Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Salute to the Sun Salutations

This is another article I wrote recently for the gerneral readership of Women Today, a Doha lifestyle magazine.  But reading over it I hope my students get to read it....
Salute to the Sun Salutations
I was 23 when I took my first yoga class and my teacher was in her 80s.  She was lean and supple and had a long silver plait hanging over her right shoulder.  What she taught me in the week I spent with her has stayed with me to this day, most importantly her approach to the sun salutations.   She said if you only ever practice one yoga pose make it the sun salutation; if you don’t know what to practice, practice the sun salutation; if you are feeling down practice the sun salutations, oh – and as you get older make sure your daily practice includes one salutation for each of your years.   She was adamant that if you just did the sun salutations and stayed with the sun salutations it was a practice enough in itself.  Time and more knowledge and understanding of the body have only proved her more correct.
The yoga sun salutations are a graceful sequence of ten to twelve yoga poses linked by a continuous flowing motion and accompanied by a steady flow of inhalations and exhalations.   These poses are ordered so that they alternately stretch the spine backwards and forwards and so that each position counteracts the one before.   In modern terms the sun salutation combines both resistance (weight lifting) and cardiovascular (cardio) training and has the added advantage of being a meditation practice as well.  This results in innumerable benefits.  A regular practice of sun salutes can increase blood oxygenation, stretch and tone just about every muscle group, clean elimination channels and help rid the body of toxins.  It can also stimulate the Endocrine system, tone abdominal muscles, and increase spinal health and range of movement.   As a meditation practice that uses the breath as a focusing technique the sun salute practice can increase concentration, reduce depression and stress and basically contribute to well being and mental ease.
To start a sun salute practice it is always best to work with a teacher, even just once or twice, but if time does not allow this then there are  innumerable step by step descriptions on the web or on Utube.   There are various variations to explore as well.  Some salutations include a step back and are done on first one side and then the other whereas others emphasize a more vigorous approach and use a jump to link certain poses.  Whatever you decide be sure to start your practice slowly with three to five rounds, gradually building up to 10 or 15, then perhaps to your age and finally to the traditional number of 108.  But like my very first teacher said if you can’t do this then just do one.  The 30 to 40 seconds you spend on a morning salute to the sun will really make a difference.
Namaste

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