2023-06-20 23:46:51
EGI – Early in the morning, at sunset, in the middle of the day. Every moment is good to practice yoga. A discipline for everyone, which is good for the body and mind. On June 21, the day of the summer solstice, International Yoga Day is celebrated all over the world with millions of practitioners attending the party. Many initiatives organized in Italy.
A Roma, the appointment is at 18.30 at the Circus Maximus for a collective celebration and a lesson in collaboration with the Indian Embassy in Italy which is hosting many initiatives these days. TO Milanothe mats will unfold from 19 at the Arena Civica Gianni Brera, a Firenze, is practiced at the Conventino in a day dedicated to well-being, health, balance of body and mind. But that’s not all, in all the cities there are parties and initiatives, seminars and workshops to raise awareness of the practices of yoga as well as its benefits and those of Ayurveda.
A choice, that of yoga practice, increasingly widespread mistakenly mistaken for a fashion. A very ancient discipline with well-structured roots in areas such as Hinduism and Buddhism, and which does not imply the need to embrace them, cannot be fashionable. If the number of practitioners grows year after year in the world, it’s only because yoga is good for you and those who practice it know it. To the point of being recommended even to those who play sports at a competitive level, as a complement. By working on the muscles and the brain, the body harmonizes and tones and grants a well-being that knows no age limits. In short words, yoga is forever.
“The number of yoga practitioners is very fluctuating and difficult to define with absolute precision – he tells Time.news Svamini Shuddhananda Ghiri, Head of Dialogue and Communication of the Italian Hindu Union Sanatana Dharma Samgha – That said, it is estimated that there are around two million five hundred thousand practitioners in Italy; worldwide statistics report a number of about 300 million. In recent years, interest in yoga and its practice has grown and continues to grow exponentially. It is also difficult to estimate the number of yoga schools in Italy. If they number nearly 2,000 or maybe more.”
The international day of yoga was promoted by the Indian government with the desire to raise awareness of the whole world on the numerous benefits of this ancient discipline. And this, the expert explains, “also considering the wide diffusion of yoga in areas other than health, prevention, and the integral care of the human being, from ethics to ascetic research. Recognizing the universal appeal of Yoga, the United Nations proclaimed 21 June International Yoga Day on 11 December 2014. The resolution highlights ‘the importance of individuals and populations making healthier choices and following lifestyles that promote good health’ ”.
Yoga is lived, today, with distinct purposes and gradations. “There are those who seek in yoga a tool for psychophysical well-being – explains Shuddhananda Ghiri again – there are those who, on the other hand, experience it as an instrument of spiritual and ascetic research. Nowadays, yoga has enormous potential benefits, above all because it implies the observance of dharma, i.e. the set of ethical and behavioral values of which non-violence, truth, non-possession, non-greed, and are the pillars.
From this perspective, yoga is not only revolutionary with respect to the tendencies for profit and appearance typical of the globalized world, but it can truly be a promoter of social harmony. Yoga offers a positive vision of life, it reflects the concept of sacredness of everything that lives, establishing a relationship of profound exchange and respect with nature and animals.
Yoga is beyond ideologies, it teaches us to think and not so much to be thought of. Yoga teaches you to have greater self-awareness, to have a more conscious spiritual life and to have answers to the great existential questions”. Yoga means “union”, be united in a better interrelationship with oneself and with others. And the idea of union, however, also expresses a relationship of listening and knowledge of one’s true nature, a harmony between body and mind.
“In the highest sense of the term – adds the expert – the union indicates identity with the Absolute, with God in his various forms. Yoga is both the method, the road and the goal. And it is encountered on the ground of all religions, not just Christianity, with dharma, ethical values, the value of love and care”.
But how many styles of yoga are there? And which is the most popular? “I’ll make a small introduction – he explains to Time.news Manuela Ceccarelli, president of the Yogahouse Acsd center in Rome – Yoga is Yoga and I believe that at least in this week dedicated to Peace and Harmony we should remind ourselves of this. Yoga naturally leads to a state of harmony and balance, not understood only as the absence of disease, but as an intimate connection between mind, body and breath and between the individual Self and the Absolute. This is the state in which one feels clear, pure and optimistic in one’s ego, sense organs and mind.
Yoga is a complex scientific system of sequences of observances and restrictions, asanas, pranayama mudras and bandhas which prepare us, more or less fluidly, for the meditation which is and should be the ultimate goal of any yoga practice. The ‘physical’ part of yoga has differentiated over the years, giving rise to more or less dynamic styles and sequences, also depending on the school of origin of the teachers.
Hatha yoga, Ananda Yoga, Anukalana Yoga, Sivananda Yoga, Iyengar yoga, Kundalini yoga, Vyniasa yoga, Yin yoga… Having said that, all the advantages and benefits now associated with the word yoga are not obtained if you work only on the body. It is right that everyone finds their own way and style as long as the practice is not reduced only to more or less intense physical training”.
Meditation is therefore fundamental: “As I said, it is the ultimate goal of any practice and any style. It is a moment of profound listening to our soul – continues Ceccarelli – which ‘normally’ is silenced by all the roles we play in our lives and by all the expectations that the outside world has on us. Meditation is the moment in which we transcend our mortal nature to consecrate ourselves to the Absolute. It is experiencing our divine nature.”
Yoga on June 21 is celebrated all over the world, who can benefit from it? “The answer is easy: everyone. Regardless of age and physical condition – he explains Sara Amoriello, president of the Samsarayoga center in Tarquinia, a city in northern Lazio – yoga with the right variations is or should be absolutely suitable for everyone. Almost all those who arrive on the mat are looking, more or less consciously, for some answer that they find in yoga practice through listening and self-study”.
“Often – adds Manuela Ceccarelli – we start from a physical approach, from a pain, from a piece of our body or our mind that doesn’t work as it should and then, breath after breath, we get to become masters of our own body and own energy with all the wonderful consequences that this has in the lives of all of us”.
Almost 2000 schools in Italy, perhaps more, teaching yoga at a professional level requires continuous updates, a lot of practice, sacrifice, a choice: “I am one of those lucky people who have pursued happiness as a priority in their lives – says Ceccarelli – despite all the difficulties, the thousand ifs and buts when i do yoga i am happywhen I teach it I am even more so because we are happy together”.
And through yoga – concludes Amoriello – a wonderful discipline, we teachers can help spread a message of peace, love and compassion so that each of us can truly feel part of a greater design where everyone is united without distinction of gender and where everyone has the possibility of finding oneself in a coherent, harmonious and aware self realigned in body, mind and spirit.
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