108 Sun Salutations

After practicing yoga for a decade and having taught several hundred classes, I was inspired to embark on the 108 sun salutations journey.

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Why one hundred and eight? It brings me back to one of the most beautiful reactions and consequent smile of a grade-school friend of mine after posing a similar question. I had told her that it was decided during my yoga class that week I was going to live to one hundred and seven. Gosh, that smile and she said: Why not one hundred and eight? I had to simply decide on a number, perhaps I am selling myself short but longevity and being a fully-functional-super-centenarian is my goal. Does the number of salutations really matter? In my humble opinion: YES! It is the perfect number to bring you just beyond your edge and get you into your body and out of your mind …provided you stay on course and do not allow anything to interfere with your practice. YES! ...this is easier said than done.

In this article I must salute the man: Jack Rosen whose son David was my best friend the last two-years of college and we are still friends to this day. Jack and I had more conversations and emails than did David and I post-college and I am thankful for the relationship I had with Jack before his passing. It is an honour to be able to tribute him briefly here as it was David that introduced me to “the prayer to the sun” in 1996 as “a way to stretch the entire body.” It was almost twenty-five years later, in 2015 that I immersed myself in any formal yogic practice but that “stretch” lingered and found regular periodic use to relieve stiffness in my joints. Jack Rosen spent many years volunteering and researching at the Association for Research and Enlightenment (ARE), a group started by Edgar Cayce, also known as the sleeping prophet. Cayce gave thousands of "readings," and Rosen carefully organised these, especially the ones about health and healing. He created a filing system that sorted the readings by medical problem, making it easier for people to find the information they need. Thanks to Rosen's work, Cayce's ideas about health and spirituality are available to the world.

Surya Namaskar, commonly known as Sun Salutation, is a dynamic sequence of twelve yoga postures performed as a flowing series of movements synchronised with breath. In yogic terms, we combine asanas, pranayama, and meditation techniques. This ancient practice originated in India as a ritual to honour the sun, symbolising the source of energy and life. Each complete sun salutation A cycle moves you through fundamental yoga poses starting with Mountain Pose, Forward Fold, Plank, Cobra or Upward-Facing Dog, Downward-Facing Dog; with optional Chair and Lunge positions in iterations B and C respectively.

A cycle of Sun Salutation creates a comprehensive full-body workout that builds strength, flexibility and endurance; scientific research has established the health benefits of yoga across all facets of wellness.

Physiologically, research in the International Journal of Yoga demonstrates that regular yoga practice improves cardiovascular health by reducing blood pressure, decreasing heart rate, and improving lipid profiles in individuals with hypertension and coronary artery disease. Additional health benefits were highlighted in the Annals of Internal Medicine, noting that yoga is as effective as physical therapy for treating chronic low back pain and to also reduce the need for pain medication for some practitioners.

Mentally, according to a meta-analysis published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, yoga practice is associated with increased brain GABA levels, which may help reduce anxiety and improve mood regulation. Paralleling with the data purported in the Journal of Clinical Psychology showing that yoga-based interventions effectively reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety disorders; improving stress regulation and enhanced mindfulness.

Biologically, at the cellular level, a study featured in PLOS ONE found that yoga practice, along with other mind-body interventions can reverse molecular reactions in DNA that cause stress-related inflammation and illness.

Finally, if you needed more reasons to practice: yoga will balance your nervous system, improve circulation, shift and allow you deliberate control of your respiratory rate.

A journey into the depths of your SELF.

Yoga practice will also help to shut down cortisol production in your brain, training the body how to deal with stress, enhancing mental clarity and at the top of the list, helping you to get that pesky ego under wraps. Yoga is one of the true fountains of youth and longevity.

I've discovered that the direction of counting significantly impacts my experience. When instructors count upwards, I find my thoughts become more forward-thinking and the practice feels more intensely productive—there's a sense of looking ahead rather than focusing when it is over. A direct contrast in experience while counting backwards, the focus not only shifts to the completion of the pose or sequence but it literally feels more difficult and, in the end, I am more fatigued in the process; a subtle yet meaningful difference in my mental approach to any yoga practice. I've noticed this pattern consistently, whether taking classes with my regular instructor who insists on counting upwards, or when practicing with other teachers.

Even after practicing yoga for as long as I have and knowing what I know that this particular set of simple movements in repetition really brings you to your core of being. Saluting the sun, especially on the day of the equinox, holds immense significance. The equinox marks a moment of balance between day and night, light and darkness. Performing sun salutations on this day not only acknowledges and celebrates this cosmic balance but also aligns our own energies with the harmonious rhythms of nature. Sun salutations offer a profound opportunity to connect with the life-giving energy of the sun, invigorate the body, and cultivate inner balance and harmony. They serve as a reminder of our interconnectedness with the universe and the importance of honouring and respecting the cycles of nature. Additionally, practicing sun salutations on the equinox can symbolise a renewal of energy, intentions, and aspirations, ushering in a season of growth, vitality, and abundance.

Prior to writing this article, it had been a struggle to get back on the mat to practice the 108. I reassure my students that I understand their perspective, as both a yoga practitioner and as someone who shares their fundamental humanity. It has been a few weeks and though the thoughts and intentions were there I kept avoiding the practice; excuse after excuse after excuse. I think that there was a part of my subconscious that was simply nervous to go deep into the forest of my mind. I was reminded of the first time I walked into a labyrinth. I didn’t know what would happen or how I would feel and I really just didn’t want to face myself. My next time to the mat, I stopped at six, recalling a text that I was supposed to send the day prior. Getting back to the mat, I made it two more iterations and I then paused at eight, to begin typing this paragraph…and I have no qualms to admit that yes, like one of my lover’s past: I was avoidant and running away from my heart. I forced myself back to the mat to face my self! Upon returning to the mat it was the feeling of ease and light opening the body. As I hit the next eight, then eleven to pause to embrace a brief moment to pause with a deep breath at the top with a slight backbend to soak it all in. It is during next several iterations that the heat begins to build along with your rhythm and breath. You are now in the ZONE, feeling the essence of FLOW. At fifty-eight, fifty remaining, I have learned (or programmed myself) to take a quick pause for a restorative hydration “party-time” to get through the final fifty salutations; telling myself I am closer to the end than the beginning and there are only fifty remaining. Peak power begins to pulse at eighty-eight…with twenty remaining…you are now in the home stretch…and settling into the deep-state of flow, your entire body is now lighting up; it is electric. The next ten salutations are super POWERFUL…the final ten are sacred…the finale…is for you to discover. Enjoy both your journey and the most delicious part: your final Savasana (corpse post). NAMASTE (The light in me honours the light in you).