History of International Yoga Day
As the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, June 21 has been declared as International Yoga Day. First proposed in 2014, the day is now recognised in over 190 countries.
The purpose of International Yoga Day is to raise awareness about the various benefits of practicing yoga, and encouraging people to incorporate this into their daily lives.
Each year, a specific theme is chosen. In 2023, this theme is “Yoga for Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,” which in Sanskrit means “The world is one family.” This theme connects and unites everyone; the essence of yoga.
What is yoga?
Yoga is an ancient practice that involves doing different physical poses, focusing your mind, and taking deep breaths – it’s essentially a workout for both your body and mind. The poses, combined with specific breathing techniques and meditation principles, create a mind-body connection that can help you find balance and feel more relaxed.
Breath work is another essential part of yoga. In addition to helping you focus during the actual practice, focusing on your breathing can also have positive effects on your mental health by calming the mind. Being aware of your breath can improve your mindfulness and self-awareness.
Types of yoga
Yoga comes in many shapes and forms. Ranging from quick, dynamic flows that have you moving from one pose to the next, to gentle and restorative poses that involve deep stretches. Yoga can be about spirituality, but it doesn’t have to be.
If you’ve never tried yoga before – or you’ve only done one type – I highly recommend you try a few different types to find which ones you prefer. Very often though, how much you enjoy a practice also depends on how much you like the instructor.
Some of my personal favourites are:
Yin Yoga
If you want a calmer practice that focuses on stretching, yin yoga could be the practice for you. Promoting flexibility, yin yoga stretches the connective tissue around the knees, pelvis, sacrum, and spine. Expect to be holding poses for normally a good 3-5 minutes. You might find yourself getting more distracted and thinking of the outside world as the practice itself is slow-moving, but this will get easier with time and practice.
Vinyasa or Flow
In contrast to yin yoga, vinyasa flows are more dynamic, energetically moving you through a sequence of poses. Very often, this sequence is repeated several times, sometimes building on and adding more poses to each sequence. Depending on the level of the class, this can include standing poses, balancing poses, backbends, seated poses and resting/supine poses.
Mandala
I’ve absolutely loved mandala since the first time I tried it. Throughout the practice, you move around the mat in 360 degrees. Normally you’ll start facing the top of your mat, and whilst running through a sequence of poses, you will be rotating your direction, facing all sides of the mat throughout the practice. This practice is very often focused on a target area/element (earth, water, fire or air) of the body.
Hot Yoga
If you like the heat, you might enjoy hot yoga. This refers to any yoga that is being done in a warm room – normally between 33-40 degrees Celsius. It can get slippery and you should expect to be sweating a lot, so bring a towel and a bottle of water.
Other types include Hatha, Restorative Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Power Yoga and Iyengar.
The benefits of yoga
From improved flexibility, to stress reduction and stronger focus – the benefits of yoga are many. If you get into the habit of a regular yoga practice, you could experience a positive effect on both physical and mental health. Some of these include:
- Improved posture and balance
- Healthier joints
- Stronger muscles
- Become more present/mindful
- Feel more relaxed and reduce stress
- Relieve depression and anxiety
You might also feel a stronger connection to yourself and to nature as yoga ultimately is a grounding practice.
Yoga and mental health
As mentioned, yoga has more than just physical benefits. In times of stress, anxiety or other negative emotions, I often turn to yoga. Any form of exercise relieves endorphins, which affect the feel-good neurotransmitters in the brain, and yoga is no different.
Since the practice is about grounding yourself, you might find that it improves your well-being. By being more present and listening to your body, you tend to it differently. Listen to it. Respect it. Process. It’s important to understand how much body and mind intertwine; listening to your physical body also helps you listen to your mind.
We’re generally all so distracted today. Rather than listening to our body and mind, we look at our phones or are busy with work. I have personally found that yoga breaks me out of that pattern, giving me a chance to focus fully on myself and what I actually need. The more we listen to our own needs, the better for the mind.
Bringing yoga into your daily life
If you want to see if yoga could become a more integrated part of your life, there are many ways to start. With YouTube and other social media platforms, we are lucky to have access to millions of yoga videos for free – in the comfort of our homes and available 24/7.
When I first started doing yoga more than 10 years ago, I found Yoga with Adriene – and even though I have developed a yoga “vocabulary” of my own, I still go back to her every now and then. What I love about Adriene, is that her videos are everything from 5 min to an hour long, targeting different areas of the body and/or emotions to fit your needs. She does some “challenges” now and then as well, where she’ll post a new yoga practice every every day for 30 days for you to follow along to.
If, however, you are lucky enough to have a yoga studio or a gym that offers yoga classes in the area, I do recommend checking this out as well. You might wish to try a few different types of classes to find which is the right for you.
Alternate nostril breathing
A common misconception about yoga is that it’s all about fancy poses. But it’s not. Yoga is about being present in your body. It’s not about the flow between the poses, but about being mindful within each pose (just look at yin yoga!).
Breathing techniques, for example, are an essential aspect of the practice. What I love about these techniques, is that you can do them wherever you are to ground yourself – whether that’s at work or at the shopping centre.
Alternate nostril breathing is one such breathing technique, and is meant to help balance the nervous system. Repeat the following as many times as you like:
- Close one nostril with a finger, and inhale through the open nostril
- Exhale through the open nostril
- Switch your hold and close the open nostril, releasing the closed one
- Inhale through the open nostril and exhale
- Switch back and repeat
Closing thoughts
International Yoga Day is celebrated for many reasons – and I truly recommend finding a way to incorporate it into your life. At least give it a go: if it’s not for you, it’s not for you. But it never hurt giving it a go – especially not with all those free videos available just a few clicks away!
No matter how you’re spending the day, I hope you’re at peace and looking after yourself. As a new experiment I’m letting the moon cycle shape my yoga practices at the moment, so I will be doing some yin yoga in the evening as the moon is almost at its darkest and the energy is low.
