal resources.

Some participants might set up a mat in the back and lie in one pose, covered by a blanket, for the duration of the session, studio owner Gibson said.

Others might not be able to afford the suggested $12 per class and instead barter for cleaning services or pay in food items. Gibson, who has been teaching out of the Main Street studio in League City since the spring of 2015, recalls a longtime student who paid in cans of Spaghetti-O’s while attending graduate school.

The studio space is small and intimate, and Gibson cultivates an environment without judgment or expectations.

“Nothing is pretentious here,” she said.


Classes will be held whether one student or a dozen are present because she believes yoga is about service to others and service to God, she added.

“Everybody, anybody can walk through that door, and I will help them,” Gibson said. “I help every walk of life because I believe in it so much. Yoga is for everyone.”

Gibson was drawn to yoga as a means of healing and discovering independence after the suicide of a loved one. She started a studio in her garage, vowing never to let another person slip through the cracks, she said. She has taught yoga since the early 2000s.

A single mother of three children, Gibson said teaching yoga was one of several jobs she had in her early studio days, which led to the studio name representing her “moonlighting” as an instructor.
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The pandemic helped Gibson prioritize quality over quantity in schedule offerings, she said; she now offers 10 classes each week, including one specifically for people with disabilities at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday afternoons. Tuesday morning’s class is livestreamed on Facebook.

Classes at the start of the week set the theme or intention for that week’s practice. Movements always focus on healing the mind and body and finding inner peace rather than the physical shape and form of each pose. As such, students can range from elementary age to as old as 70, and practices can be adapted for everyone’s physical abilities, Gibson said.

She keeps the participation process simple: There is no online signup or membership card to worry about, so people simply pay at the end of each session. Classes always end with a prayer of gratitude.

Students often chip in donations or labor to help with studio upgrades, so Gibson gives as much back as she can by serving as a yoga resource for local school districts, including her former employer, Clear Creek ISD.


The world is a giant classroom, Gibson said, and yoga helps people form the connections they need to get the most out of life’s many lessons.

“If you can walk through that door and breathe, you can do yoga,” Gibson said. “Just be present, and we’ll do the rest.”