Honoring the Sun

Today is Summer Solstice. A day that many cultures and religions have, for centuries, celebrated the sun. Although not directly coinciding with any harvesting, this time of year was seen as a time for good luck, especially for newly wed couples. Hence the plethora of June weddings to this day. And for our friends, who live in the cold Northern region of our blue planet, this is a time of awakening. With the sun staying in the sky all day, never fully dipping below the horizon, ice melts, plants bloom and everything appears to be alive once again.


I invite you to celebrate today and every day with a series of Sun Salutations. The Sanskrit/Hindu name for this energizing, heat building, breath synchronizing, sweat inducing set of poses at the beginning of class is known as Surya Namaskar. Almost every Hatha yoga tradition begins class with some variation of these 12 postures. The teacher always reminds us that it is to "warm up" the body, but as students we can't help but think it is a "form of torture" for eating too many cookies or drinking that extra glass of wine the night before. And even though, physically, Surya Namaskar is a way to warm up the spine and to begin the process of detoxifying the muscles and oxygenating the blood, I ask you to take a deeper look at this series of torture, I mean poses.

Traditionally, this series is done facing the sun, right at sun rise. It is a way to honor the sun for all that it provides: light, energy, life, warmth. With out the sun, humans, plants and animals, would not be here, living and thriving on this great blue ball. For the sun rises and sets, day in and day out, just like our breath rises and falls as we move through the series. On inhaling breaths, we are in the back bending poses, or as I like to refer to them, the heart opening poses. Opening ourselves to the potential of everything "good". On the exhaling breaths, we are in the forward bending poses, surrendering and letting go. And in the center of all this opening and surrendering, is Adho Mukha Svanasana, downward facing dog. That small, but bountiful break where we have the time to rest, regroup, and reconnect with the breath, the body and the mind; it is during this break that the sun salutation is inviting the heart to rest, is allowing the mind to refocus on the breath and is offering the body to feel open and to surrender from the stresses of the day.

So whether you're taking a class or staring at your empty mat at home, give yourself completely, physically, mentally and emotionally to the sun and honor it for all that it provides you. For without that great mass of gas in the sky, you wouldn't be pondering, doing sun salutations or drinking another glass of wine!

Here is a link I found with cute stick figures modeling each of the poses in the sun salutation. Take a look and then go salute the sun!

Peace for now :)