Happy International Yoga Day

My daughter's article on 'sun salutations' that was published in a popular fitness magazine. She trained for a few months to do a 108 sun salutations the same 'yoga day' in 2015. I am glad that it was not a one-time drive for her but that she continues to do yoga at least five days a week. 

Here is her article:

June 21st, 2015 marked the UN’s first international day of yoga. My instagram was flooded with contorted bodies and spiritual wishes to celebrate the occasion. By 11.30am, I had begun to wiggle my toes and fingers out of a twenty-minute savasana, or corpse pose, after spending an hour moving through 108 sun salutations.

108 repetitions of surya namaskara, a very powerful and energizing sequence of asanas. Inhale, your arms lift; exhale, they reach to the floor. Inhale to lengthen your spine, and exhale into chaturanga. Inhale to Bhujangasana, cobra pose, and exhale into adho mukha svanasana, down dog. Inhale, strengthen your legs, extend your spine. Exhale, pull your ribcage in, and move forward into a forward bend. Inhale to lengthen the spine once more, exhale to lengthen the legs. Inhale up, arms reaching overhead, and exhale to bring the palms in front of the heart. Repeat, 107 times more. Repeat, through the heat collecting in muscles of your arms, the core that is held tightly to the spine, the legs extending back and forward.

You’ll find thousands of articles and books that reiterate the “journey of yoga” — how it changes the mind and body, and challenges your awareness. These are movements that have changed individuals. This is what breaks the shell of depression and the negativity of eating disorders.

Yoga, contrary to a very ignorant popular opinion, is not all relaxation and stretching. It is a process of development. Cultivating strength in your arms to catch you when life throws you off of a cliff. Creating a sense of balance in your body so you create one in the midst of chaos.

It is pulling in your core and straightening your back to protect what’s vulnerable. It is matching your breath to your movement so you can link together the random pieces of your life.

108 sun salutations is not a gentle coaxing into a blissful state of mind. The past three weeks of building up to this day were daily arguments with myself to push through ten more, that the last five of forty repetitions was completely in the realm of possibility. I had to push to find comfort in the seemingly unbearable heat so much movement generates; I had to push to find the stamina to fight from ending it after number fifty-six.

So the past three weeks taught me a lot about the seemingly simple sequence every one knows about yoga. Chaturanga becomes far easier when your weight shifts forward, not just down. Pulling my ribs in and up was possible when I imagined my anatomy performing it, rather than just exerting force. I found more strength in each of my outstretched fingers holding me up throughout each pose than I ever gave them credit for.

108 sun salutations was exactly how many repetitions I needed before I was able to understand that life becomes easier when thinking forward, moving forward, and being forward. That my mind is the biggest obstacle and my imagination the biggest strength in accomplishing something that seemed odd or out of reach. That I have probably spent the last twenty years underestimating myself in so many ways.

Yoga is not about relaxation and stretching. Yoga is a link — between your breath and your movement, the mat and your life, the way you think and the way things are.