Embody Renewal: Commence the New Year with a Potent, Ancient Salutation to the Sun
- Dessislava Mladenova
- Jan 1, 2024
- 4 min read
What better way to start the New Year than to both nurture and elevate your being with this ancient and powerful practice that symbolises fresh beginnings, renewal, and following through intentions?
Location: Simpson Falls, Mt Coot-tha
Start Time: 9:00 am on January 14th
Bookings: Essential. Limited to six participants. Please text Dessi at 0406012133 to reserve your spot and don't forget to mention if you're bringing a friend.
Duration: The workshop will last approximately 90 minutes, allowing for rest and unstructured periods for personal exploration. An optional short meditation/reflection will be offered at the conclusion.
Cost: $20 AUD per person. Bring a friend for FREE!
DessiYoga brings you the Sun Salutation workshop, where we will make this sacred ancient practice accessible to everyone, enjoyable, and transformative. This workshop is designed for beginners as well as more experienced Yogis. We will use a modified version of the Sun Salutation so that it is inclusive, achievable, and enjoyable.
Beginning the year with this sequence allows practitioners to set intentions for health, balance, mindfulness, or any other personal goals, fostering a mindful start to the year.
In the purifying and life-giving light of the Sun, all masks fall, all secret yearnings take form, and all fears are dissolved by the power of truth and light.
For this workshop, we have chosen an environment of spiritual significance for the first custodians of the land – the Turrbal and Jagera people. In our own experience, the area around Mt Coot-Tha and Simpson Falls in Brisbane has uplifting and powerful energy.
In Yoga, it is believed that through this comprehensive all -body practice, we literally “internalise” the Sun and make it a part of our body, synchronising our physical system with what Yogis believe to be our larger body – the Solar System itself.*
The Sun Salutation, known as Surya Namaskar in Sanskrit, is an ancient Yogic practice revered for its multitude of benefits. Its roots can be traced back to the Vedic texts.
Physical Benefits
At its core, the Sun Salutation is a sequence of 12 distinct and carefully chosen postures, whose performance is harmonised with a specific breathing pattern and distinct sacred utterances (chants). Each movement harmoniously engages multiple muscle groups, resulting in whole-body strengthening and improvement of balance, concentration, and stamina.
In my experience, Surya Namaskar has been miraculous for improving spine mobility and overall organ health, aiding anything from digestion to sleep quality.
The series of 12 postures is repeated according to a practitioner's needs, boosting circulation, increasing cardiovascular fitness, and flushing the whole body with oxygen, and a sense of vitality, while gently stretching, contracting, and massaging muscles and internal organs.
Spiritual Benefits
It is profound, it is powerful, it is healing and cleansing, it is rejuvenating and cathartic.
Beyond its physical aspects, the Sun Salutation holds spiritual significance that stems from the powerful method of mindful intention associated with each posture in the sequence, connecting breath and intention with movement to cultivate a deeper sense of awareness and presence.
As repetitions continue, the practitioner effortlessly eases into a meditative flow, embracing the peace and tranquility it offers.
My confession: I deliberated hard before I could offer this workshop to you.
Why?
I did not allow myself to perform the classical Sun Salutation series for almost 2 years after I started a daily Yoga routine.
I felt that the series required a considerable amount of control of muscles and breath to honour its sacred nature and intentions. Therefore, I never included it in a general Yoga class either.
Even when my strength felt it was sufficient to attempt the Sun Salutation series, I knew that my breath was not developed enough. I intuitively felt that rushing this practice will have the opposite of the wonderful benefits it is intended to bestow upon the practitioner.
Patience and Consistency became the goal, and my reward was going to be the classical Sun Salutation. One Sunny morning, I was ready.
After two years of daily Yoga practice, including modified versions of the Sun Salutation, one sunny morning, I was ready. I didn’t plan it. It just happened.
Barefeet, under the shade of an enormous tree, facing the blazing Sun, I performed 9 rounds of Sun Salutation. (Traditionally Yogis would perform 108 rounds for special occasions. 108 is a highly significant number in Yoga.)
Words fail to capture the profound impact the practice had on my physical, emotional, and psychological well-being. I am sure every practitioner will have their own experiences.
All I can say is that this practice is revered for a reason!
Since that day, I had a dream of being able to share with my students this miraculous practice.
However, I did not feel ready as a teacher to offer my students something so sacred and transformative. I was still experimenting with the Sun Salutation myself, I was still discovering for myself the wealth of benefits and effects it has on the system.
However, I woke up one day with a brilliant idea!
I can offer the modified version to my students.
After all, day after day, I patiently persisted with the modified version to build my own strength and breath control, needed for a truly beneficial Sun Salutation practice.
So it is here that I humbly ask you that we can teach each other, share and experience together a positive and beautiful start to the New Year with Sun Salutation!
Contraindications for practicing Sun Salutation include spine disorders like slipped discs, spondylosis, and other spinal issues, abdominal disorders such as ulcers, liver problems, recent abdominal surgeries, uncontrolled or severe high blood pressure, and pregnancy. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and individuals with any medical concerns or specific health conditions should consult with a healthcare professional before practicing Sun Salutation to ensure alignment with their health needs and limitations.
*(Note: Inspired by the Isha Foundation. Isha Sadhguru. (n.d.). Benefits of Surya Namaskar. Retrieved December 26, 2023, from https://isha.sadhguru.org/en/wisdom/article/benefits-of-surya-namaskar
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